Blueprints

Getting Started

Blueprints are Infrastructure as Code templates and Instances are their instantiations on the Tangle Network. Developers build Blueprints using our Blueprint SDK and deploy them to the Tangle Network. Users can discover Blueprints and create Instances of them, which are run by Tangle Operators. The Tangle Network incentivizes operators to run these instances by rewarding them with TNT tokens and fees from execution.

A Blueprint Instance is a computational service. Blueprints are reusable templates so that useful services can be leveraged by many customers. A key benefit of instancing Blueprints is that each instance can have different operators and different restaked assets securing them.

A Tangle Blueprint is defined by:

• An native program binary, a docker image, or a virtual machine binary.
• A set of smart contracts that provide programmability over the service’s output verification and handling of malicious failures

Tangle Blueprints specify their target environment for program execution. The Blueprint’s binary can run natively on the operator’s machine, in a virtual machine, or in a containerized environment.

Detailed Interactions

Developers

Developers interact with Tangle Blueprints by developing and deploying them to the blockchain. The smart contracts are deployed to the Tangle EVM, while the metadata is stored in Tangle’s runtime.

The Blueprint includes smart contracts responsible with all aspects of customizing a Blueprint’s behavior and features. Developers have the flexibility to extend this contract, create child contracts, and anything that adheres to the function signatures expected by the runtime when executing logic. The Blueprint smart contract handles:

1. Registration: Specifies how Operators register for the Blueprint, allowing the developer to add additional fees, access control, KYC, and any other EVM-deployable functionality to the registration process.
2. Request: Defines how customer of Blueprints initiates Service Instances, providing the same customizability as the EVM for the initialization process of Service Instances.
3. On Job Hooks: Allows developers to specify custom logic to be executed when a job is created.
4. On Job Result Hooks: Allows developers to specify custom logic to be executed when a job is completed, such as verifying a job’s output.
5. Custom slashing conditions: Allows developers to specify custom slashing conditions for Operators, such as failing to provide a service or providing a malicious service. These would be callable by anyone or privileged callers but is entirely up to the developer to design.

Blueprints empower developers to create, customize, and monetize technical service configurations on the Tangle Network, defining features, behavior, resource requirements, and the Gadget binary for services such as Threshold MPC, zero-knowledge provers, AI infrastructure, and more. Developers can programmatically incentivize operators to restake on their services and update them to improve and benefit from their long-term success. Tangle Blueprints are designed for reuse by various users and projects.

Customers

Tangle Network provides a user-friendly platform for customers to discover, deploy, and manage Blueprint Instances. Customers can access tailored technical services with varying configurations and features, specify their requirements (e.g., threshold of participants, registration criteria), and select a subset of Operators to provide the service. The stake recursion process increases the economic security of reliable services.

Customers interact with Tangle by instancing Blueprints, which create Blueprint Instances. To initialize an Instance, a customer:

1. Selects a participation selection strategy that satisfies the Blueprint’s Request smart contract constraints.
2. Provides metadata required by the Instance.
3. Pays the fee required for the Instance configuration.

Operators

Operators are incentivized to operate the Blueprint Instances by receiving rewards from the Tangle Network and fees from users who pay for the service. The rewards and incentives are distributed proportionally to the amount of stake that the Operator has restaked on the Instance.

Composability and Ecosystem

Blueprints can be composed and linked together to create sophisticated, interoperable applications, fostering innovation and collaboration within the Tangle ecosystem. The Tangle architecture is uniquely suited for complex cryptographic applications, such as multi-party computation (MPC) and zero-knowledge (ZK) services, as well as oracles, custody solutions, bridge co-processors, and proving networks. Developers are encouraged to collaborate and contribute to expanding the library of apps and services on Tangle, and will be rewarded with incentives for their valuable contributions.