Smart Contract Platform Agoric Launches Public Chain

Agoric, a JavaScript-native smart contract platform, announced the launch of its public chain, which comes a month after the company completed a $32 million private token sale.

Agoric says its proof-of-stake chain with JavaScript smart contracts offers developers a secure and reliable cross-chain ecosystem for building and deploying decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. The development environment provides reusable governance, lending and trading components.

The first phase of Agoric’s launch introduces the BLD (build) staking token and the Agoric chain built using the Cosmos software development kit (SDK). BLD supports staking, governance and decentralization. The token is backed by Kepir, a browser extension wallet for the inter-blockchain ecosystem, which will also provide governance and staking services for the Agoric blockchain.

“Today, the DeFi development environment is failing to reach its full potential. By bringing DeFi to the overlooked JavaScript community, Agoric is blasting open the DeFi economy to over 10 million innovative and curious developers, enterprises and institutions to create the dapps of tomorrow,” said Agoric co-founder and CEO Dean Tribble in the press release.

Tribble previously worked as a principal architect at Microsoft. Agoric Chief Scientist Mark Miller was a Google research scientist and wrote Agoric Open Systems Papers back in 1988. The papers provided an early outline of software creating and participating in markets.

The private token sale saw participation from early investors including MetaStable, Polychain, Rockaway and Gumi Ventures. Additional backers included Placeholder, DAO Maker and Figment, among others. The sale will help fuel Agoric’s next stage of growth, including scaling the ecosystem and developer programs, the company said.

“Smart contracts on open data layers create the foundation for a system reboot of finance, technology and digital life. Led by a team of esteemed pioneers in smart contract technology, Agoric is building a protocol that will bring the JavaScript developer community – the world’s largest developer community – into the fold of the metaverse movement,” said Placeholder co-founder and Partner Chris Burniske in the release.

Agoric’s public mainnet went live on Nov. 1, kicking off the multipart mainnet rollout. Phase 0 involves governance setup and building out the community of BLD token holders. Phase 1 will include launching the JavaScript platform and the RUN protocol and token, a local stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. Tribble told CoinDesk that Phase 1 is expected to roll out at the end of the year or early 2022.

Phase 3 will follow and add permissionless smart contracts where any developer can deploy onto the Agoric public chain without preapproval.