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