What is ARK?¶
ARK is a blockchain based Cryptocurrency that provides users with an ecosystem designed to support all of their use cases in order to catalyze consumer adoption of Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain technologies. ARK is a secure, decentralized, peer to peer platform designed for mass adoption and will deliver the services that consumers want and developers need. To this end, ARK is designed to be highly flexibile, adaptable, and scalable, boasting the first push button clone-able blockchains, providing developers and startups an instant springboard for their projects. Finally, ARK seeks to be a one-stop shop for many other blockchain innovations by implementing features including Smart Contracts, cross-chain interactions via SmartBridge, and IPFS file sharing.
ARK Virtual Machine¶
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Like Ethereum and other Cryptocurrencies that seek to allow flexible computations, ARK implements a virtual machine which allows developers to execute arbitrary code using the blockchain and compatible programming languages. Each node within the ARK blockchain will run the ARK VM, allowing them all to run the same computation, providing consensus to more than just financial transactions but rather any algorithm compatible with the VM.
SmartBridge¶
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ARK’s SmartBridge technology enables disparate blockchains to be connected and communicate between each other. This allows a more accessible ecosystem not just within the ARK domain, but across all cryptocurrencies that adopt the technology. Adoption is as simple as an update to any chain that accepts the proposed Vendor Fields. To enable these cross-chain actions, special nodes are needed, called Encoded Listeners, whose sole job is to comb through blockchain data looking for events it can perform. With this solution in place individuals would be able to trigger events on different blockchains while only holding ARK.
For example, if you wanted to trigger an ETH smart contract but hold ARK, you could just send the instructions through ARK SmartBridge, right in the wallet to trigger the event. The code embedded in the ETH chain is always listening for an ARK SmartBridge transaction and will collect this info and trigger the function to issue a contract. Given properly integrated chains, the possibilities are endless as to what you can do with ARK.
Roadmap¶
The ARK Roadmap is a high level overview of the direction and focus of the ARK team that presents ARK’s functional milestones and the progress that has been made towards those milestones. The roadmap helps developers and potential investors to understand where ARK’s functional implementation stands and where the ARK team’s vision is pushing development.