Stack

This guide introduces the core components of the Open Internet Protocol (OIP) stack, detailing how the various layers integrate to enable scalable, secure, and efficient decentralized applications.

Motivation

Decentralized applications often face challenges related to high transaction costs, limited throughput, and latency when interactions occur entirely onchain. OIP addresses these issues through a hybrid approach, combining persistent and verifiable onchain smart contracts with high-performance offchain messaging and data storage. This design ensures critical states like identity and authorization remain secure and immutable onchain, while offchain operations efficiently handle high-frequency interactions, significantly reducing costs, latency, and network congestion.

Smart Contracts

The onchain portion of the Open Internet Protocol consists of modular Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible smart contracts. These contracts provide:

• App Definitions: Clear definitions and standards for applications registered on OIP through the OIPAppRegistry.
• Identity Management: Persistent, interoperable, human-readable identities managed via the OIPIdRegistry and OIPNameRegistry contracts.
• Access Control: Secure delegation and fine-grained access control mechanisms enabled by the OIPAccessRegistry.
• Node Management: Registration and verification of edge and relay nodes via the OIPNodeRegistry.

Smart contracts ensure persistent data management, essential for identity and authorization states, due to the transient nature of offchain relay nodes.

Nodes

In short

OIP offchain operations extend Waku, utilizing relay and edge nodes:

• Relay Nodes: These facilitate efficient message propagation without relying on the blockchain for high-frequency data operations.
• Edge Nodes: Operated by network participants—or in other words: users of apps built on OIP—edge nodes cache and provide data locally, significantly increasing data availability and resilience. Edge nodes also periodically provide cryptographic proofs, confirming data integrity and availability.

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