æternity Roadmap Update

In order to present a fuller, more accurate picture of æternity’s past and future development, we have updated the æternity roadmap.

Dear community,

Much has happened over the last few months since æternity’s campaign. In that time, we attracted some great people to come and join the team, we embarked on a number of exciting partnerships and, of course, we have continued to make significant progress towards our Mainnet launch on a daily basis. Today, we’re pleased to share the updated æternity roadmap with all of you.

Have a look at the new version below.

As the project draws closer to the launch of the Mainnet we have been receiving many questions about the specific launch date.

As blockchain development is still in an explorative state, every decision we make is a pioneering one.

Therefore it is not always easy to provide a simple answer to this question. In order to give you some insight into our decision-making processes, we decided to dedicate this blog post to the updated roadmap of æternity, including more in depth details of our past decisions, current state, upcoming Mainnet launch and future plans.

Core Development & æpps

The development of æternity started in Q2 of 2017 and was ramped up in the following months with the addition of world-class developers and blockchain experts resulting in the release of several versions of æternity’s Testnet. As true believers in decentralization, transparency and openness, our project is completely open source and traceable. We hope you have been following us closely.

In Q3 2017 we partnered with Ape Unit, Berlin, in order to provide our blockchain with the essential decentralized apps, which we call æpps. Bearing in mind the fact that most people are not familiar with blockchain technology, the æpps team has been working to provide tools for developers to enable them to adopt blockchain technology and has placed a major focus on the design of the æpps’ UX and UI, in order to encourage people to integrate blockchain applications into their daily lives. The æpps are therefore developed with a focal point on mobile friendliness and intuitiveness.

Bitcoin-NG

Exploring new technologies also means we sometimes have to adapt our course when new opportunities arise. Bitcoin-NG presented us with the opportunity to improve the speed of confirmation time in such a significant way that in Q1 2018, we decided to integrate it in our core architecture. The integration of the Bitcoin-NG protocol is a major advantage that increases on-chain scalability without negatively affecting decentralization — which is the case in many other blockchains — although it meant a re-sketching our roadmap and expected launch date.

Starfleet

æternity’s incubator for blockchain projects, Starfleet, launched in May 2018 with the goal to support the development of a vibrant decentralized æpps ecosystem on æternity. In addition, Starfleet aims to address issues related to education, regulation, collaboration, acceleration and mainstream adoption to support the development of the nascent blockchain industry on a global level.

A mainstream blockchain revolution hinges on a constantly expanding global community of developers and blockchain enthusiasts. In order to allow the blockchain space to evolve and grow, it must be presented as more than just a buzzword, with real-life use cases being showcased that people can relate to. We believe the incubator and accelerator programs will enable the next-generation of blockchain projects to reach mainstream adoption. [Nikola Stojanow, æternity’s CBDO and CEO of æternity Ventures]

In June, the first demo day was organized, which saw blockchain projects from around the world pitch their ideas to æternity Ventures and partners. Ten teams were selected, receiving four weeks of mentoring and working together with the æternity Ventures team. This resulted in a second demo day, in which nine teams managed to secure funding, with the total amount distributed coming in at $1.3 Million. With ongoing support from the Venture’s team, the teams will continue working over the upcoming months on the pioneering work of building commercially viable decentralized applications on æternity.

Security Audit

At æternity we test our code on an ongoing basis. For this we make use of the QuickCheck testing tool that generates thousands of tests to make sure the code works as intended. However, in addition to making sure that the code works, we want to find out whether our system has vulnerabilities or is exposed to risks.

In order to ensure maximum security, in Q3 2018 we started a Security Audit. To ensure a thorough audit, we became the first in the industry to develop a detailed threat model of a blockchain, where possible threats are listed. The threat model is completely open source in order to permit anyone and everyone to add possible risks and to establish a valuable auditing model for the blockchain community. The threat model functions as a guide for the Security Audit to help developers and security experts work to mitigate the risks highlighted within it.

Mainnet Launch

As an open source project and promoters of transparency, we want you to be aware of our current progress. Developing and implementing a new technology requires this level of openness, and we are always very happy for our community to contribute. As you have been reading in this blog post, our main focus is the development of a solid, fast and secure blockchain platform.

æternity currently has one of the strongest developer teams in the industry and is developing an unique set of technological features which will allow it to become the preferred platform for serious blockchain applications.

The expected date of the Mainnet launch is always an estimation based on our rate of development and encountered challenges. Our focus is on launching with the best product possible, which means we will release after completing development, testing and undergoing a stringent security audit. Through this blog post we hope to give you an insight into our past and future work and help you to understand exactly where we are on our roadmap. We have already started our Security Audit and you can follow our remaining stages of development on the Pivotal Tracker tool. This is the best live tracker for viewing the progress of our developer team and to get an indication of when to expect our upcoming Mainnet launch.

The Future

The Mainnet launch will be the beginning of æternity’s mission to develop an ecosystem that facilitates worldwide blockchain adoption.

æternity believes the future is decentralized, supported by private and secure technology.

We will hold an airdrop which will be distributed to ETH and BTC addresses. Exact details of the airdrop will be announced in time and are subject to regulatory developments.

After the Mainnet launch, we will encourage developers to build æpps themselves. We will therefore organize an æternity developer conference with a focus on the development of powerful æpps for the ecosystem. But first, we will focus all our energy on preparing a successful Mainnet launch.

We hope you stay tuned and are as excited about it as we are!