# Hacking the Ergosphere for Sigma & Alpha

ErgoHack, the Ergo Environment’s first ever hackathon has had its kickstart with day one drawing to a close. So far within the event, we have seen a multitude of teams become out of speculators – Team Shrimp, SmartPools, Raffle, Notarize, and Chanviz, being some of the visible competitors. Undoubtedly, I think it's fair to say that, based on the discussions on the Discord, we are in for a treat come this Sunday.

Commencing the development marathon, we had the [familiar face](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHp94cmhEtE) of Kushti laying out the basics of [interacting](https://youtu.be/d6Mf-oxaLIc) with Ergo itself, with a demonstration of using Ergo & exercising other common practices integral to an Ergo craftsman’s tool belt: Kushti gave the pleasure of showing us the workings of swagger, the lingo of ErgoScript, and how to glue all of this together via testing in [ES playground](https://wallet.plutomonkey.com/p2s/?source=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).

## Hitting The Nail on The Head

Even after a day, ErgoHack’s quintuplets had already learned to run & have a strong idea of what they’re aiming for.

Team SmartPools is diving into [Ergo’s Oracle solution](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020-08-31-ergos-oracle-pools-and-what-they-mean-for-the-ecosystem/) in a quest for building smart contracts that seek to gather collateral with current fundraising functionality, determining the hashing weight of the pools for each other and the network. This idea is lucrative in the redistributing of a defined excess in rewards for the fundraising contracts of similar pools.

Competitor Shrimp, also an already adept party evidenced from their [shrimp-pegged stablecoin](https://twitter.com/SHMPCoin) project, is taking a different route within this gauntlet with the vision of delivering an informational themed -pedagog- game which is making use of inspiration taken from the [Zachtronics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zachtronics) game studio; Shrimp’s ideas are a first in the realms of [eUTxO architecture](https://iohk.io/en/research/library/papers/the-extended-utxo-model/).

Opponent Raffle is looking into developing an X/Y lottery, an application that taps into the same functionality as SmartPools regarding decentralized fundraising. Dissimilar to SmartPools, however, Raffle wishes for the gains from their solution to be split among both the winner of the lottery, as well as a selected charity.

Participant Notarize is notably pursuing an attempt to expand Ergo’s infrastructure with data [notarization](https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2019/11/12/a-blockchain-based-digital-notary-what-you-need-to-know/?sh=267377e94557) tooling. Completing this task will provide other decentralized systems the ability to garner security through Ergo’s robust environment, a gift for a small project seeking the talent in Proof-of-Work while skipping the initial obstacle of gaining stability.

Team Chanviz has ventured into the landscape of visualization by providing a web interface for charting. Proclaiming the need for their efforts, they seek to enable blockchain analysis on Ergo along with tools that assist in trading & finance - the birth of a perfect partner for [ErgoDex](https://ergodex.io/), maybe?

## Peeking Beneath The Surface

Reminiscing over these teams’ intentions builds suspense, and as expected curiosity is naturally drawn to our conscious. With day two underway, the clock is ticking and time is of the essence before the closing bell is rung.

Even with all of these uncertainties, there is one quality of the event that is drawing attention: heat for the $sigUSD prize pot is currently volcanic. Furthermore, with the secrecy that is entailing these Ergonauts’ endeavors, could one of the teams be El Salvador themselves?

I do not know about you, but I cannot wait to see what comes out of these magicians’ hats over the next three days.

**Stay well Ergonauts!**

ErgoHack Day One

As our first hackathon grows ever closer, Ergonauts and the Ergo community are excited to present our judges for ERGOHACK.\
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From June 11th-13th, these judges will evaluate proposals on topics like tokenization schemes, visual tools for constructing multi-signatures, stealth address pool implementations, tools for NFTs and many more.\
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So without further ado, allow us to introduce…\
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**Alexander Slesarenko**

Slesarenko is an ERGO Foundation Board Member and graduate of Applied Mathematics from Udmurt State University. He has extensive experience in software development as a team leader, architect and researcher. He worked as Team Leader at Huawei Research Lab focusing on developing languages and compilers for high-performance big data processing. Alexander is a Blockchain Core Developer and Lead Developer of ErgoScript at ERGO.

**Aleksei Pupyshev**

Aleksei is currently also the Founder of Graviton, and a Co-Founder of Neutrino protocol and Gravity protocol.

He initially became involved in the crypto space in 2014, when he led a team at an algorithmic HFT hedge fund focusing on mining pool analytics and developing liquidity models for one of the first crypto exchanges. 

In 2015, when Ethereum became popular, Aleksei hired an R&D team to prototype a smart contract crypto loan service. Two years later, realizing the full power of smart contacts and decentralization, Aleksei started working on crypto projects more actively by founding Venlab.

In 2019, the Venlab team entered a partnership with the Waves ecosystem to develop the Neutrino stablecoin and Gravity inter-chain protocol. After successfully launched, both of the projects were fully transferred to Waves in 2020 and 2021 correspondingly. 

\
**Robert Kornacki**

Robert Kornacki has been an ERGO community member from day one and has been involved with Cardano since 2017. In 2019, he became a dLab/EMURGO Fellow, following that up in 2020 as EMURGO’s Head of R&D and board member of the ERGO Foundation. In 2021 he co-founded a new crypto development company, dcSpark.\
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Robert has worked on numerous projects within the Ergo ecosystem including oracle pools, the headless dApp framework, and ErgoScript by example, ageUSD and more. He has also conducted extensive research on what is possible in the EUTXO model.

\
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**Alexander Chepurnoy AKA Kushti**

Alexander Chepurnoy is an experienced blockchain developer, speaker and educator. From 2014 to 2015 he was a core developer on Nxt blockchain and a Co-Founder of smartcontract.com, now known as Chainlink. From 2016 to 2017 Alexander worked as a Lead Developer at Waves and Scorex Manager at IOHK. He began his journey with Ergo in 2016.\
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Alexander is a graduate of the State Petersburg National Research University, where he also taught a course on cryptography and blockchain technology. He is widely cited on Google Scholar and has spoken and numerous blockchain events and conferences worldwide.\
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**Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo**

Bruno contributed to Scorex (the basis of Ergo) back in 2017 and later joined Input Output, where he is currently Technical Director for Stablecoins and CBDCs. He designed the SigmaUSD stablecoin that has been developed by Ergo and Emurgo.

Bruno studied Electronics Engineering and Computer Science at Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica, pursued his MSc in Computational Logic at TU-Dresden and TU-Vienna and received his PhD in Computer Science at TU-Vienna. Before joining the cryptocurrency space, Bruno was an active and accomplished researcher in the fields of Logic, Automated Reasoning and Proof Theory, at Inria, TU-Vienna and Australian National University.

The judges and the Ergo community at large look forward to seeing the proposals that talented developers submit at ERGOHACK. For more information on the event see our blog post.

Meet Your Judges

**Ergo, a community-centered proof-of-work protocol is launching its first-ever hackathon next week, ERGOHACK.** 

It is our goal at Ergo to create a network for the people, censorship-resistant, resilient, open and free. It is our goal to build a system that creates smart contracts for the people, to put tooling in the hands of those that need it the most.  

The hackathon will run June 11-13th with crypto prizes for the top three slots and all presenters. 

Submissions must be filed by June 8th with the deadline for submitting solutions set for June 14th. 

Ergo is looking for solutions from teams that want to “hack for change” surrounding topics like tokenization schemes, visual tools for constructing multi-signatures, stealth address pool implementations, tools for NFTs and many more.  The winning teams will be announced on June 21st, with the following prizes up for grabs:

**1st Place**: 5,000 SigmaUSD\
**2nd Place**: 2,500 SigmaUSD\
**3rd Place**: 1,000 SigmaUSD\
*All presenters will receive 100 SigmaUSD.*

Additionally, All Hackathon participants will receive a commemorative **@ERGnomes** non-fungible token, the '**[HackaGnome](https://twitter.com/ERGnomes/status/1397206492433027089?s=20)**'

![ergonome-nft](/img/uploads/2021-06-04-17.07.57.jpg)

Submissions will be judged on the quality, implementation, and potential impact of the idea by the esteemed judges 

**Aleksei Pupyshev**\
Founder of Graviton, co-founder of Neutrino protocol and Gravity protocol

**Robert Kornacki**\
*CSO at dcSpark*\
Former Head of Research at Emurgo\
Ergo Foundation Member

**Alexander Chepurnoy AKA Kushti**\
*Ergo Core Developer* \
Co-founder of smartcontract.com\
Core developer at NXT\
Research Fellow at IOHK

**Bruno Woltzenlogel Paleo**\
*Technical Project Director*\
Author of Scientific Papers on chimeric ledgers, UTXO with scripts, multi-currencies, as well as the formal specifications in Haskell and Scala for these papers.

Need some background info on the languages, tooling, and frameworks used for Ergo?
Check out our community-driven content on [ergonaut.space](https://ergonaut.space/en/hackathon), and there’s a hidden treasure trove of information stashed across the [ergo forum](https://www.ergoforum.org/c/research-and-development/7?order=views). For some inspiration of what’s possible under Ergo, check out our [Hackathon Idea Incubator ](https://www.reddit.com/r/ergonauts/comments/nmof7c/hackathon_idea_incubator/)on Reddit. 

Join the event on our official [Discord server](https://discord.gg/kj7s7nb) and register your interest in the #Hackathon channel. 
We in the Ergo community look forward to seeing the unique and forward-thinking proposals from participants.

Ergo community launches its first hackathon ERGOHACK 

## Intro

SigmaUSD.io is the worlds first UTxO-based stable coin. The foundation on which a new era of digital finance will be built. A 100% cryptocurrency pegged decentralised stable coin that has no forced liquidation. (but is not without risk - as we’re about to find out).

It is an instantiation of the [AgeUSD protocol](https://github.com/Emurgo/age-usd) designed in partnership by IOHK, Ergo, and Emurgo.

It maintains the conservative settings for collateral reserves, avoiding the need for liquidations. Along with that, it supports a fully decentralised stablecoin emission setup. 

Thus, SigmaUSD offers the world a stable, simple, and decentralised stablecoin.

* [SigmaUSD vs the competition.](https://curiaregiscrypto.medium.com/sigmausd-vs-the-competition-e70b23fe37a3)
* [SigmaUSD on Ergo - Privacy, Stability and Governance](https://curiaregiscrypto.medium.com/sigmausd-on-ergo-a36e0cdff743)

SigmaUSD is a complex beast, but you need to know for this article the following. 

**SigmaUSD**

* Stable to $1
* If you buy SigmaUSD, and the price of Erg dips - you can claim more Erg for the same dollar value.

**SigmaRSV**

* SigmaRSV is similar to book value per share. Its value depends on both the size of the reserve and how it is utilised.
* When the price dips, SigUSD holders who exit at a lower point than they entered must be rewarded extra Erg to make their SigUSD up to $1
* SigRSV profits depend on these accumulated transaction fees plus any losses SigUSD holders experienced when exiting.

The 2% fee taken during minting goes back into the reserve. This fee accumulates in the reserve, appreciating the value of SigRSV and helping to prevent speculative orders.

Additionally, the contract locks at certain ratios, this is to ensure both that there is always enough reserve to meet the needs of the stablecoin under market conditions, and that the SigRSV position doesn’t suffer from significant dilution. 

![](https://ergonaut.space/photo_2021-05-26_01.56.49.jpeg)

## SigmaUSD V1

Shortly after the contract was live, we noticed a large player was jumping in and out of SigUSD at a semi-regular schedule. After some research, we identified that the Bearwhale was frontrunning the oracle price in an attempt to profit at the expense of reserve holders (SigRSV).

This type of oracle frontrunning is not uncommon and has happened before in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem. It is a factor at play because oracle there must always be some amount of delay before a data point is accepted into a block, which opens up the ability for frontrunning to exist.

In our scenario, the Bearwhale was taking advantage of this by minting SigUSD early during the "Live Epoch" period of the oracle pool, once it was reasonably clear what the upcoming new Erg/USD datapoint would be—profiting on the price difference once the oracle pool finalised the datapoint. You can take a look at the whale's address [here](<https://explorer.ergoplatform.com/en/addresses/9hyDXH72HoNTiG2pvxFQwxAhWBU8CrbvwtJDtnYoa4jfpaSk1d3)>) (who appears to be an early miner in the Ergo ecosystem.

We decided at this stage to freeze the oracle price to allow people to redeem. The contract would then be relaunched with a higher fee, and governance tokens enabled.

Read the full blog post regarding this on the blog: [Finding The Right Balance](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2021_03_04-finding-right-balance/).

## SigmaUSD V2

As soon as we launched V2, the Bearwhale was back with several attacks on different fronts. Thankfully, this led to some minor issues with the protocol coming to light and quickly being patched - improving the resiliency going forward. Don't you love free stress tests?

They initially purchased a significant stake in SigRSV - which most took as a sign of hope and that the Bearwhale was instead backing the protocol going forward. Unfortunately, ultimately, they discovered a loophole that allowed a mimicking of the SigmaUSD treasury, interjecting when someone was making a transaction, selling SigRSV to users while pocketing the fee.

When this was blocked, next was spamming the proxy addresses that ERG move through while being swapped for Sigma. This prevented the redemption of SigmaRSV and allowed the cycle into a short position, and keep the reserve ratio locked at 400%. Scripts from community members to counter his attempts, and subsequently, we rolled out a patch to prevent the attack.

Indeed, there were likely many other efforts to misuse and manipulate the oracle pools and the protocol itself, which were unsuccessful and we are not aware of.

While we cannot say for sure that the dumping on the open market was connected, 150,000 ERG sell-walls appearing shortly after the short positioned was entered was telling.

During the BTC-flash crash, the price of Erg fluctuated sharply to under $2; however, the robustness and smoothness of Oracle Pools came into play. 

They are limited to an update of 0.5% every 30minutes - up or down. The markets slowly recovered throughout the day, and the power of the Oracle Pools power was demonstrated. The Bearwhale had the chance to exit at a minimal loss during this period, but they did not. Maybe they were looking for lower prices of Erg.

Unfortunately, for his sake, the marketing machine is well-greased and roaring, and when we finally broke through $4, the whale exited his position with a loss of around 170,000 ERG, compared to his starting position at the beginning of V2. The exact amount made during V1 is hard to quantity, as the first transactions we see are withdrawals from the SigmaUSD bank (presumably, deposits made with another wallet). The Bearwhale's main address can be found [here](https://explorer.ergoplatform.com/en/addresses/9hyDXH72HoNTiG2pvxFQwxAhWBU8CrbvwtJDtnYoa4jfpaSk1d3), and [this second one](https://explorer.ergoplatform.com/en/addresses/9eyXNatnA6YM4tS1TjadEA6TFrd9bdufbFuykV89iX9vE9RBZZe) appeared later on. He likely has many others or friends helping him. 

Those who minted SigRSV at the start of the contract and cashed out here made a healthy profit.

At the moment, SigRSV holders might want to consider an exit. The size of the reserve compared to SigUSD utilisation is unbalanced and is high-risk for reserve holders. The Bearwhale is continuously rotating back into a short at a higher price point and try to redeem some of those ERGs. This is a risky gamble for him, and while he's a proficient hacker. He appears to be terrible at trading.

Is the game finished? No, we do not think so. But, from now on, the game is changed, and it is a fair game. Now, anyone can Mint/Redeem whatever they wish; the RR and SigRSV price are moving up and down as usual. No individual is preventing you from minting/redeeming USD/RSV, and it is ultimately you that decides on your position.

We must keep in mind that this protocol is not to benefit only the RSV holders; The war declared on the Bearwhale was because they were not playing fair. 

From now, lots of individuals and whales may enter into both positions and take profits or losses; that's fair. So, let us leave the bearwhale story behind and use the protocol wisely. I think all of us learned a lot from the battle and got more familiar with the risks/rewards of the protocol and the chaotic nature and wars waged behind the scenes in decentralised finance.

## The Future

The success of the SigmaUSD stablecoin depends not only on the price of Erg but also on the utilisation of SigUSD itself. 

anon_2020s has already integrated the mixing of SigmaUSD/RSV into the ErgoMixer. The first working non-custodial, programmable, non-interactive mixer in the cryptocurrency space. 

Both ERG and SigUSD are now accepted on [Cryptocurrency Checkout.](https://cryptocurrencycheckout.com/coin/sigmausd) This is a Non-Custodial Payment Gateway that provides plugins that make accepting multiple cryptocurrencies for your products and services as easy as entering your wallet addresses and copying some code into your website or application. 

The team is also working on SigUSD/USDx stablecoin pairs which would enable robust off-ramps; we have support upcoming for Auction House, the tip bot for Telegram, and, more significantly - ErgoDex on the horizon, which will likely be another serious test for autonomous contracts and the DeFi space as a whole. 

[Discussions are already budding on the forums](https://www.ergoforum.org/t/sigmausd-dao-bank-is-a-complex-beast/767/14) of how we can improve these contracts so that we can ensure the robustness and resilience of the protocol going forward. 

If you've made it this far, check out [The Ergo Manifesto](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2021-04-26-the-ergo-manifesto/) to see what Ergo is really about. Head over to [ergonaut.space/en/SigmaUSD](https://ergonaut.space/en/SigmaUSD) for more information on the protocol, or [r/ergonauts/faq](https://www.reddit.com/r/ergonauts/search?q=bearwhale&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all) for a comprehensive overview of all the components that make up Erg. 

We're not sure who minted the graphic above (a developer working on an NFT gallery stumbled on it). But it's [up for sale](https://ergoauctions.org/#/auction/specific/83643ed47afb08fab54a89b26f0077ddde3a02c01ee15aa52f5980231cf13e8e) on the auction house.

Finally, join the fight and help bring crypto back to its roots. There's a SigmaUSD group on [Telegram](https://t.me/SigmaUSD), a dedicated channel on [Discord](https://discord.gg/GkpppkfHAV), or head over to our rapidly growing community at [/r/ergonauts/](https://www.reddit.com/r/ergonauts/).

Bearwhale Saga

The Ergo weekly Dev update is not the sexiest crypto blog. Focusing on the moon is great but the truth is, a rocket takes an incredible amount of engineering. Designing and building systems that are subject to immense pressure is not an easy task.

What’s Going On Behind The Screens: Ergo Weekly Dev Update April 28th

*It's time for sharing what you know about Ergo and win prizes in return! We are conducting a video competition to show what Ergo provides to its users from the users. We are getting closer to Hackathon and we need your help to spread the word about Ergo Blockchain's benefits and properties.* 

*Join us and share 650 ERGs in total!*

### Prizes:

**200 ERG**s for 1st prize   

**100 ERG**s x 2 people for 2nd prize  

**50 ERG**s x up to 5 people for 3rd prize

#### Video Content:

It could be anything about Ergo Platform, from its blockchain design or something that teach some specific on how to use Ergo, for example: Headless dApps, Ergo Playground, Ergo mixer, SigmaUSD, NFT Auction House, dApps, installing the Ergo node, mining etc.. 

*"To participate, you should upload your video and quote retweet or answer the [competition announcement tweet](https://twitter.com/ergoplatformorg/status/1384072759748173824?s=20) with your YouTube video link"*

Video length should be 3-25 minutes

**Deadline: 16 May 2021**       

**Results will be announced 1 week after the deadline.**

**Have a nice month to all Ergonauts - to the Moon!**

Youtube Video Competition

*Create an original piece of digital art and list it for sale on the Ergo NFT Marketplace. The winning entry will receive 1000 ERG, with two further prizes of 500 ERG.*

Digital art and NFTs are hot trends in the blockchain space, and Ergo has pioneered [new approaches to minting NFTs](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020-09-25-nfts-on-ergo/). 

To celebrate the digital art sector and raise awareness of Ergo’s capabilities, we’re holding a digital art competition.

The competition will include three categories:

* Any crypto-themed artwork, not necessarily limited to Ergo (prize: 1000 ERG)
* Animated artwork on any theme, not necessarily limited to crypto (prize: 500 ERG)
* Algorithmic/generative art on any theme (prize: 500 ERG)

**To enter the competition:**

* Create an original work of digital art for one of the three categories.
* Create an NFT representing this work of art ([ErgoUtils can be used for this](https://ergoutils.org/)). Assistance may be found on the [Ergo Discord](https://discord.gg/kj7s7nb).
* List the NFT for sale on the [Ergo Auction House](https://ergoauctions.org/) NFT Marketplace, giving it whatever name you want. [Your auction](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAHFHrHq3Oc) should last at least till the end of March 2021.
* To identify entries, the description on the Auction House listing should include the words “Competition Entry:” followed by the category, either “Crypto”, “Animated” or “Algorithmic”, and then a description of your artwork. E.g. “Competition Entry: Algorithmic. This is an AI-generated image of a forest.”
* The image must be displayed upon clicking the thumbnail alongside the listing price – it must not be contained solely in a secondary link.

The deadline for entries to be listed is 14 March 2021. The results will be announced towards the end of the month. 

Prizes will be distributed by placing bids on each artwork. If higher bids are subsequently placed by other bidders, the artist will receive these funds instead. Each prize is therefore the minimum the winning artist will receive.

The judges’ decision is final, including the decision not to award a prize/make a bid if no artwork meets the required quality.

2000 ERG in Prizes to be Won in the Ergo Digital Art Competition!

Ergo Summit 2021 - Entering The New Era - Announcing AgeUSD & The Hardening Upgrade

We’ve just released the Ergo Summit Schedule! Check it out and get ready for the most Ergo-packed day of 2021

*The first ever PoW-backed NFT was generated by Ergo developer anon_real, and is being sold to help fund creation of the new Ergo DEX.*

Ergo recently announced two major new developments: the [ability to create non-fungible tokens](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020-09-25-nfts-on-ergo/), and the [Ergo Auction House, a Marketplace for NFTs](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020-10-16-announcing-the-auction-house-nft-marketplace-on-ergo/).

**The very first Ergo NFT is [now for sale on Auction House](http://ergoauctions.org/#/auction/active).**

This is a unique, indivisible token mined by anon_real, one of Ergo’s anonymous devs. It is also the **first ever proof-of-work-backed token** on the platform. Moreover, it has the word ‘ergo’ hidden in its id:

24550c2dc71646fb369f1603f39f3e587c4c454e069036**6572676f**e985668c02

(The bolded characters, "6572676f", are the base16 encoding of "ergo".)

Anon_real is also developing Ergo’s DEX, and the ERG received from the same will be used to help fund that project. Between NFT auctions and the DEX, anon_real is contributing important infrastructure to Ergo’s DeFi ecosystem.

So, submit a bid, grab a piece of Ergo history, and help Ergo develop ground-breaking new DeFi technology!

The First Ergo NFT Auction Is Under Way!

*Future dates at time of publication are subject to change*

**March 2020:** Command-line version of decentralised trustless mixer, [ErgoMixer](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020_03_20_ergo_mixer/), launched

**April 2020:** Command-line version of [decentralised exchange](https://github.com/ergoplatform/ergo-dex/)

**April 2020:** ErgoMixer with Web interface (simple PoC)

**June 2020:** Ergo and Emurgo announce [joint research partnership](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020_06_09_press_release/), including integration of Ergo into Emurgo’s flagship Yoroi wallet

**June 2020:** ErgoMixer with GUI

**June 2020:** New Emurgo brand, Emurgo Research, releases first research report on UTXO-based contracts.

**June 2020–ongoing:** Joint Ergo/Emurgo research into Oracle pool design. Joint development of stablecoin based on oracle pools

**July 2020–ongoing:** Joint DeFi research and integration in Yoroi as ‘MetaMask’-style solution for Ergo

**July 2020:** [ErgoPool.io](https://ergopool.io): smart contract-based pool for self-sovereign miners

**August 2020:** Oracle pools PoC launch

**August-September 2020:** Ledger integration

**September-October 2020:** First Ergo network hardfork

**Autumn 2020:** Launch of jointly-developed Ergo/Emurgo stablecoin on Ergo blockchain

**Autumn 2020:** Algorithmic stablecoin added to ErgoMixer

**Autumn 2020:** Crowdfunding UI launch

**November 2020:** Private cross-chain swaps core functionality (commandline)

**November 2020:** Ergo decentralised exchange (ErgoDEX) core functionality developed

**December 2020:** Launch of GUI for ErgoDEX

**December 2020-January 2021:** ErgoDEX gateways for atomic swaps with major coins

Ergo roadmap for 2020

Ergo Foundation, a community-driven entity, is welcoming its new member Robert Kornacki, head of research and development engineer at EMURGO [https://emurgo.io](https://emurgo.io/). This addition will help with the development of the ecosystem, promotion, and the widespread adoption and use of the Ergo Platform and its native token (ERG). There are many more members nominated to join the foundation, everyone is also free to apply.\
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Ergo Foundation would like to announce two sponsored competitions: for open-source mining software, including optimizations for both Nvidia and AMD which should fit greatly incoming HF changes and enable better competition in case of the new POW algorithm in the cryptocurrency space. The pool of bounties 30000 ERGs, more details to follow.\
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The second contest is about visionary articles, the usefulness of cryptocurrency, and Ergo. The best articles will be chosen every two weeks. With lots of content, competitions can be weekly. In case of a lack of content, articles may join the next prize pools.\
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Top article - 1000 ERGs\
Second place - 700 ERGs\
Third place - 500 ERGs\
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Ergo Foundation aims to establish partnerships with organizations that will contribute to developing the Ergo ecosystem or that share the values of the Ergo Foundation <https://ergoplatform.org/community/#Foundation/>.

Ergo Foundation - New members and contests


_Cardano and Ergo take quite different approaches to DeFi and blockchain development, but there are specific areas in which they significantly overlap. This allows the possibility of fruitful collaboration, with benefits to two distinct ecosystems – and the blockchain space as a whole._

The recent [partnership announced between Emurgo and Ergo](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020_06_09_press_release/) has been positively received by both communities. For good reason: this is an exceptional opportunity to pool resources into an important and emerging area of research, while allowing both projects to use the insights gained in their own ways and for their own roadmaps. 

In some ways, Cardano and Ergo are quite different. Cardano, for example, is a proof-of-stake platform, developed in Haskell and with smart contracts written in the custom Haskell-based Plutus language.

Ergo, meanwhile, is a proof-of-work platform based on the Scorex framework, which was also created by Ergo’s lead developer Alexander Chepurnoy (@kushti). Its smart contracts are written in ErgoScript, which draws features from Scala.

## UTXO smart contracts

Where they overlap, and the most promising area for collaboration, is in their use of the extended UTXO model. (You can read [more about Ergo’s use of UTXOs here](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020_03_03_building_utxo/).)

Basing smart contracts on an extended UTXO model is a relatively new idea. Platforms like Ethereum use an Account model, which has very different implications. [Recent research](https://github.com/Emurgo/Emurgo-Research/blob/master/smart-contracts/High%20Level%20Design%20Patterns%20In%20Extended%20UTXO%20Systems.md) by Robert Kornacki (R&D Engineer at Emurgo) explains this in more detail:

> Extended UTXO systems enable full fledged [turing complete](https://arxiv.org/abs/1806.10116) (across transactions) smart contracts. This is a novel innovation that allows the latest generation of blockchains to reclaim the original model that Bitcoin used, but now with a lot more power.  
> Given that smart contract powered UTXO systems are nascent, there is a distinct lack of known design patterns which developers can rely on when building dApps. Looking at account-based models like Ethereum, encoding protocols in the UTXO model is as comparably different as writing imperative code is to functional.  
> The UTXO approach has the ability to revolutionise smart contracts, and the findings of the collaboration will doubtless prove valuable to both Cardano and Ergo as they implement their different roadmaps and technologies. 

## DeFi collaboration

This is a great example of how DeFi thrives on collaboration, rather than competition. Open source systems benefit each other, making each other stronger and tapping into each others’ networks rather than taking away from them. 

A great example of this is the Yoroi wallet, which will become a kind of MetaMask for engaging with Ergo-based dApps as well as the Cardano ecosystem. Meanwhile, features that Ergo has already implemented ([such as NiPoPoW](https://ergoplatform.org/blog/2020_05_1_spv_security/)) and will implement in the future offer a precedent for Cardano and other blockchains, even if those features cannot directly be imported.
