Service Integration with Imua

There are two primary approaches for services to integrate with the Imua network: smart contract based integration and module-based integration.

Integration through smart contracts is fully permissionless. Any service developer can integrate with Imua by sending transactions to define their operator election, slashing, and reward logic. However, the downside of smart contract integration is that all future interactions between service and Imua must go through the smart contract.

Alternatively, services can opt for module-based integration where they create a custom module to be integrated into the Imua protocol binary. This method requires the open governance of the Imua community, who will make a decision on whether to integrate an service based on its resource utilization, security, and other risk factors. Once approved, the service develops its module, undergoes testing in testnet, and then is incorporated into Imua via a network upgrade.

A client-side module will be provided to service builders for easy integration into their software. This client-side module serves the following purposes:

1. Acts as a gateway bridge that reads state updates from Imua's accounting system, such as the election of operators and updates to their voting power.

2. Assists the service network informing the service committee by reading and assigning voting power to each of the service operators and establishing the physical network connection between them.

3. Facilitates the service committee’s attestation of task completion, the signing of the aggregate signature on reward or slash claims, and the submission of these claims to the Imua network.