Hello everyone!

We would like to present you with a short update on how æternity is handling the current situation.

All æternity teams are currently primarily focused on making æternity more accessible for users, developers and miners.

The dev team is involved in improving the mining experience for all miners. They have been monitoring the network extensively and have been discussing approaches to improve latency and block propagation. In addition, part of the team is heavily focused on enabling mining on Windows and helping pools get on board faster. So far the network has been growing steadily and is considered healthy.

Part of æternity team is heavily focused on creating content that showcases the abilities of the network. More specifically - the power of state channels. There is no blockchain project out there that has implemented this off-chain scaling solution more successfully and “natively” than æternity. State channels are integrated in the core protocol and are working - now. They support not only transactions, but private Sophia smart contracts, available only to peers. Several successful tests have been performed already and the results are impressive. We will share them with the community very soon. Moreover, æternity is the only blockchain to have implemented an on-chain scaling solution that remains true to the battle-tested Nakamoto Consensus and yet improves transaction rate significantly. BitcoinNG is also currently being observed and tested and its performance is so far excellent - much higher transaction rate than other Proof-of-Work chains. We will share the results as soon as the tests are finalized.

Another part of the AE team is working on making the technology more accessible for developers. They preparing tutorials and improving documentation. Examples of porting Solidity contracts to Sophia are being prepared and have the goal to make Sophia more accessible to app developers. You will see the results of these efforts in the coming days.

The æpps team is focused on improving the blockchain explorer and porting of the SDKs to the Roma network. This will enable more developers to start communicating with the network more easily and develop æpps. The team is also heavily focused on enabling the Base æpp, working with Ledger for AE integration and supporting AirGap in enabling AE transactions in their wallet. An æternity “dashboard” bounty will be announced in the coming days. The dashboard will provide a tool to monitor different stats exhibited by the æternity network and will build on the work of community members. All these efforts are directed at users - making it easier to use æternity.

The communications team is all around in the channels, supporting users by answering questions and forwarding users to “the right answers”. We are also the bridge between all æternity teams and the community and are pacing back a forth to provide feedback to the team and support them in their work. The dev team will be launching a weekly update call with us that will be opened to the community. Anyone interested in updates coming from the dev team (and possibly the æpps team) is welcome to join the calls. These will be announced soon.

æternity Ventures are working on a piece showcasing the progress the Starfleet teams have achieved. It will be shared soon. Some of the projects have already started the process of integrating æternity in their products.

We are committed more than ever to the vision of æternity. There are a number of veterans in the æternity team that have lived through several such “cleansings” of the industry. Despite looking grim, these periods present opportunities for all technology-focused teams to improve their standing in the medium and long term. They address all weaknesses caused by overconfidence. We have always been humble - working hard behind the scenes and building a world-class team of experts in all relevant fields. æternity is very well-equipped to face the headwinds and emerge stronger than ever.

Unlike many other projects in the blockchain space, there will be no finance-related layoffs at æternity. Anyone bringing value to the project will have the opportunity to continue to work on making æternity one of the best blockchain infrastructures for next-generation decentralized applications.

Now is the right time for the community spirit to manifest itself.

The value of your support is at all time highs.

We are all æternity.

The very best,

The æternity team

07.12.2018