Skip to main content

Architecture

Acurast leverages a Substrate Runtime consisting of multiple Substrate Pallets for the Acurast Protocol.

The Acurast protocol follows a permissionless philosophy and is optimized for providing access to a decentralized network of computation resources. By separating the crucial computation tasks from other dApps, Acurast is capable of mitigating known problematic situations related to network congestion. Scalability through purpose built native components helps Acurast achieve a much-needed level of service in the Web3 space.

Acurast has secured a Kusama Parachain slot for its incentivized testnet and will participate in a Polkadot Parachain auctions for a Parachain slot. Gaining access to Polkadot’s and Kusama’s security and the ability to communicate with other Parachains through the Cross-Consensus Message Format (XCM).

Features​

The main capabilities of the Acurast protocol are:

  • Permissionless Consensus Layer
    • Nominated Proof of Stake Consensus
    • Reputation System
    • Unified Settlement
    • Liquid Matching Engine
    • Orchestrator
  • Zero Trust Execution Layer
    • Secure Hardware-backed Runtime
    • Zero Knowledege Proof-based Runtime
  • Universal Interoperability Abstraction Layer
    • Native Web3 Settlement
    • Web2 Settlement
    • Machine Learning Model
    • IoT Mesh
  • Interoperability with Hyperdrive

Modules​

Through Acurast's modularity, four modules, focusing on different verticals are introduced. All of them leveraging Acurast's confidential computing layer and the Acurast Marketplace.

Enterprise - Web2​

Focused on the legacy Web2 world, giving access to public or permissioned APIs and computation. Off-chain data and computation that is being brought on-chain in a verifiable way. Sometimes also referred as "Oracle".

Enterprise ↗

Hyperdrive - Web3​

Seamless cross-chain communication between two Web3 ecosystems, executing context completely trustlessly on another chain through Acurast's computational layer.

Hyperdrive ↗

Singularity - AI​

Utilizing Aurast's decentralized confidential computing resources for Artificial Intelligence language model learning in a trustless contract where the data context is not exposed.

Singularity ↗

Mesh - IoT​

Leveraging the mobile device nature of the Acurast Processor with its built in Bluetooth modules for communication with IoT devices.

Mesh ↗

Networks​

Acurast Testnet​

The test network uses tokens with no governance and no staking utility. The service level provided is for test applications and experimental Proof-of-Concepts. The Acurast Testnet provides instant update cycles, whenever the code is ready, following the philosophy “Build, Break, and Fix Faster”. Testnet updates do not require governance, the Testnet is linked to the Rococo relay network.

Acurast Canary​

The canary network uses tokens with governance and staking utility. The service level provided is for production-grade applications. Acurast Canary provides shorter update cycles than the Mainnet, and also faster releases and deprecation of features. The canary network follows quarterly update cycles with a 9-month support span. Forkless network upgrades are activated and validated through the Canary network’s governance process, and it is linked to the Kusama relay network.

  1. Pre-Net Launching on this year’s programmer’s day on September 13th, 2023. The Pre-Net will launch without the governance process and will have the Acurast Association’s collators producing blocks. Since there is no block reward, there will be no inflation in this phase. The purpose of this phase is to allow Developers and Processors to onboard and start exchanging their resources, all while providing a production-grade service level. During the pre-net phase, the governance and token transfers will remain disabled and no active transferring of tokens is expected at this stage.

    Therefore, developers who want to build zero-trust applications can request tokens through the social engagement faucet, more on this shortly.

  2. Alpha-Net Launching later this year. The purpose of this phase is to onboard external Collators and enable nominated Proof of Stake for the selection of those Collators.

    Comparable to Curve’s voted escrow model, the stake weight is based on the user’s selected lock time duration of the stake provided. The exact mechanics will be outlined in a future blog post.

    With the activation of the Alpha-Net, the block production will be rewarded, the rewards will be paid out of the Acurast protocol’s adaptive inflation model. Sudo will remain active for this phase.

  3. Beta-Net With an ETA of 2 months post-Alpha-Net launch. This phase removes sudo and migrates governance to the active stakers and enables token transfers.

    Acurast Canary will pave the road for the Acurast Mainnet launch going forward.

Acurast Mainnet​

The Acurast Mainnet uses tokens with governance and staking utility. The service level provided is for production-grade applications. The Mainnet follows yearly update cycles including features only after thorough battle testing on the Acurast Canary with a long-term support span of 5 years. The Mainnet also follows forkless upgrades activated through the Mainnet governance process and it is linked to the Polkadot relay network.

Anticipated launch on Polkadot is Q1 of 2024.