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AR.IO Smart Contract

Overview

The AR.IO smart contract encompasses all the functionality required to support the network’s currency, utilities, and management. Written in Lua and compiled to WASM64, it is deployed as a Process within AO, leveraging the decentralized infrastructure of Arweave for immutability and auditability. This ensures that AR.IO’s smart contract code is stored permanently, is easily verifiable by external auditors, and is transparent to the community.

Protocol Balance

The Protocol Balance is the primary sink and source of ARIO tokens circulating through the AR.IO Network. This balance is akin to a central vault or wallet programmatically encoded into the network’s smart contract from which ArNS revenue is accumulated and incentive rewards are distributed.

This balance is stored like any other token balance in the AR.IO smart contract, using the contract’s Process ID as the balance owner. Should a user or organization desire, tokens can even be sent directly into this balance to support the reward protocol and ecosystem.

Cross-Chain Signature Support

AO leverages the flexibility of ANS-104 data items, which support multiple signature types from various blockchains. This includes signatures from Arweave, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, among others.

This cross-chain signature support provides significant benefits to the AR.IO network:

  • Interoperability: Cross-chain signatures enable seamless interactions across different blockchain ecosystems, allowing AR.IO to integrate with diverse apps and services without friction.

  • Flexibility: Users can validate transactions with signatures from their preferred blockchain, making it easier for a broader range of participants to engage with AR.IO using familiar wallets and mechanisms.

  • Security: Decentralized cryptographic standards across chains ensure that interactions on AR.IO remain secure and trusted, regardless of the blockchain used.

By supporting cross-chain signatures, AR.IO enhances interoperability, flexibility, and security, empowering users and developers across multiple blockchain ecosystems.