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iExec RLC / Euro
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The iExec network provides computational resources to decentralized applications that wish to use them. The medium of exchange for the computational resources to be used must be paid using the RLC token. For example, if someone wished to run a decentralized application, without using typical computational resources from the likes of AWS, Azure, or any other big tech cloud provider, they can rent computational resources from the iExec network. The iExec network is comprised of Desktop Grid computing, also known as "volunteer computing", where unused computational resources on the network can be used by applications, and platforms alike. All payments for computational resources utilize the RLC token as the medium of exchange. The point of iExec RLC is to provide a decentralized computing platform. iExec relies on Desktop Grid open-source software that they have developed at the CNRS and INRIA research institutes to assemble loosely distributed computing resources for HPC and Big Data. XtremWeb-HEP is a mature, solid, and open-source Desktop Grid software that allows to use any kind of computing resources for executing compute-intensive or data-intensive applications and is what iExec mainly leverages in their platform. The iExec Sidechain Infrastructure relies on the blockchain to coordinate the access of computing resources to distributed applications. This approach led to several innovations with respect to classical blockchain technologies - in particular, the Proof-of -Contribution consensus protocol and a domain-specific sidechain. Traditional blockchains such as Bitcoin or Ethereum rely on the Proof-of-Work protocol, which ensures that token transactions that happen on the blockchain between participants are validated by a large number of nodes using cryptographic challenges. With iExec, a contribution, i.e. some actions that happen out of the blockchain (like providing a data set, transferring a file, performing a computation, giving a human expertise) will lead to token transactions between participants. This means that a new protocol is needed to prove the fact that contribution actually happened correctly and that the corresponding token transactions can take place in the blockchain. We call this kind of consensus protocol Proof-of-Contribution. There are several similar protocols Filecoin, Gridcoin, Fatcom, which allow the building of a consensus between the blockchain and off-chain resources. For example, Gridcoin proposed the Proof-ofResearch protocol to reward volunteers who donated part of their computer time to a great scientific computation BOINC such as biomedical research (Folding@Home). Proof-of-Contribution is designed to be a more universal framework, allowing to validate a greater number of actions. The iExec platform requires two entities in order to work: A marketplace where agents propose their resources and where deals are made using the RLC token. A distributed computing infrastructure based on the middleware XtremWeb-HEP. PoCo acts as a link between those two entities. When a deal is sealed, PoCo initiates a consensus which will validate the different contributions made by workers in the middleware. When consensus on the result of the computation is reached, PoCo triggers the relevant transaction which takes place in the marketplace. As stated previously, different agents have different roles and different incentives. Before describing the protocol itself lets first list those agents: Workers: They are individuals or companies who own computing resources and are willing to make them available for the computation of tasks against payments in RLC. Similarly, to blockchain miners, they want a simple solution that will make their computer part of a large infrastructure that will take care of the details for them. Worker pools: Worker pools organize workers contributions. They are led by a scheduler, who organizes the work distribution. They can either be public and federate resources from anyone or private and try to optimize the management of specific hardware. While not doing the actual computation, they receive a fee for the management of the infrastructure. They compete to attract workers, which they do by achieving an efficient management which guarantees the income of workers. App providers: They deploy applications on the iExec platform. Those applications can be Dapps using the full potential of blockchain-based decentralized Cloud or legacy applications which could benefit from the iExec decentralized Cloud. They can make their applications available for free or ask for a fixed fee for each use of their application. Dataset providers: They own valuable datasets and are willing to make them available, in a secure paradigm that protects their ownership, against payments in RLC. Users: They are individuals or smart contracts paying for the execution of tasks, with or without specific datasets, using the computing resources of workers. They want to make sure that the results they receive are correct. The iExec Hub & Marketplace: This is a smart contract, deployed by iExec, and without privileged access. It acts as an escrow for the different agents' stake and ensures the security and transparency of all transaction in the iExec ecosystem. The iExec Hub & Marketplace decentralization, security and confidence are ensured by the blockchain technology. All others agents are considered as potentially malicious. The design of PoCo's oversight of all transactions between the agents is done in such a way that it creates strong economic incentives to behave correctly. This makes iExec much more than other conventional cloud providers by giving it the capability of organizing a trusted computing platform on top of an infrastructure of untrusted agents. Not only is this trust building process an interesting feature to have, it is essential to providing any result to blockchain users and smart contracts.