By Alyssa Hertig,
Amid new concerns about the viability of blockchain smart contracts, one company is releasing a proposal that seeks to make it easier to ensure their security.
Developed by Smart Contract Solutions, the open-source Zeppelin project aims to offer a community-driven framework for secure, audited code. The goal is to prevent the unintentional loss of funds, a danger perhaps best illustrated by the collapse of ethereum’s biggest smart contract, The DAO.
Since ethereum is the best-known smart contract platform, the first set of tools are written in its programming language Solidity. But, Zeppelin is also currently compatible with Rootstock (which could one day take the same smart contract functionality to bitcoin) and some private blockchains.
The vision is to build a blockchain-agnostic security platform.
Zeppelin developer Demian Brener:
“Zeppelin aims to close this gap by making it easy for developers to build secure smart contracts to power the development of distributed apps, protocols and organizations.”
The platform was developed by Brener and Manuel Aráoz, both of whom are no stranger to blockchain development.
The two developers previously teamed up to create the video platform Streamium, and Aráoz is widely credited with creating proof of existence, among the first projects to envision how a public blockchain could be used to verify data.
Popularized by ethereum, smart contracts are the self-executing code that aim to automate tasks and agreements, with the long-term goal being to reduce manual operations.