What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “orchestration”? Probably a bunch of musicians led by a conductor. Or, a secret mission carried out by a foreign spy you watched in the movies. In any case, for many of you, software coordination and automation would be the last analogy to draw. Yet, this is what Agoric Orchestration is all about.
Computer scientists, especially those working with blockchain technology, love conjuring code names out of pure metaphors, works of art, or ancient myths. Just look at the famous Byzantine generals or the renowned Sybil. They most likely believe that this naming convention helps translate complex technical concepts into a user-friendly language, but that’s not always the case.
The term “orchestration” was not coined by the Agoric team. On the contrary, it’s been in use for a long time and in many different contexts, besides blockchain. And while its meaning may be nuanced, it usually describes numerous elements working seamlessly together within one system. Let’s break it down and examine what’s special about Agoric’s approach.
What is orchestration in software?
Wikipedia describes computer systems’ orchestration as “the automated configuration, coordination, deployment, development, and management”. With workflows involving branching, different types of failure models, and retry logic, an orchestrator typically keeps track of the state of the overall execution. In cybersecurity, orchestration connects the different security tools and systems, so they all work smoothly with each other.
Generally speaking, orchestration is a mechanism of stringing multiple tasks together in order to efficiently execute a larger workflow or process. It guarantees that separate components communicate with each other, share data, and function as one system. It also aligns business logic with applications, data, and infrastructure. In other words, orchestration is the invisible hand that manages the process, so it’s efficient, scalable, and resilient to disruptions.
As you can see, orchestration may signify many different things at once, but its benefits can be summarized as follows:
- Keeping track of the state of execution;
- Coordinating tasks;
- Automating tasks;
- Communicating and transferring data;
- Aligning the business, development, and user needs.
What is orchestration in blockchains?
One of the first mentions of the term “orchestration” in relation to blockchain technology appeared in a 2017 paper outlining blockchain’s potential to bring benefits to systems beyond cryptocurrencies, like cloud computing and virtualization. Later on, another paper suggested a blockchain orchestration framework to assess the behavior of dApps and identify performance bottlenecks, whereas a third one proposed confidentiality-preserving workflows using zero-knowledge proofs. One research project even envisioned a blockchain-based architecture, engineering, and construction environment.
Now, years later, blockchain technology is largely used in finance, supply chains, and data management. Blockchain-based confidential computing is finally possible thanks to advancements in technologies like zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and trusted execution environments (TEEs). Millions of devices around the world are connected in decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) to track local temperature, manage energy grids, store data, or power AI models. And naturally, the more complex blockchain systems are becoming, the larger the need for orchestration.
Here again, the notion of orchestration may imply different things. It may simultaneously refer to the coordinated management and execution of multiple processes, tasks, or smart contracts within a single blockchain network or across multiple chains. In any case, invoking the orchestra conductor metaphor once again, blockchain orchestration involves optimizing development, so the public may enjoy a world-class performance.
Components of blockchain orchestration
Orchestration can involve various activities within blockchain ecosystems, such as:
1. Cross-Chain Communication: Blockchain orchestration often involves enabling communication between different blockchain networks (e.g., Ethereum, Bitcoin, Cosmos) or between off-chain and on-chain systems. This is particularly important as decentralized applications (dApps) and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms become more interoperable.
2. Smart Contract Coordination: Orchestration can manage smart contracts across multiple decentralized applications, ensuring they execute in the right sequence, handle errors, and manage dependencies across a system’s components.
3. Workflow Automation: In enterprise or multi-party blockchain scenarios, orchestration involves automating business workflows that require coordination across multiple parties or systems. This could be relevant in supply chains, financial services, or identity verification systems where multiple stakeholders (suppliers, manufacturers, auditors) need to work together on a shared, distributed ledger.
4. Transaction Management: Orchestration may also include managing the flow of transactions between different participants, handling things like batching transactions, fee management, and ensuring that they are confirmed in the right order to maintain consistency and integrity of the blockchain. With cross-chain DeFi growing in popularity, ensuring smooth asset transfer and settlement becomes essential.
5. Interoperability Solutions: Tools like atomic swaps, cross-chain bridges, and oracles are often a part of blockchain orchestration, providing the necessary infrastructure to enable interaction and data exchange between blockchains. The smooth functioning of multi-chain dApps is the next milestone the crypto industry needs to achieve.
How is Agoric Orchestration different?
Agoric is a platform providing interoperable smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps) through the use of Hardened JavaScript and a secure computation model. The key features that makes Agoric Orchestration unique are:
- A highly developer-friendly approach, leveraging existing developer knowledge (Hardened JavaScript) and providing easy-to-use tools, templates, and documentation.
- Composability of smart contracts via an object-capability model, allowing developers to build modular, reusable applications.
- Strong focus on cross-chain interoperability, enabling seamless integration with other blockchain ecosystems via IBC protocol and cross-chain bridges.
- Security-first design principles, ensuring that contracts are isolated, secure, and resistant to common vulnerabilities.
Agoric’s main focus is on unifying users, liquidity, and operations fragmented and spread across disparate blockchain protocols. Thus, to address inherently asynchronous cross-chain challenges, Agoric Orchestration:
- Supports asynchronous, multi-block, and await functionalities;
- Offers timer service that allows smart contracts to autonomously awaken and perform new actions at predefined times, paving the way for more intricate applications;
- Provides enhanced extensibility to powerful bridging solutions through its native connections to the Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC);
- Removes the pre-existing need for additional user signatures, so complex operations can be executed in one single click.
What’s more, the recently-released Agoric Orchestration API immensely simplifies multi-chain workflows through:
- Native integration of Interchain Accounts (ICA): seamlessly creating and managing accounts across different Cosmos chains;
- Token transfers across Cosmos chains: effortlessly moving assets, bringing liquidity where it’s needed;
- Remote actions: instantly initiating trigger swaps, staking, or delegations on any connected chain;
- Async/Await for Multi-Step Operations: automated execution of tasks across chains, waiting for completion, then taking further actions.
What you can achieve with the help of Agoric Orchestration is bound by your imagination and nothing else. Automating, coordinating, and managing various tasks and interactions across multiple blockchain networks is only the beginning. The most important aspect has always concerned the user experience. Thanks to Agoric Orchestration, crypto applications are no longer inferior in efficiency, scalability, or ease-of-use to Web2 ones, and the space is finally ready to onboard its 1 billionth user.
As their foundation partner, DCF is one of the biggest cheerleaders of Agoric and their efforts to push blockchain innovation forward.
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