ICDevs.org has unveiled AstroFlora, a project that expands on its earlier work with DAOs on the Internet Computer (IC). The aim is to create modular tools that enhance governance, executive actions, and community engagement within decentralised autonomous organisations. While current IC token launch options, particularly the Service Nervous System (SNS), prioritise stability, AstroFlora introduces a framework for adaptable, experimental enhancements that DAOs can implement as needed.
Before exploring AstroFlora’s potential, foundational standards had to be established. This led to a significant release of ICRC drafts, shaping a system that brings transparency, auditability, and traceability to wasms on the IC. The existing landscape allows for arbitrary wasm uploads without structured oversight, but these drafts propose a structured approach that ensures accountability. Although SNS upgrade pathways have made strides in this direction, ICDevs.org saw an opportunity to create a broader standard that could benefit the entire ecosystem.
The new framework consists of eight ICRC standards, each serving a specific role in wasm management:
- ICRC-105 defines installation and configuration history blocks, establishing a verifiable log of changes to canisters. This ensures that anyone can track past modifications and deployments.
- ICRC-118 introduces a wasm registry for version control, akin to npm for canisters. It provides a searchable history of versions, offering developers and organisations greater oversight of software evolution.
- ICRC-119 standardises event logging in the wasm registry, recording actions such as canister type registration, chunked uploads, and controller adjustments. This extends ICRC-3’s auditability features.
- ICRC-120 outlines orchestration protocols for upgrades and lifecycle management, essentially functioning as a decentralised, canister-based alternative to dfx.
- ICRC-121 ensures immutable logging of orchestration events, documenting every change made during upgrades, snapshots, and replica-level configuration modifications.
- ICRC-126 focuses on wasm verification, providing a system for attestation, divergence reporting, and finalisation. This is critical for establishing trust in compiled wasm binaries.
- ICRC-127 introduces a bounty system to incentivise verification efforts. This includes recovering outdated wasms removed from registries, though its flexible design allows for a variety of bounty-based challenges.
- ICRC-133 extends input capture and state change logging, ensuring that every user interaction and resulting modification is recorded for auditability, much like how Ethereum’s EVM logs interactions.
These drafts represent a move toward responsible deployment practices, reinforcing accountability across the IC ecosystem. Once implemented, they will allow developers to create canister-based applications with full versioning, lifecycle management, and transparency baked in. The ability to roll back upgrades, verify builds from source, and track installations brings a level of oversight that has been lacking.
Feedback and collaboration are essential for refining these drafts into finalised standards. ICDevs.org is opening discussions on its forums and will use the Event Utility Working Group’s slot on alternating weeks for community engagement. The first meeting is scheduled for March 19th at noon Central (US) Daylight Time. Meanwhile, reference implementations will be developed to ensure practical feasibility and completeness.
The initiative has been made possible with support from the DFINITY Foundation, which provided a developer’s grant to subsidise the work. As these standards take shape, the broader IC community will have the opportunity to adopt and refine them, fostering a more robust and accountable decentralised infrastructure.
