The Agoric Open Systems Papers
These foundational papers (published in 1988) lay out the concept of software agents creating and participating in a market for digital assets and computational resources.
Markets and Computation: Agoric Open Systems by Mark S. Miller and K. Eric Drexler
This paper examines markets as a model for computation and proposes a framework for applying the power of market mechanisms to the software domain.
Incentive Engineering: for Computational Resource Management by K. Eric Drexler and Mark S. Miller
This paper describes algorithms (including algorithms for auctions and negotiation) for the allocation of processor time and storage space.
Comparative Ecology: A Computational Perspective by Mark S. Miller and K. Eric Drexler
This paper compares different evolutionary models to produce systems of greater competence than those we can directly design.
Smart Contracts
Our Chief Scientist, Mark Miller, explains the Agoric platform in the video below. This talk was given October 10th to the SF Crypto Devs meetup group during SF Blockchain Week:
Past Smart Contract Work
Capability-Based Financial Instruments by Mark S. Miller, Chip Morningstar, Bill Frantz
The Digital Path: Smart Contracts and the Third World by Mark S. Miller & Marc Stiegler
Distributed Electronic Rights in JavaScript by Mark S. Miller, Tom Van Cutsem, and Bill Tulloh
OCAPs: Object-Capabilities
What are Capabilities? by Chip Morningstar
Capability Myths Demolished by Mark S. Miller, Ka-Ping Yee, Jonathan Shapiro
POLA: The Principle of Least Authority
POLA Would Have Prevented the Event-Stream Incident by Kate Sills
The Structure of Authority: Why Security Is not a Separable Concern by Mark S. Miller, Bill Tulloh, and Jonathan S. Shapiro
Extremely Modular Distributed JavaScript by Mark S. Miller
Tahoe-LAFS by Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn and Brian Warner
Robust Composition
Robust Composition: Towards a Unified Approach to Access Control and Concurrency Control by Mark S. Miller
Concurrency Among Strangers: Programming in E as Plan Coordination by Mark S. Miller, E. Dean Tribble, Jonathan S. Shapiro
ACLs Don’t by Tyler Close
Formal Reasoning
Automated Analysis of Security-Critical JavaScript APIs by Ankur Taly, Úlfar Erlingsson, John C. Mitchell, Mark S. Miller, Jasvir Nagra
Reasoning about Risk and Trust in an Open World by Sophia Drossopoulou, James Noble, Toby Murray, and Mark S. Miller
Robust and Compositional Verification of Object Capability Patterns by David Swazey, Deepak Garg, Derek Dreyer