You are buying computing power in a huge free market. Some people bid high but waste resources; some have urgent needs but cannot get fair allocation. Such a market is not efficient 'freedom' but chaos and inefficiency. The DARA (double auction resource allocation mechanism) proposed by Lagrange aims to change this imbalance and provide a new order for zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) and on-chain computing power markets.
The core idea of DARA: market-based proof resource allocation
In traditional computing power allocation, resources are often monopolized by large players or dispatched by centralized platforms, leading to a lack of fair participation opportunities for small developers. The DARA proposed by Lagrange puts both supply and demand into the auction system built by Lagrange through the 'double auction' mechanism:
Demand side (task initiators): submit the prices they are willing to pay and task priorities in the Lagrange network.
Supply side (prover nodes): submit the prices they are willing to accept and their computing power capabilities to the Lagrange network.
Ultimately, the Lagrange system finds a market clearing price through two-way bidding, ensuring that nodes can obtain reasonable returns within the Lagrange ecosystem, while also ensuring that users are not forced to pay excessively high costs due to price monopolies outside the Lagrange network.
It's like AMM (automated market makers) in the DeFi world, but Lagrange's DARA is the 'AMM' of the computing power market; it does not match tokens but matches verifiable computing power within the Lagrange network.
Innovation: from a one-sided market to a two-sided auction
Traditional ZK infrastructure mostly adopts a one-sided pricing mechanism—prices set by provers, with users passively accepting them. However, this model is inefficient and prone to price monopolies, failing to meet the development needs of a decentralized ZK proof network. The innovation of the DARA mechanism introduced by Lagrange lies in:
Two-sided input, automatic clearing: the true preferences of both supply and demand are captured by the Lagrange system, significantly improving the efficiency of the Lagrange computing power market.
Dynamic adjustment: when computing power is scarce in the Lagrange network, prices rise, encouraging more nodes to join the Lagrange ecosystem; when computing power is in surplus, prices fall, ensuring that users' demands on Lagrange do not dissipate.
Maximization of resource utilization: avoiding the 'selfish eating' or resource idling issues of Lagrange nodes, keeping the entire Lagrange network operating in a state close to optimal.
This not only optimizes the single proof generation in the Lagrange network but more importantly, builds a self-regulating computing power ecology for Lagrange in the long run.
Professional perspective: Why is DARA crucial for Lagrange?
Lagrange's goal is to create a decentralized ZK proof network. In this network, proof tasks may come from diverse scenarios such as AI inference verification, cross-chain data synchronization, DeFi audit requests, etc. The complexity and sheer number of task types mean a single pricing mechanism cannot support the operation of the Lagrange ecosystem.
The introduction of the DARA mechanism ensures for Lagrange:
1. Fair access: In the Lagrange network, small and medium developers stand on the same starting line as large institutions.
2. Computing power incentives: Lagrange nodes flexibly adjust their order acceptance according to market conditions, avoiding withdrawal from the Lagrange network due to long-term low returns.
3. Sustainable scalability: As the scale of tasks within the Lagrange network grows, DARA can dynamically absorb more nodes to participate in the Lagrange ecosystem, avoiding computing power bottlenecks.
In other words, DARA is not an 'additional feature' of Lagrange, but a key pivot for whether the Lagrange network can truly become a foundational ZK infrastructure.
Creative perspective: DARA is the 'reconstruction of computing power order' in Web3.
If Ethereum is seen as a value transfer order, and Bitcoin as a currency scarcity order, then Lagrange, through DARA, is actually rebuilding a fair order of computing power in the Web3 domain.
DARA not only serves Lagrange itself but may also provide a standardized market model for the entire future ZK ecosystem (zkRollup, zkML, cross-chain proof, etc.), and the foundation of this model is the innovation of Lagrange's computing power allocation logic. In the future, as AI verification, on-chain audits, and cross-chain interoperability gradually become the norm in Web3, DARA may become the 'invisible hand' behind it, and the core support of this 'hand' is the computing power market system built by Lagrange, maintaining a dynamic balance between fairness and efficiency.
The DARA double auction mechanism of Lagrange is not just a tool for resource allocation, but an innovation at the level of market mechanisms. It addresses the dual challenges of 'efficiency' and 'fairness' in ZK proof networks, allowing the flow of resources within the Lagrange ecosystem to resemble the 'optimal market' in economics, rather than the common 'winner-takes-all' seen in the cryptocurrency field.
From this perspective, DARA is the key innovation point for Lagrange to truly realize its vision of Web3 infrastructure—it is not only a regulator of the Lagrange market but also a builder of a new generation of blockchain computing power order.
