# ao Token and Subledger Specification **Status:** DRAFT-1 **Targeting Network:** ao.TN.1 This specification describes the necessary message handlers and functionality required for a standard ao token process. Implementations of this standard typically offer users the ability control a transferrable asset, whose scarcity is maintained by the process. Each compliant process will likely implement a ledger of balances in order to encode ownership of the asset that the process represents. Compliant processes have a set of methods that allow for the modification of this ledger, typically with safe-guards to ensure the scarcity of ownership of the token represented by the process. Additionally, this specification describes a 'subledger' process type which, when implemented, offers the ability to split move a number of the tokens from the parent into a child process that implements the same token interface specification. If the `From-Module` of the subledger process is trusted by the participants, these subledgers can be used to transact in the 'source' token, without directly exchanging messages with it. This allows participants to use the tokens from a process, even if that process is congested. Optionally, if the participants trust the `Module` a subledger process is running, they are able to treat balances across these processes as _fungible_. The result of this is that an arbitrary numbers of parallel processes -- and thus, transactions -- can be processed by a single token at any one time. # Token Processes A specification-compliant token process responds to a number of different forms of messages, with each form specified in an `Action` tag. The full set of `Action` messages that the token must support are as follows: | Name | Description | Read-Only | |----- | ----------- | --------- | | Balance | get the balance of an identifer | :heavy_check_mark: | | Balances | get a list of all ledger/account balances | :heavy_check_mark: | | Transfer | send 1 or more units from the callers balance to one or move targets with the option to notify targets | :x: | | Register | spawn a sub-ledger process, if process is the root token | :x: | | Mint | if the ledger process is the root and you would like to increase token supply | :x: | In the remainder of this section the tags necessary to spawn a compliant token process, along with the form of each of the `Action` messages and their results is described. ## Spawning Parameters Every compliant token process must carry the following immutable parameters upon its spawning message: | Tag | Description | Optional? | | -------- | ----------- | --------- | | Name | The title of the token, as it should be displayed to users. | :heavy_check_mark: | | Ticker | A suggested shortened name for the token, such that it can be referenced quickly. | :heavy_check_mark: | | Logo | An image that applications may deserire to show next to the token, in order to make it quickly visually identifiable. | :heavy_check_mark: | | Denomination | The number of the token that should be treated as a single unit when quantities and balances are displayed to users. | :x: | ## Messaging Protocol ### Balance(Target? : string) Returns the balance of a target, if a target is not supplied then the balance of the sender of the message must be returned. Example `Action` message: ```lua= send({ Target = "TokenProcess", Tags = { Action = "Balance", Target = "{IDENTIFIER}" } }) ``` Example response message: ``` TODO ``` ### Balances() Returns the balance of all participants in the token. ```lua send({ Target = "[TokenProcess Identifier]", Tags = { Action = "Balances", Limit = 1000, # TODO: Is this necessary if the user is paying for the compute and response? Cursor? = "BalanceIdentifer" } }) ``` Example response message: ``` TODO ``` ### Transfer({target,qty}\[]) If the sender has a sufficient balance, send the `Quantity` to the `Target`, issuing a `Credit-Notice` to the recipient and a `Debit-Notice` to the sender. If the sender has an insufficient balance, fail and notify the sender. ```lua send({ Target = "[TokenProcess Identifier]", Tags = { { name = "Action", value = "transfer" }, { name = "Recipient", value = "wallet" }, { name = "Quantity", value = "100" } } }) ``` If a successful transfer occurs a notification message should be sent if `Cast` is not set. ```lua ao.send({ Target = "[Recipient Address]", Tags = { Action = "Credit-Notice", Quantity = "100" } }) ``` Recipients will infer from the `From-Process` tag of the message which tokens they have received. ### Get-Info() TODO ### Mint() [optional] Implementing a `Mint` action gives the process a way of allowing valid participants to create new tokens. # Subledger Processes In order to function appropriately, subledgers must implement the full messaging protocol of token contracts (excluding the `Mint` action). Subledgers must also implement a number of additional ## Token Example ```lua if not balances then balances = {} end if not name then name = "Fun Coin" end if not token then token = "fun" end if not denomination then denomination = 6 end handlers.add( "info", handlers.utils.hasMatchingTag("Action", "Info"), function (msg) ao.Output = { Name = name, Token = token, Denomination = denomination } end ) handlers.add( "balance", handlers.utils.hasMatchingTag("Action", "Balance"), balance ) handlers.add( "balances", handlers.utils.hasMatchingTag("Action", "Balances"), function (msg) ao.Output = balances end ) handlers.add( "transfer", handlers.utils.hasMatchingTag("Action", "Transfer"), transfer ) function transfer(msg) assert(msg.Tags.Target, 'Target is required!') assert(msg.Tags.Quantity, 'Quantity is required!') local qty = tonumber(msg.Tags.Quantity) if balances[msg.From] > qty then balances[msg.From] = balances[msg.From] - qty balances[msg.Tags.Target] = balances[msg.Tags.Target] + qty ao.send({ Target = msg.Tags.Target, Tags = { Action = "Credit-Notice", Quantity = msg.Tags.Quantity } }) if not msg.Tags.Cast then ao.send({ Target = msg.From, Tags = { Action = "Debit-Notice", Quantity = msg.Tags.Quantity } }) end end end function balance(msg) local bal = balances[msg.Tags.Target] if not bal then bal = 0 end ao.Output = { Balance = bal, Target = msg.Tags.Target } end ```
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The Migration into Cyberspace

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4/10/2024
ao-spec-DRAFT-PUBLIC

Status: DRAFT-1Network Version: ao.TN.1

2/23/2024
Understanding Arweave's endowment: Exploration and Simulation

The Arweave network uses a novel form of storage endowment in order to ensure permanence of the information that it stores. In this post we will detail and discuss how the storage endowment works, then study its properties and risk profile using Markov chain simulations of its execution. This post gets deep into the weeds. If you are looks for introductory material, you may want to check out the main Arweave website. Let's dive in! Background: What is the endowment? In the Arweave yellow paper draft of 2019, we described Arweave's endowment structure (see section 3.2.2). The central logic of Arweave's endowment goes like this: The cost of storage provision has been declining at a strong, exponential rate since the inception of information encoding. From papyrus, to the Gutenberg press, to magnetic drum memory, floppy disks, and flash drives, the cost of encoding and recalling information has been falling for thousands of years. In the digital era, we call this the Kryder rate. While the exact rate of declining costs is variable, the pattern is reliable and has significant room for growth: The theoretical data density limits alone are 10^51 greater than our current achievements. Further, we do not foresee that there will be a slow down in the desire to store data more efficiently, as humans and machines always tend to be more effective if they can access and process more information. Given these factors, we observe that by extrapolating an extremely conservative Kryder rate we are able to price permanent storage at a single fee. We acheive this by charging the user a base fee of 200 years of storage at present costs, then as the cost of storage declines the storage purchasing power of this endowment contribution increases. As long as the Kryder rate remains above 0.5%, the storage purchasing power in the endowment at the end of the year will be greater than that at the start.

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Democracy needs permissionless publishing with incentives for truth.

Information is the most powerful force in organizing large human groups. It drives almost all human behavior. Even governments, corporations, and other powerful organizations cannot make people do what they want without spreading information. As Thomas Jefferson described it in 1787: ...and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. Consider your childhood: you may have lived to be far into the double digits of your life before you even see concrete existence of the state at all. Yet, the passage of information tells you of its power far earlier. Even with a monopoly on force, the state exists more through the echoes of information flow than in any concrete, tangible form. To take this even further, consider the lives of those in regions claimed by multiple nations. In such circumstances, it is often easy to live one's life forgetting the existence state that is less respected by the people. Without control over information, the power of the state barely exists at all. Even a state backed by an enormous army is powerless against a public of millions that disbelieve its legitimacy. A final example, if the reader will allow me to belabor the point: In 1917, what was amongst the first buildings seized by the Bolsheviks? The radio towers. In 2016, what was a first target of the Turkish Coup attempt? CNN Türk, the local TV news station.

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