ergo

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# Ergo

Welcome to the repository for the [Ergo Platform](https://ergoplatform.org/). Ergo is a Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency protocol that has been designed to offer a secure environment for new kinds of money, peer-to-peer interactions, trust-minimized financial tooling and derivatives. This repository contains the reference client, also known as the node, for Ergo.

The reference client is primarily written in Scala. While certain components of the protocol are implemented in other languages (for instance, [sigma-rust](https://github.com/ergoplatform/sigma-rust) is a Rust-based implementation of the ErgoScript cryptocurrency scripting language), the reference client provides the most complete and comprehensive implementation of the Ergo protocol at the moment.

## Key Features of Ergo

Ergo, while sharing some commonalities with Bitcoin as a UTXO Proof-of-Work cryptocurrency, stands out due to its unique design and features. It has been built from the ground up to achieve its goals 
, introducing several innovative elements:

* **ErgoScript**: A powerful contract language in the multi-stage extended UTXO model. More details can be found in the [ErgoScript whitepaper](https://ergoplatform.org/docs/ErgoScript.pdf).
* **Autolykos2**: A memory-hard Proof-of-Work function, providing enhanced security. Learn more about it [here](https://docs.ergoplatform.com/ErgoPow.pdf).
* Support for Stateless Clients: Ergo supports asymmetric stateless clients, based on [this paper](https://eprint.iacr.org/2016/994), and includes features like NiPoPoWs and hybrid modes.
* **Advanced Transactional Language**: Ergo introduces an [alternative transactional language](https://github.com/ScorexFoundation/sigmastate-interpreter) that is more powerful than Bitcoin Script and is designed to be safe against heavy validation attacks.
* **Innovative Fee Model**: Ergo implements an alternative fee model with a [mandatory storage-rent component](https://fc18.ifca.ai/bitcoin/papers/bitcoin18-final18.pdf ) (also known as demurrage). It provides truly fixed supply in the long-term, protection from UTXO dust bloating, and additional rewards stream for miners.

## Specifications

* [white paper](https://ergoplatform.org/docs/whitepaper.pdf) - a brief description of the protocol
* [ErgoScript white paper](https://ergoplatform.org/docs/ErgoScript.pdf) - describes ErgoScript, a Cryptocurrency Scripting Language Supporting Noninteractive Zero-Knowledge Proofs used in Ergo

More papers can be found at [docs.ergoplatform.com/documents](https://docs.ergoplatform.com/documents/).

## Security Assumptions

The Ergo client operates under certain assumptions about its environment:

* The execution environment is trusted. Although the seed is stored in an encrypted file, and the client's wallet attempts to purge the secret key from memory as soon as it is no longer needed, the client does not have defenses against side-channel a