The collective Ravencoin community had highly anticipated the evening of October 31st, when the network’s asset layer was scheduled to activate. After several days of unforeseen tension, the community banded together— disregarding their own monetary profit— to ensure the asset layer’s launch.

The Ravencoin Asset Layer is a Go

After a stressful few days for the Raven community, the Ravencoin Asset Layer is officially live. On November 5th 2018, at 10:18am EST, the first Ravencoin asset was recorded on the blockchain.

Ravencoin is a fork of Bitcoin, with the main difference entailing the capability of an asset layer. This added function takes counterparty-like features and builds them into its main code. The primary purpose is to allow for the feasible and efficient issuance of tokens.

Very similar to Bitcoin is Ravencoin’s decentralized and open source nature. As its whitepaper states, the project is “a peer to peer electronic system for the creation and transfer of assets… Ravencoin is a use-case focused blockchain designed to carry statements of truth about who owns what assets.”

The Tense Moments Leading up to the Launch of Ravencoin’s Asset Layer

The truly decentralized aspect of the network resulted in a few nerve-racking moments.

Raven’s testnet had been available to the community for several months to test the creation of assets on the Ravencoin network. The mainnet was expected to go live at midnight on October 31st— the one-year anniversary of Ravencoin. However, things didn’t exactly go according to plan.

As part of the decentralized nature of the project, a mandatory step for the launch of mainnet required 90% of the network upgrading to the newest wallet, which became available at midnight on the 31st.

However, a select mining pool— which maintained just over 10% of the network’s mining power— failed to upgrade to the latest wallet. The result was the prevention of the entire Ravencoin network launching its asset layer.

Well, needless to say, the Ravencoin community refused to accept such a situation. They essentially increased the cost to mine ravencoin by dedicating heightened power and resources to the network, resulting in unprofitable mining. It came to the point where ravencoin could have been purchased on an exchange at a lower price than the cost to mine it.

On November 3rd, the strategy worked. Tron Black, co-author of Raven’s whitepaper, shared the news via twitter:

“Remember, remember the fifth of November. Assets likely to activate Monday morning.”

Bruce Fenton tweeted similar remarks:

“It’s on. Ravencoin asset layer. The 5th of November.”

Fenton also captured his thoughts on the events leading up to the asset layer launch:

“Well this week was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in crypto. This coming week is going to be even better.”

According to Fenton, one of the primary designs behind Ravencoin entails security tokens. With the security token industry taking off— to include the tokenization of luxury property, real estate funds, space, and potentially professional sports team ownership— it’s no wonder the Ravencoin community worked so hard to see their asset layer launch.

What do you think of the launch of Ravencoin’s asset layer? Will the project successfully allow for the tokenization of assets? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Image courtesy of Warrior Trading News.