4 ms·

Digital Asset Open Sources Its Smart Contract Language, DAML [pdf]

54 points by PDiMarzio 8y ago

sanxiyn 8y ago
Repository is at https://github.com/digital-asset/daml https://github.com/digital-asset/daml
zoharhod 8y ago
Removed!!!
- Legogris 8y ago
  Aside from being a blatant marketing attempt, you should seriously stop overusing hashtags like this outside of Twitter.
squigs25 8y ago
Interesting... given that this is actually in use for the Australian Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Exchanges, this smart contract language could become a major player and continue to get corporate adoption, especially now that it's open sourced.
oggy 8y ago
The DAML landing page gives a nice overview of the unique language features: https://daml.com/ https://daml.com/ Disclaimer: I work there. Very exciting to see it open-sourced!
lostmsu 8y ago
Could not find what targets does it support, and are features identical between them?
- PDiMarzio 8y ago
  At this very moment, DAML applications run on the DA ledger. Open sourcing the language is the first step in expanding that base. We (yes, I work at DA!) have been working with key ledger providers and will be making additional announcements over time - perhaps starting within the month if all goes well.
  - captaindiego 8y ago
    So is the idea that it's abstracted from the ledger, basically meaning you have your choice of whether you would run it in some centralized ledger secured within your company or on a more blockchainey distributed ledger on the public internet?
    - stefanobaghino 8y ago
      Yup!
xiaolingxiao 8y ago
Interesting, it looks a lot like Haskell. And Edward Kmett used to work there right? Could someone comment on its relationship with Haskell and the ML languages? Which I assume is the ML in DAML
- PDiMarzio 8y ago
  Yes Edward was a big contributor here (full disclosure - I work at DA). A lot of our engineers, like Edward, come from the Haskell community. DAML uses the GHC compiler under the covers. One way to think of is is a GHC frontend that adds the extra bits required to streamline the task of writing multipartry contracts.
- stefanobaghino 8y ago
  To answer the other part of your question, DAML stands for Digital Asset Modeling Language. No relationship with ML (apart from its influence in functional programming, of course).
ru999gol 8y ago
I was reading the Wikipedia[1] article about smart contracts, I still don't know what a smart contract is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract
- pmohun 8y ago
  Smart contracts are programs whose computation is run independently across a large number of distributed machines, with an output that is verified using a predetermined consensus mechanism. They are useful is situations where an actor would benefit from altering the result of the computation, or masking values. The primary use case that I've seen is for escrow payments with Ether, the Ethereum blockchain's native currency. They trade processing speed for finality and verification of results.
jgalt212 8y ago
Question: How do smart contracts handle defaults? e.g. day1: ledger A and B strike a deal to bet on the 6M Libor fix in 3 months time. day 91: Libor fixes much higher than expected thanks to a continually robust IPO market and strong economy (but mostly the former. In any event Ledger A now owes B 1,000 coins, but A only has 250 coins in its ledger. What happens? Is a partial payment done, or because this is a smart contract a Slack message is automagically sent to lawyers and/or collection agents?
- PDiMarzio 8y ago
  This is a great question that will probably get better traction if asked through one of the DAML support channels... SO (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/daml https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/daml) or Slack (https://damldriven.slack.com/ https://damldriven.slack.com/).
- scrumper 8y ago
  Smart contracts on public blockchains solve this by committing coins to the contract. In effect the contract is an escrow facility in which the coins are locked up until the contract terminates. The advantage of e.g. Ethereum blockchains is that defaults don't happen the assets are held by the contract. The drawback is that your assets are locked up for the duration of the contract, which is completely incompatible with how wholesale finance operates. DAML's genesis was in solving this problem on private ledgers used for mediating inter-party value exchange of off-ledger assets (like dollars). To do that, rather than having an account or asset focus, it's built around the notion of rights, obligations, and enforcing a legally-compatible approach to contractual consent. That is so that, when a "workflow" (e.g. your LIBOR swap) terminates, DAML provides a fully audited record of all the parties' agreement to be bound by the terms and consequences of the workflow itself. All being well there's an exchange of assets off-ledger. If things turn out badly, you go to court and the default is worked out with the backing of a rock-solid audit trail of affirmation (instead of a loose-leaf binder of printed emails and a dog-eared ISDA agreement.) (I work for DA.)
  - jgalt212 8y ago

54 points by PDiMarzio 8y ago

sanxiyn 8y ago

Repository is at https://github.com/digital-asset/daml https://github.com/digital-asset/daml

zoharhod 8y ago

Removed!!!

Legogris 8y ago
Aside from being a blatant marketing attempt, you should seriously stop overusing hashtags like this outside of Twitter.

squigs25 8y ago

Interesting... given that this is actually in use for the Australian Stock Exchange and the Hong Kong Exchanges, this smart contract language could become a major player and continue to get corporate adoption, especially now that it's open sourced.

oggy 8y ago

The DAML landing page gives a nice overview of the unique language features: https://daml.com/ https://daml.com/ Disclaimer: I work there. Very exciting to see it open-sourced!

lostmsu 8y ago

Could not find what targets does it support, and are features identical between them?

PDiMarzio 8y ago
At this very moment, DAML applications run on the DA ledger. Open sourcing the language is the first step in expanding that base. We (yes, I work at DA!) have been working with key ledger providers and will be making additional announcements over time - perhaps starting within the month if all goes well.
- captaindiego 8y ago
  So is the idea that it's abstracted from the ledger, basically meaning you have your choice of whether you would run it in some centralized ledger secured within your company or on a more blockchainey distributed ledger on the public internet?
  - stefanobaghino 8y ago
    Yup!

xiaolingxiao 8y ago

Interesting, it looks a lot like Haskell. And Edward Kmett used to work there right? Could someone comment on its relationship with Haskell and the ML languages? Which I assume is the ML in DAML

PDiMarzio 8y ago
Yes Edward was a big contributor here (full disclosure - I work at DA). A lot of our engineers, like Edward, come from the Haskell community. DAML uses the GHC compiler under the covers. One way to think of is is a GHC frontend that adds the extra bits required to streamline the task of writing multipartry contracts.
stefanobaghino 8y ago
To answer the other part of your question, DAML stands for Digital Asset Modeling Language. No relationship with ML (apart from its influence in functional programming, of course).

ru999gol 8y ago

I was reading the Wikipedia[1] article about smart contracts, I still don't know what a smart contract is. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_contract

pmohun 8y ago
Smart contracts are programs whose computation is run independently across a large number of distributed machines, with an output that is verified using a predetermined consensus mechanism. They are useful is situations where an actor would benefit from altering the result of the computation, or masking values. The primary use case that I've seen is for escrow payments with Ether, the Ethereum blockchain's native currency. They trade processing speed for finality and verification of results.

jgalt212 8y ago

Question: How do smart contracts handle defaults? e.g. day1: ledger A and B strike a deal to bet on the 6M Libor fix in 3 months time. day 91: Libor fixes much higher than expected thanks to a continually robust IPO market and strong economy (but mostly the former. In any event Ledger A now owes B 1,000 coins, but A only has 250 coins in its ledger. What happens? Is a partial payment done, or because this is a smart contract a Slack message is automagically sent to lawyers and/or collection agents?

PDiMarzio 8y ago
This is a great question that will probably get better traction if asked through one of the DAML support channels... SO (https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/daml https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/daml) or Slack (https://damldriven.slack.com/ https://damldriven.slack.com/).
scrumper 8y ago
Smart contracts on public blockchains solve this by committing coins to the contract. In effect the contract is an escrow facility in which the coins are locked up until the contract terminates. The advantage of e.g. Ethereum blockchains is that defaults don't happen the assets are held by the contract. The drawback is that your assets are locked up for the duration of the contract, which is completely incompatible with how wholesale finance operates. DAML's genesis was in solving this problem on private ledgers used for mediating inter-party value exchange of off-ledger assets (like dollars). To do that, rather than having an account or asset focus, it's built around the notion of rights, obligations, and enforcing a legally-compatible approach to contractual consent. That is so that, when a "workflow" (e.g. your LIBOR swap) terminates, DAML provides a fully audited record of all the parties' agreement to be bound by the terms and consequences of the workflow itself. All being well there's an exchange of assets off-ledger. If things turn out badly, you go to court and the default is worked out with the backing of a rock-solid audit trail of affirmation (instead of a loose-leaf binder of printed emails and a dog-eared ISDA agreement.) (I work for DA.)
- jgalt212 8y ago