初期のコンピューターではプログラミングに「機械語」を使用していました。機械語はシステム間に互換性がなかったうえ、レベルが低く、表現も限られていました。プログラムは、ごく単純な指示を長く連ねたものであり、書いた本人以外には圧縮が不可能なものでした。今日システムのプログラミングには、C、Java、Haskellなど、機械語よりも高次の言語が使用されています。同じ言語が幅広い種類の機械に対応し、プログラムの構造はその動作を反映します。ブロックチェーンでは、SolidityやSimplicity…

Today IOHK releases Plutus Platform, a smart contracts language for the Cardano blockchain. You can try out Plutus online, with no need to download or install anything, via Plutus Playground. Plutus Platform is open source. You can find code, documentation, and sources here. IOHK is unique among cryptocurrency companies for its insistence on basing its development on peer…

Building on last week’s post by Professor Aggelos Kiayias, IOHK’s chief scientist, I want to use this post to discuss another choice we made when designing Cardano’s reward mechanism. The mechanism is designed to give an incentive to stakeholders to ‘do the right thing’ and participate in the protocol in a way that ensures its smooth, efficient and secure operation. As was…

In a proof of stake (PoS) blockchain protocol, the ledger is maintained by the stakeholders that hold assets in that ledger. This allows PoS blockchains to use less energy compared with proof of work (PoW) or other types of blockchain protocols. Nevertheless, this requirement imposes a burden on stakeholders. It requires a good number of them to be online and maintain…

A third major paper from the Ouroboros line of research was presented at a leading computer security and cryptography event yesterday, a recognition of the contribution the work makes to the field of computer science. The paper, Ouroboros Genesis, was presented by researcher Christian Badertscher at the 25th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, held in…