In the Crusher of the Month series, we will write about a coin/token that we have the most conviction in each month. The time frame will be around 1 month, or until we publish the next Crusher of the Month. In January 2018, our Crusher of the Month is aelf, ticker ELF.



ELF is a blockchain project that aims to create a "Linux eco-system" for blockchain. It has a circulating market cap of $550 million and is ranked as the #73 most valuable cryptocurrency.

What does aelf do?

Based in Singapore, aelf is a crosschain blockchain protocol that intends to become the new internet infrastructure to support the next generation of digital businesses.



The team and its advisors have been advising numerous blockchain projects in the past and they see a few industries who could be the early adopters of aelf: financial services, insurance, digital identity and IPs, smart city, and internet of things.



Aelf will actively identify new business opportunities and dApps to be part of the aelf ecosystem. Below are some of the things that they are planning to do:

Interoperate with existing dApps on existing chains

Nurture new start-ups ideas

Educate and transform established companies to be blockchain savvy

As a “third generation” blockchain, aelf strives to provide a breakthrough in 3 areas: performance, resource segregation, and governance structure. We will explore these features in more detail below.

Enjoy what you are reading? Sign up for our newsletter so you won't miss any opportunities! SIGN ME UP! lorem ipsum dolor

Why do we like it?

Hidden gem that is under the radar

Not many people know about aelf because the project did not have a public ICO. It raised 55,000 ether through a private placement with leading VCs such as FBG Capital, Draper Dragon, Blocktower, AlphaBit, and others.



Because aelf did not have a marketing campaign like most ICOs, many investors have not heard of the project or know what the project does.



With so many institutional investors on board, we can have assurance that the team is qualified to carry out the project.

Rich feature of the blockchain

While it is still too early to tell whether aelf will be successful, it strives to include many features that are highly desirable for the next generation of blockchains. It will contain the below main features:

Introduces the concept of main chain and multi-layer side chains to handle various commercial scenarios. One chain is designed for one use case, distributing different tasks on multiple chains and improve processing efficiency. For example, ticket issuance is of high frequency and a high volume of transactions per second in the system is desirable; digital legal contracts, on the other hand, require high security and reliability. Enables aelf to communicate with external blockchain systems via messaging, e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum. They interact with each other via the main chain in the form of Merkle tree and verification through external information input. The main chain contains the index of the system boundaries. Therefore, aelf does not seek to replace existing blockchains but rather aims to complement them. Permits parallel processing for non-competing transactions and cloud-based services. During the process of Block formation, nodes assign transactions to different groups based on mutex of the transactions. Transactions within a group will be processed in sequence, while all groups will be processed simultaneously. Enables scalable performance as computational power increases. The aelf kernel enables each node to operate on a cluster of computers. This means when more computational power joins the aelf ecosystem, it not only enhances system security but also grows transaction speed proportionally. Permits stakeholders to approve amendments to the protocol, including redefining the consensus protocol; permits side chains to join or exit from main chain dynamically based on consensus protocol, therefore introducing competition and incentive to improve each side chain.

The mainnet is scheduled to launch in May 2018, so we believe the token provides good value right now before the launch of mainnet.

Video Summary

More Information

Website: http://aelf.io/ Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/aelf_blockchain/ GitHub: https://github.com/aelfProject Telegram: https://t.me/aelfblockchain A good writeup on aelf: https://steemit.com/ethereum/@oxfordcrypto/a-complete-guide-to-aelf-formerly-grid-the-polkadot-of-china-partnered-up-with-fbg-draper-dragon-gbic-decentraland A PDF presentation on the project: https://grid.hoopox.com/aelf_presentation_EN.pdf