Inria and Nomadic Labs join forces to develop a research programme on blockchain technology.
Date:
Changed on 23/03/2020
Inria and Nomadic Labs have signed a framework agreement to support research into blockchain technology.
A joint science committee is selecting research initiatives progressively.
Four such initiatives have already been launched under this agreement.
The results of which will be public and used to aid the blockchain community.
A joint science committee is selecting research initiatives progressively.
Four such initiatives have already been launched under this agreement.
The results of which will be public and used to aid the blockchain community.
Paris, 14 January, 2020: Inria, the French National Research Institute for Computer Science, and Nomadic Labs, the main research and development laboratory working on the Tezos blockchain, unveiled a framework agreement for their research partnership. This agreement has already funded four research initiatives along with the work of more than 10 researchers and two engineers.
Under this agreement, the programme's joint scientific steering committee is tasked with selecting research initiatives aimed at strengthening and developing the fundamentals of the Tezos technology and its applications. In keeping with the research strategy of the Tezos project, all scientific findings and software produced as part of this partnership will be freely accessible and so will help strengthen the impact of French research on software technology in general and blockchain in particular.
A natural partnership between Inria and Nomadic Labs
The ties between Inria and Nomadic Labs go back a long way. For example, the programming language OCaml used in an implementation of the Tezos protocol, and the programme verification techniques (like the proof assistant Coq) that improve the reliability and security of Tezos and its smart contracts, derive directly from several decades of research within Inria's project teams. Inria also possesses a great deal of expertise in many other fields of use to Tezos, like distributed programming, cryptography and cybersecurity in a more general sense.
Jérôme Chailloux, director of Nomadic Labs, explains that "The Tezos project already funds numerous academic research programmes at the highest level internationally. It made sense for us to form a strategic partnership with Inria, who are a global leader in their field and who developed numerous technologies we use today."
An opportunity knocks for French research
So far, four research initiatives have already been funded under this framework agreement as well as 10 researchers. These initiatives relate to various changes to OCaml and its compiler as well as the semantics of the F* verification system.
This partnership between Nomadic Labs and Inria is also an opportunity for research, since any topics that are relevant to the Tezos technology are also inherently of interest, very much topical, and will necessarily have applications other than blockchains. Didier Rémy, Inria's director of research.
With this agreement and the support of a world renowned research institute, Tezos has consolidated its position as a leader in the blockchain ecosystem. Once again French quality has been chosen by Tezos, Nomadic Labs having already opted to base their operations in Paris.
Tezos is an international project with a French accent. Arthur Breitman, co-founder of Tezos.
With the help of French scientific research, Tezos hopes to resolve many of the problems currently facing blockchain technologies and thus facilitate their deployment and adoption.