Agora
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Agora

Verifiable Off‑Chain Computation via Commit‑Reveal and XCM

Agora is a Polkadot parachain template extended with a verifiable computation marketplace. It enables parachains to outsource off‑chain jobs (API fetches, computations) to a network of staked workers. Results are verified on‑chain using a crypto‑economic commit‑reveal game. Cross‑parachain requests and result delivery use XCM. This instance has been obtained with paraid 5024 on the Paseo test network.

Why Agora

Verifiable correctness without trusted hardware: commit–reveal with on‑chain verification ensures results are independently checkable.
Decentralized worker marketplace: staked workers compete to execute jobs; dishonest actors are slashed, honest majority is rewarded.
XCM‑native interoperability: submit from one parachain, execute on another, and receive results back seamlessly.
Flexible execution off‑chain: leverage OCWs and external infrastructure for low‑latency IO and scalable compute.
Deterministic on‑chain settlement: rewards, slashing, and consensus resolution are transparent and reproducible.

Use Cases:

⁠•⁠ Oracle data aggregation: Request external API data (price feeds, weather, sports scores) from multiple workers, reach consensus on the correct value, and deliver verified results to DeFi protocols.

•⁠ Decentralized computation: Offload intensive computations (cryptographic operations, data processing, ML inference) to a distributed worker network without relying on a single centralized service.

•⁠ Cross-chain data verification: Enable parachains to request computation from other chains in the Polkadot ecosystem, leveraging specialized compute resources while maintaining trust through majority consensus.

•⁠ API reliability: When a single API endpoint is unreliable, multiple workers can fetch from different sources or endpoints, with the majority result being the canonical answer.

Why Polkadot Architecture is Ideal:

•⁠ ⁠Native cross-chain communication: XCM (Cross-Consensus Message Format) enables seamless job submission and result delivery between parachains without bridges or wrapping. Agora leverages this to create a truly interoperable computation marketplace.

•⁠ ⁠Shared security model: Parachains inherit security from the relay chain validators, eliminating the need for Agora to bootstrap its own validator set. This reduces costs and increases trust for users submitting jobs.

•⁠ ⁠Sovereign execution environment: As a parachain, Agora can customize its runtime specifically for computation marketplace logic (commit-reveal timing, reward distribution, slashing parameters) without constraints from other chains.

•⁠ ⁠Economic interoperability: Polkadot's native asset transfer via XCM allows job creators to pay bounties in their own parachain's token, while workers receive rewards in Agora's native token—all atomic and trustless.

•⁠ ⁠Scalability through specialization: Dedicated parachain slot allows Agora to optimize for high-throughput job processing without competing for block space with other applications. OCWs can process jobs off-chain and only submit commits/reveals on-chain.

•⁠ ⁠Future-proof upgrades: Runtime upgrades enable Agora to evolve its consensus mechanism, add new job types, or adjust economic parameters without hard forks, maintaining backward compatibility.

Live Walkthough

Watch Agora Walk Through

High‑Level Architecture

Runtime (runtime/): FRAME‑based runtime with balances, collator pallets, XCM helpers, and the agora pallet. XCM is configured for local testing with permissive filters.
Node (node/): Collator binary that runs the runtime, exposes RPC, and connects to the relay chain.
Agora Pallet (pallets/agora/):
- Job lifecycle: submit -> commit -> reveal -> finalize
- Staking and bounty holds; rewards/slashing; simple reputation
- Off‑Chain Worker (OCW) helpers for job execution and commit/reveal guidance
- XCM client/handler for cross‑parachain job requests and result notifications
Zombienet configs (zombienet-*.toml): Local networks with relay chain + 2 parachain instances for XCM demos.
Scripts (JS/): Utilities to fund sovereign accounts, open HRMP channels, and run a cross‑chain job demo.

Repository Layout

node/ – Collator service (AURA consensus, networking, RPC)
runtime/ – Runtime types, pallet composition, XCM config (runtime/src/configs/xcm_config.rs)
pallets/agora/ – Verifiable computation pallet
- lib.rs – Storage, events, errors, extrinsics, hooks
- functions.rs – Consensus, rewards/slashing, lifecycle processing
- ocw.rs – Off‑chain worker execution helpers (simulated HTTP/compute), commit/reveal guidance
- xcm_job_client.rs – Build/send XCM job requests, receive results
- xcm_handler.rs – Handle incoming XCM job submissions, send results back
- types.rs – Job, worker, commit/reveal, OCW types
zombienet-xcm.toml – Relay + two parachains (IDs 1000, 2000) with XCM tracing enabled
JS/setup-hrmp.js – HRMP channel setup, sovereign funding, and agora.requestRemoteJob demo

Build

Prereqs: Rust toolchain (nightly as per rust-toolchain.toml), wasm32 target, Node.js (for scripts), and a polkadot relay binary.

# From repo root
 cargo build --release -p parachain-template-node --bin parachain-template-node

# Optional: install the collator binary somewhere on PATH
sudo cp target/release/parachain-template-node /usr/local/bin/

# Ensure a polkadot relay node is available on PATH (or provide absolute path in Zombienet)
sudo cp polkadot /usr/local/bin/polkadot

Run: Local Multi‑Chain Network (Zombienet)

This repo includes zombienet-xcm.toml to boot a relay chain (rococo‑local) and two parachain instances for XCM testing.

# Example with zombienet (ensure you have it installed)
zombienet -p native spawn zombienet-xcm.toml

Key ports (from zombienet-xcm.toml):

Relay RPC/ws: 9944/9988
Para 1000 RPC/ws: 9946/9990
Para 2000 RPC/ws: 9947/9991

HRMP + XCM Demo

Use the provided Node.js script to fund sovereign accounts, open HRMP channels, and dispatch a cross‑chain job request.

pnpm i || npm i
node JS/setup-hrmp.js

The script performs:

Funds sovereign accounts (relay and cross‑parachain)
Opens HRMP channels 1000 ↔ 2000 using XCM Transact
Debug.js to verify the status of the parachains.

Agora Pallet – On‑Chain API

Extrinsics (selected):

agora.submitJob(job_type_id, input_data, bounty,reputation) – Submit a local job with a bounty hold
agora.registerWorker(stake) / agora.unregisterWorker() – Worker enrollment with staking
agora.commitResult(job_id, salt, result_hash) – Commit phase
agora.revealResult(job_id, result) – Reveal phase; pallet verifies salted hash
agora.finalizeJob(job_id) – Finalizes by consensus (auto‑finalization also runs in on_initialize)
agora.requestRemoteJob(dest_para_id, input_data, bounty, reputation) – Send cross‑para job via XCM

Events include job submission, commits/reveals, finalization, rewards/slashing, and XCM‑related notifications.

Storage highlights:

Jobs, Workers, Commits, Reveals, Results, PendingJobs, RemoteJobInfo, NextJobId, JobNonce.

Consensus and rewards:

Majority of reveals determine the canonical result.
Honest workers split the bounty; dishonest workers lose reputation and have stake reduced.

Off‑Chain Worker (OCW)

Scans for pending jobs and simulates execution for:
- API requests: returns simulated payloads (upgradeable to real HTTP with proper signing/validation)
- Computation jobs: hash/math/crypto/json toy tasks
Generates salted commits and logs ready‑to‑submit commitResult/revealResult transactions.
Automation of signed extrinsic submission can be enabled in future work.

Configuration and Parameters

Runtime (runtime/src/lib.rs) sets:

Block time: 6s; weight/fee mapping
Agora constants: MinWorkerStake, MinJobBounty, commit/reveal durations, limits
XCM router: Parent UMP + XCMP; permissive Barrier and Everything filters for local testing

Harden for production:

Restrict XCM execute/send filters; require paid execution with proper fee trading
Tighten LocationToAccountId conversions and origins
Replace simulated OCW HTTP with a secure, signed, and verifiable approach