About

Saga is a protocol designed to allow developers to launch application-specific blockchains called Chainlets via Realms, each of which is made up of (i) a security source (the chain from which security is derived), (ii) obligations (the rules by which validators operate), and (iii) technology (including the virtual machine and consensus algorithm used). The Saga Chainlet Realm is Saga’s first Realm, as well as its intended main realm, though Realms for partner protocols such as Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and Celesita are also intended. The three core components of the Saga Chainlet Realm are described in further detail below:

• Saga Security Chain: The Saga Security Chain (SSC) is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) Layer-1 network built using the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT consensus mechanism that is intended to initially secure the Saga Chainlet Realm (SSC, platform chain and deployed Chainlets). Of note, additional sources of security (e.g. Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, etc.) are also intended to be inherited by the platform chain and Chainlets thereafter.

• Platform Chain: The platform chain is where developers can launch and maintain a Chainlet. The platform chain is a Layer-1 network built using the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT consensus mechanism. The project’s documentation states that the platform chain is intended to aggregate security from multiple security chains, including the SSC. Specifically, the platform chain is intended to relay messages from security chains to deployed chainlets and vice versa via a modified version of Cosmos’ Cross-Chain Validation (CCV), with validator misbehavior relayed by Chainlets resulting in slashing of validator stake on the underlying security chain.

• Chainlet: A Chainlet is a sovereign blockchain with a virtual machine (VM) module running a single smart contract. Chainlets are intended to initially inherit security from the SSC via the platform chain, with additional sources of security to be made available thereafter. Additionally, Saga supports horizontal scaling so that developers can split workloads across multiple chainlets. Every Saga protocol validator responsible for security must validate every Chainlet according to its Service Level Agreement (SLA) with a given Chainlet. The project’s documentation states an auditor is responsible for alerting the validator set when a particular validator fails to meet service obligations. This validator can then be slashed as a means of punishment. The Saga team is also developing a suite of validator orchestration tools to help Saga validators automatically manage all Chainlets. These tools include automated server environments for each Chainlet, automatic scheduling binary execution, and monitoring tools to ensure sufficient compute resources are available for Chainlets.

History

Saga was founded in late 2021 by Rebecca Liao, Jin Kwon, Jacob McDorman, and Bogdan Alexandrescu to build “ a protocol for automated deployment of application-specific blockchains in gaming, entertainment, and DeFi.”

Notable milestones in the project’s history include:

• March 2022 - Saga exits stealth mode.
• May 2022- The Saga Innovator program for developers building on Saga is introduced.
• January 2023 - The project team announces a partnership with Celestia to offer sequencers-as-a-service to scale rollups via the Saga protocol.
• February 2023 - The project team announces a partnership with Polygon to automate the instantiation of Supernets, Polygon’s appchain solution, via the Saga protocol.
• April 2023 - The project team announces a partnership with AVA Labs to automate the instantiation of Subnets via the Saga protocol.
• October 2023 - Saga’s Pegasus Incentivized Testnet launches.
• March 2024 - Saga Origins, a game publishing division designed to partner with outside game developers to publish games that use the Saga protocol, is introduced.
• April 2024 - Saga mainnet Phase 1 is announced and launched on April 9, 2024.

As of May 2024, the Saga protocol is in Phase 1 of a six-phase roadmap regarding the development of the Saga Chainlet Realm whereby (i) the platform chain and Chainlets launched from the platform chain are secured by four “foundation validators” rather than Saga Security Chain (SSC) validators. (ii) Deploying a Chainlet is permissioned and can only be done by parties onboarded to the Saga Innovator program by paying in pSAGA, an entirely separate token from SAGA, the subject of this report. (iii) Only Chainlets built with the Cosmos SDK using (a) the CometBFT consensus mechanism and (b) an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) module can be deployed. Of note, some of the above information was only discussed in the project's Discord and not in its official documentation. To view Saga Discord message links, one must have already joined the Discord channel. For a full overview of the project’s six-phase progressive launch, see the “current and future project decentralization,” section of this report.