It’s been almost half a year since our last technical update. We’ve been hard at work on IBC protocol security and Rust implementation stability for Cosmos, among other things. Notably, we now have a complete TLA+ specification of the IBC protocol (!), a Stargate-compatible Rust CLI for all IBC transactions, and have completed an extensive audit of the IBC english specification and implementation in Go. Stargate and IBC launch look to be just around the corner.
If you’re interested in protocol and security audits, especially for consensus protocols, light-clients, or blockchain bridges, get in touch! For more details on what we worked on in the latter half of 2020, read on below!
Informal Systems envisions an open-source ecosystem of cooperatively owned and governed distributed organizations running on reliable distributed systems. Our view on the technical and ethical dimensions of software configuration is part of this vision. This post frames the problem of software configuration in terms of user accessibility and empowerment and records our current thinking regarding best practices for configuration file formats.
Our mission at Informal Systems is not just about distributed systems, it’s also about the organizations that grow along with them. Our vision is an open-source ecosystem of cooperatively owned and governed distributed organizations running on reliable distributed systems. To achieve this vision, we begin with ourselves, adopting a democratic structure that aims to rebalance the power dynamics between capital and labour towards something more sustainable and non-extractive; something that nurtures long term employment and real wealth creation through R&D, entrepreneurship, and innovation; something more like a Zebra than a Unicorn.
Since our last technical update, Informal Systems has continued to play a major role in the Cosmos project, focusing primarily on protocol formalizations, TLA+ specifications, and implementations in Rust. In addition, we’re developing general purpose tools for formal verification, and using them on the Cosmos protocols and software.
Since spinning out from the ICF at the start of the year, we’ve been hard at work on a number of projects aligned with our mission of verifiable distributed systems and organizations. Here we’ll provide an update on each of them.
Enabling Transformation with Blockchains.
All proceeds from this online webinar will go to FoodShare Toronto and Hamilton Health Sciences Foundation
The Research and Development team from the Interchain Foundation (ICF) has officially spun out into a new Canadian company, Informal Systems (Informal), to continue its R&D work on the Cosmos Network software and protocols in an independent operating structure that allows for more flexible experimentation. See the corresponding announcement from the ICF.
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