The sCrypt hackathon took place on March 16-17 2024 at the historic Fairmont, San Francisco. As part of the event, Ty Everett (CEO of Project Babbage) gave a presentation on creating a peer-to-peer-based Internet.
Everett and Project Babbage are at the forefront of developing digital contracts and identity solutions for Web3 and blockchain. By prioritising user-centric practices, they aim to revolutionise the way individuals engage in digital transactions. Through their unwavering commitment to transparency, collaboration, and technological advancement, Everett and Project Babbage are paving the way for a more empowered and secure digital economy.
Mission and Vision of Project Babbage
Project Babbage aims to provide solutions for Web3 applications, said Everett. He added that Babbage focuses on empowering individuals by extending the capabilities of the Internet to enable fast and secure payments, identity management and secure messaging. Everett also stressed the goal of creating systems that can function independently of Babbage, ensuring longevity and competition in the market.
Everett also spoke about his motivation, which is characterised by his life. As a partially blind child, he remembers people buying a Braille computer for him through a fundraiser. Working with his PC fascinated him as a child and influenced his decision to become a programmer.
However, there is a common doctrine in app and platform development which Everett rejects. He explained this with the ‘slot-machine’ analogy. A slot machine tries to make its user addicted and creates a fear of missing out. In addition, many platforms also lock their users in, which for Everett is akin to exploitation.
Thus, Babbage’s vision is to make users autonomous and independent of the platforms or apps that they are using. To realise this practically, Babbage has to work on contracts in the digital realm, which regulate how people, users and/or business providers interact with each other.
Contracting in the digital age
Contracts serve as the bedrock of our interactions, facilitating exchanges and agreements between individuals. Everett stressed how contracts form the essence of individuals coming together, reaching consensus, and formalising agreements through signatures – a practice mirrored in both traditional and digital realms.
Everett underscored the necessity of building a digital ecosystem that mirrors traditional contracts and identities.
He emphasised the pivotal role of digital identity in streamlining transactions, with a particular focus on the BSV blockchain for securely maintaining records. In contrast to the current Internet, individuals should possess ownership of their digital identities, fostering secure communication and digital signatures. This vision aligns with the broader goal of empowering users in online transactions, where they retain control over their information and interactions.
Synergies between Babbage and sCrypt
In his presentation, Everett also highlighted synergies with sCrypt, a developer platform that is well-suited for application developers who are new to building applications on the BSV blockchain development.
He likened Babbage to providing users with pens and paper to draft contracts, while sCrypt serves as the smart contracting platform essential for executing these agreements effectively. Through sCrypt, Project Babbage aims to implement advanced terms and conditions, providing users with the tools needed to build sophisticated contracts seamlessly.
Everett also noted how sCrypt could benefit from integration with Babbage due to various reasons like identity and key management. Babbage provides a wallet solution that manages keys and facilitates user permission for their use in various applications. After presenting this high-level overview, Everett went into more technical details that were of practical relevance for the participants during the hackathon.
UTXO-first Integration and BSV transactions
At the heart of Everett’s vision is the concept of enhancing transaction capabilities while maintaining ethical standards. Everett discussed the integration of sCrypt with Babbage, enabling the creation of custom tokens and assets through contracts. He emphasised the concept of BSV input and output scripts within wallets, allowing for arbitrary creation and redemption of digital assets.
Everett suggested a user-friendly approach where wallets manage UTXOs (Unspent Transaction Outputs) without requiring manual intervention, ensuring seamless transaction funding. He introduced the idea of baskets within wallets to hold different asset types, giving users control over which apps can access specific tokens. This integration promotes scalability through UTXO-first integration, focusing on output-based transactions to enhance blockchain efficiency.
Peer-to-peer smart contracts, SPV and overlays
Everett further explored the concept of peer-to-peer smart contracts, emphasising the challenge of replicating physical agreements in the digital realm. The problem is to facilitate the fulfilment of contracts in peer-to-peer contracts without intermediaries. Everett demonstrated Babbage’s solution to this problem with a digital coin flip app designed for direct exchanges between individuals, without the need for intermediaries.
Simplified payment verification (SPV) is in line with this peer-to-peer interaction, as Everett underscored the importance of interoperability and scalability for peer-to-peer applications. Everett also mentioned how sCrypt enables powerful layer-one capabilities, allowing users to manage contracts directly within the BSV network.
In this context, overlays can act as a framework for peer-to-peer exchanges and advanced state tracking on top of the BSV blockchain. Everett envisions overlays as distributed systems that facilitate multiparty trading without central control, emphasising autonomy and choice for users in selecting overlay networks for transactions. With a focus on scalability and flexibility, overlays offer a solution for managing digital assets and contracts.
