The Aeternity Foundation (ACF) supports the æternity protocol and ecosystem.

The ACF is giving funding grants for applications on the promotion of the success and growth of the æternity blockchain ecosystem as well as the ae blockchain maintenance. Weekly detailed reports on the progress of the developers can be found in the Active Grant Applications under the forum’s ACF Grant Category.

Our goal remains the same: to make the aenode faster, better and lighter and the ae ecosystem more attractive for the users. The hyperchain network using the aenodes has been designed to attract the Aeternity enterprise customers and their users. On top of the faster æternity network and hyperchain network the decentralized applications (dapps) can be run with higher performance and in a private context. Therefore, the whole æternity ecosystem will perform with higher availability, scalability, security, and performance.

Q3 2022 Recap

Short review of the tasks from the Q3 2022 Roadmap.

HyperChains Alpha test network is running with a new user-friendly interface. The UI was revisited from the ground up. The underlying smart contract were refactored as well. The new UI provides many new features/options. Now it is possible to spawn an customized hyperchain (HC) with a set of configurable variables (like thresholds). Since the goal is to empower everyone to configure and spin its own network, this is a great step forward. With regard to usability and adoption a new tool was developed for the setup of a new hyperchain. This HC tool guides the users through the process. With regard to the parent chain integration a lot of work was done as well: the election was extracted into a separate contract so the same DPoS contract can be used with different election contracts. Currently the test HC has a simple PoS election contract and a HC one. The HC consensus was extended to consume parent chain blocks and use their hashes as a source of entropy for the election of the child chain’s leaders. Parent chain blocks are a function of consensus amongst a few parent chain nodes and those blocks are neatly cached in the node for faster syncing. Since the hyperchains github branch was merged to the main aeternity branch there will be in the future only one release for the main net and the HC. It is just a configuration of how to use the release.

RocksDB refactoring

The refactoring of the RocksDB was completed. Now nodes will have better consistency of results. As a side effect — the syncing is speeded up a few times. Unfortunately, a potential memory leak was discovered after the last release process. The primary suspects were some C++ components. These components were replaced with new C codes. However, this was not the cause of the problem. The investigations on the leak issue are ongoing. Please note that it is not a trivial task to expose and reproduce this issue for any node (for example some testnet nodes run for a month now without a substantial increase in memory).

Rosetta API

The Rosetta API has two sections: read state and produce transactions. The first part is finished and the related test running on mainnet was successful. The second section of the API (produce transactions) will be developed in Q4 2022.

State Channel Demos

With the Aeternity Universe 2 closing in, two separate teams prepared different showcases for State Channels:

• SC Marketplace
  The leading developer Ulf Wiger produced a demo of a State Channel market where anyone can list an item and sell it for AE coins on the market. All parties first open their state channels with the marketplace and then they can exchange coins and goods instantly and have a chat.
• SC Game
  This showcase was a game with a server.

Both of those SC showcases exposed some points of necessary improvements in the state channel implementation. Some of these improvements were done in Q3 2022.

Q4 2022 Roadmap

Ongoing tasks

All tools (AeCanary , GUI Launcher, HC UI, etc.) and State Channels will be continuously improved and supported with bugfixes and small features. Rosetta API is in the second stage of implementation and hopefully be finished soon.

HyperChains

The goal is to have the initial full HC implementation and to publish the HC whitepaper in Q4 2022. Work on optimization with regard to commitments on the parent chain will follow in 2023.

The following tasks are planned to be completed:

• implement for a parent chain connector the post and the consume commitments
• compute difficulty of different forks
• add more features in the contract
• improve the UI
• improve setting up new HCs
• report about the HC progress in the forum

All subsequent tasks are documented, see hcproject 3. All regular reports on the hyperchains progress can be found in the ae forum, see HyperChains 0.2 1 and HyperChains Alpha 1.

CERES Hard Fork

A work on issues/features need to be done in order to prepare for the next hard fork/protocol upgrade. Some issues/features tasks are the following:

• Fix delegated signatures for non-existing accounts
• Make it possible to call contracts by name (top level in ContractCallTx a name can be given and contract_pubkey will be resolved in the transaction)
• Add raw pointers to AENS
• If there is consensus update the AENS auction parameters
• investigation on dynamical fork protection (security R&D)

GC Old States

The next step is to support starting synch to the live state of a given height and then continue from there. This could dramatically shorten the time it takes to bring up a usable node.

The updates on the aeroadmap and the aerelease schedule will follow dynamically in this topic. The previous roadmap can be found on the AETERNITY ROADMAP Q3 2022 .

You are welcome to contact us under the Email: hello@aeternity-foundation.org 📥

Release 6.6.1

Release Date: October 2022
Type: Maintenance / HC

Release 6.6.2

Release Date: December 2022
Type: Maintenance / HC

🔔 Ask Me Anything with the Core team

The Foundation welcomes open, honest communication and real-time connection with open-source technology contributors — thus, on October 14th (Friday), the æternity blockchain core development team hosted the Ask Me Anything (AMA) session in order to present the Roadmap for this quartal, but also answer all potential questions & discuss ideas.

Stay in tune with all updates: @aeternityCF & Forum

The æternity Foundation is a non-profit organization established in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Foundation brings together all the necessary resources and infrastructure to ensure a stable æternity environment and thriving ecosystem around open-source blockchain technology.

Q4 2022 Roadmap was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Aeternity Foundation (AF) supports the æternity protocol and ecosystem.

The AF is giving funding grants for applications on the promotion of the success and growth of the æternity blockchain ecosystem as well as the ae blockchain maintenance. Weekly detailed reports on the progress of the developers can be found in the Active Grant Applications under the forum’s AF Grant Category.

Our goal remains the same: to make the aenode faster, better and lighter and the ae ecosystem more attractive for the users. The hyperchain network using the aenodes has been designed to attract the Aeternity enterprise customers and their users. On top of the faster æternity network and hyperchain network the decentralized applications (dapps) can be run with higher performance and in a private context. Therefore, the whole æternity ecosystem will perform with higher availability, scalability, security and performance.

Q1 2022 Recap

Short review of the tasks from Roadmap Q1 2022:

HyperChains Alpha test network is now up and running. It made significant progress with the support of contract-based consensus. Regular reports on the progress can be found in the forum, see Hyperchains Alpha. The native GUI Launcher release was published, see the aegui. The technical part of MultiSig is done and can be accessed via multiple GitHub repositories: musig_cli, eaex3, ebip39, eaex10 1, emusig.

The State Channels allow now forwarding requests of generic messages.
Improvements to node sync have been delivered. AeCanary received minor refactoring. The refactoring of the RocksDB plugin itself is nearly finished. It was a huge effort to refactor significant portions of the code and also to fix some C++ bugs in the plugin itself.

Q2 2022 Roadmap

The node will be continuously improving and the focus will be kept on the HyperChains research, design, and development.

Ongoing Important Tasks

• AeCanary and all basic features/tools as dev mode, node modes, etc. in general will be continuously supported and improved. The tainted account feature will be released for aeCanary.
• GUI Launcher: The first release with the live native node compilation is available. New features will be added to make the tool even more attractive for the developers.
• MultiSig: The source code and documentation improvements are ongoing.
• Rosetta API: The implementation is ongoing and good progress was made. The plan is to finish the remaining tasks in Q2.

HyperChains

The research on HyperChains Voting, Leadership, Difficulty, Connectors and Cost optimisation is ongoing. The development will progress in phases and will be tested heavily both in private and public testnets. In addition, it will require updating some of the tools and creating new ones in the ecosystem. The improvements to the Demo GUI will follow up continuously. Regular reports on the progress will be published.

Beam Sync

The initial work on a sync option was started with the aim to deliver a secure working new node within a few hours rather than days by first syncing key blocks and then fetching state on the fly.

RocksDB Refactoring

The remaining work is mainly about refactoring the core code to take full advantage of the new possibilities. Once the RocksDD refactoring is merged, chain garbage-collection can be redesigned and extended, in order to significantly reduce the on-disk footprint of garbage-collected nodes.

Advanced State Channels

Develop the concept of State Channel markets, and perhaps other advanced State Channels use cases. This may involve improving the client-side experience.

Find all details & join the conversation with the core team 👇

AETERNITY ROADMAP and RELEASE SCHEDULE Q2 2022

The updates on the aeroadmap and the aerelease schedule will follow dynamically in this topic. The previous roadmap can be found on the AETERNITY ROADMAP Q1 2022. You are welcome to contact us: hello@aeternity-foundation.org

Release 6.5.0

Release Date: June 2022
Type: Maintenance

Release hc_0.2.0

Release Date: June 2022
Type: HyperChains Test Release

🔔 Ask Me Anything with the Core team

The Foundation welcomes open, honest communication and real-time connection with open-source technology contributors — thus, on May 19th (Thursday), the æternity blockchain core development team with host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session in order to present the Roadmap for this quartal, but also answer all potential questions & discuss ideas.

🗓 May 19th, 2022

⏰ 05:00 PM CET

🎥 æternity YouTube Channel

Stay in tune with all updates: @aeternityF & Forum

The aeternity Foundation is a non-profit organization established in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Foundation brings together all the necessary resources and infrastructure to ensure a stable æternity environment and thriving ecosystem around open-source blockchain technology.

Q2 2022 Roadmap was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A former senior business analyst for Sony Electronics, Josh Enomoto has helped broker major contracts with Fortune Global 500 companies.

Over the past several years, he has delivered unique, critical insights for the investment markets, as well as various other industries including legal, construction management, and healthcare. In his latest article for Nasdaq ‘’10 Promising Cryptos With Potential to 10X in 2022'’ — Josh includes AE on the list and highlights why ‘’Aeternity has been on fire recently’’:

I’m going to discuss some virtual currencies that don’t get much media coverage in the hopes that their price trends are independent enough that they could deliver outsized gains.

Certainly, there’s interest in the crypto community for what the Aeternity project offers. Essentially, the platform helps eliminate inefficiencies in crypto markets by “increasing scalability of smart contracts and dApps [decentralized applications], sharding, and off-chain contract execution.”

Read the whole article 👇

10 Promising Cryptos With Potential to 10X in 2022

Stay in tune with all updates: @aeternityCF & Forum

The æternity Foundation is a non-profit organization established in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Foundation brings together all the necessary resources and infrastructure to ensure a stable æternity environment and thriving ecosystem around open-source blockchain technology.

Nasdaq |10 Promising Cryptos With Potential to 10X in 2022 was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The Aeternity Foundation (AF) supports the æternity protocol and ecosystem. Our goal remains the same: to make the aenode faster, better, and lighter and the ae ecosystem more attractive for the users. The hyperchains network using the aenodes has been designed to attract the Aeternity enterprise customers and their users. On top of the faster æternity network and hyperchains network, the decentralized applications (dapps) can be run with higher performance and in a private context. Therefore, the whole æternity ecosystem will perform with higher availability, scalability, security and performance.

Thus, during Q4 2021, Foundation kept supporting the community-driven innovations with funding grants.

Weekly detailed reports on the progress of the developers can be found in the Active Grant Applications under the forum’s AF Grant Category and the summary in a form of the Q3-Q4 2021 Report can be found here.

AeCanary received a refactoring and some new services have been added.

Devmode was polished with some bug fixing. It proved to be sufficiently useful for the development and the testing. The node operator interface was implemented. Both a CLI and a complementary group of HTTP endpoints can be used presently by the developers. The node GUI launcher is almost done and is to be released publicly soon. There have been quite a few challenges in order to get the graphics right. The node already compiles under M1 CPU. The M1 architecture docker image will be delivered soon. The æternity code now supports OTP24. Some DB refactoring was done by forking and fixing the dependent external library by the core team. Some good progress has been made on the Rosetta API but most of the work is yet to be finished. The current GC Names process needs refactoring. It is working for accounts cleanup. However, by adding names and contracts to it, it can be overloaded. This process depends on the DB refactoring.

Ceres improvements were done:
• bitwise operations (OR, AND, XOR, NOT)
• ZK/SNARK friendly hash function(s) — Poseidon hash (+ possibly more?)
• a dedicated MULMOD instruction

Additionally, some work on multisig, a pygments lexer and an improvement of the production on microblocks was done. It was introduced a new test suite implementing a prototype State Channel Market structure (using hash-locked cross-channel transfers).

Please note that some of the previous tasks were needed for the continuous work on hyperchains — and preparation of the Hyperchains Alpha release.

Q1 2022 Roadmap

The node will be continuously improving and the focus will be put on further HyperChains research, design and development.

Ongoing Important Tasks

AeCanary and all basic features/tools as dev mode, node modes, etc. in general will be continuously supported and improved. Support for Hyperchains needs to be provided in AeCanary. Rosetta API Implementation is ongoing. A native node GUI launcher to compile the node and provide some means of inspection of the live system will be released soon. The RocksDB refactoring is needed for stricter control over transactions. The GC Names process improvement relies on this refactoring.

HyperChains

Hyperchains Alpha will provide a staking smart contract. A user-friendly GUI will make staking just an easy task. It will give users control on assets and rewards behavior. The research and design on Hyperchains will continue.

Advanced State Channels

A showcase on a state channel market is to be made.

Sync Improvements

The sync is suboptimal and needs to be speed up. An RnD project on beam sync will be started.

MultiSig

Aeternity mainnet already supports multisigs but the process requires a good knowledge about cryptography and Erlang. This process needs to be simplified and to be made easily accessible.

The updates on the aeroadmap & the aerelease schedule will follow dynamically in this topic.

⏮ The previous roadmap can be found on the AETERNITY ROADMAP Q4 2021.

For any questions — You are welcome to contact us under the email: hello@aeternity-foundation.org

Release 6.4.0

Release Date: January 2022
Type: Maintenance, see post 5, release info 5.

Release 6.5.0

Release Date: February 2022
Type: Maintenance, see HyperchainsAlpha

🔔 Ask Me Anything with the Core team

The Foundation welcomes open, honest communication and real-time connection with open-source technology contributors — thus, on February 24th (Thursday), æternity blockchain core development team with host an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session in order to present the Roadmap for this quartal, but also answer all potential questions & discuss ideas.

Live AMA

🗓 February 24th, 2022

⏰ 05:00 PM CET

🎥 æternity YouTube Channel

Stay in tune with all updates: @aeternityF & Forum

The aeternity Foundation is a non-profit organization established in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Foundation brings together all the necessary resources and infrastructure to ensure a stable æternity environment and thriving ecosystem around open-source blockchain technology.

Q1 2022 Roadmap was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Thanks for the following contributions to the growth of the open-source platform:

1. AeonNet

AeonNet is a Trading Time Value Tokenization Platform deployed on Aeternity Application Architecture with Smart Contracts written on Sophia, a functional programming language. It is designed as a decentralized application different non-fungible assets can be tokenized and traded at their long-term and short-term value. Time Trade Tokens are built with NFT standards. All-time locks are aggregated using ECDSA based elliptic curve cryptographic security with a Hash Time Locked Contract (HTLC) for verification purposes.

Currently, the team is focused on Contract Optimisation — deployment of æternity Contracts on TestNet, and UX Development.

Aiming to have fully developed UI and backend integration in February, the team has created more screens, available here. Additionally, the team has forked the repository to a new organization to include the team members working on UX and UI.

The Aeon team will demo the UX Development progress in February, and we are looking forward to the meeting.

2. Superhero NFT Card set for trading & collecting

This application was initiated by the long-term æcommunity contributors, Techtek and Genievot, and it focuses on tradable NFT cards on the æternity blockchain. The main goal of the grant application is to supplement and visualize the whole ecosystem inside collectible cards, to stimulate AE users’ interactions in the form of NFT trading and collecting.

During the Q1 2022 team expects to have finished: Superhero trading cards and (free) Boosterpack and chest minting on the testnet; Superhero Trading cards first series of 30 cards designs with card names and text, as well as developed and designed strategies for collecting, trading and rewards.

The latest added Superhero Trading Cards are: MECHARE, AEPY-OO-OO-AH, NIGHT WITCH, and holographic GOLDEN DRAEGON. Take a look at the whole Alpha set, consisting of 30 NFT trading cards, and additional 3 Secret cards to find — HERE.

3. WETRUE

Another exciting update was established by Liu Shao, the creator of WeTrue.

WeTrue is a decentralized broadcast social Aepp that is based on blockchain technology, through sharing, dissemination, and acquisition of related information of users and sharing short real-time messages through attention mechanisms.

WeTrue aims to enable user account generation, login, posting, comment, reward, and other behaviors that are completely separated from the centralized mode. Users can access various mobile terminals such as PC and mobile phone, realizing instant sharing and communication of information in the form of text, pictures, etc.

In the previous period, the main, functional, development has been finished — WeTrue now supports Superhero decentralized social platforms by reading tips directly from the smart contract and supports its comments. Moreover, the following activities have been successfully finished: Increase mapping mining off state, Increase GetModels, Increase Superheromodel, Increase the minimum hold AE requirements, Add to_PG_Array function, Add bigNumber function, and Fixed part of the Hash Introduction.

4. VEGAS APP — Beta in Q12022

Vegas is an open-source decentralized application that allows users to predict anything in the world and has a built-in small oracle that allows everyone to participate and publish predictions. For a stable operation, as the team explains, AVT Token will be released to motivate users. Moreover, the team successfully finished adjusting the UI to the black layout, switch the front-end framework to Vuetify, fully integrate Superhero wallet tuning, prepare a smart contract and test of Vegas and confirm the final gameplay rules of the first version.

Vegas It’s coming soon, with a beta release expected in the first quarter!

Follow the updates on the Forum where the Beta version gameplay is explained, together with the explanation of the game steps, interface examples, and detailed report on progress including the link to the smart contract.

5. Say network verifiable oracles

Say Network (Using the functionality of default Aeternity oracles) uses out-of-the-box technologies and methods that provide particular oracle tools to users for their Dapps. Say API is a standalone library called Say.aes that provides functionality in the smart contracts to use oracle services from Say network. Say network engine can be easily integrated with Aeternity blockchain with the use of Say API.

The development of Say Network is finished, and the project now offers 3 different modules for the developers:

• Plain: Mainnet: Provides Query results from Mainnet under the plain module
• Plain: Testnet: Provides Query results from Testnet under the plain module
• SMTP: Mainnet: It is a private module that allows an Encrypted Email sending service on top of a blockchain (Currently used by a DApp on Aeternity).

Here you might find the documentation and a user-friendly website.

6. AeCanary

AeCanary is a tool that tracks suspicious behavior and tainted accounts. It allows the user to mark accounts suspicious and then AeCanary would track all accounts it sent tokens to. This can be used for tracing stolen tokens.

The easiest way to run the service is in a container, there is a description here. If you prefer installing from source code, please check the description here.

During the previous period, the following areas are deployed and/or improved:

• Account management: accounts can be created, updated, and deleted. Only admins can create accounts. Every account can change its name, email address, and password,
• Application stability improved — AeCanary connects directly to Node API,
• Introduce exchange accounts. Track their exposure on a regular basis,
• Revisit the index page and dashboard,
• Add Docker support.

This tool is developed by the core maintenance developers Dimitar, Ulf, Dnicho, and Sean. It tracks suspicious accounts for the exchanges. When the account is considered a suspicious one, the user of the tool can mark, monitor, and trace it. It improves the exchanges’ security to a high level by monitoring the transactions and warning the 51% attack.

7. Vegas app

Winner of the latest æternity blockchain hackathon, the Vegas product development team is granted additional support for further development and maintenance of the Vegas decentralized application.

AE Vegas is an open-source decentralized prediction application that allows users to do anything in the world and has a built-in small oracle that allows everyone to participate and publish predictions. For a stable operation, as the team explains, AVT Token will be released to motivate users.

On the Forum the Beta version gameplay is explained, together with the explanation of the game steps, interface examples, and detailed report on progress including the link to the smart contract.

This concludes this round of new grants. Updates and reports on already given grants are regularly published on the FORUM.

At the same time, the core team is continuously working on the planned roadmap which improves the stability of the network, performance or provides new tools to empower developers and node operators.

For those who are interested in applying, feel free to post proposals in the æternity Forum where they will be visible to the public. The æternity community can ask questions and make suggestions about the proposal so it can be evaluated by the Foundation Board. This way we strengthen the transparency and inclusion of the grant process.

For more information on the Grant Application process, please see this Forum post.

Congratulation to all grantees for the successful work so far, and we look forward to seeing more proposals on the Forum!

Grant Report #9 aeternity Foundation half-year (Q3/Q4 2021) applications funding summary was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

In the interview for Cash.ch, Dadvan Yousuf, an entrepreneur, crypto expert and the youngest Swiss self-made millionaire, is critical of hyped “scam cryptocurrencies” and highlights how æternity technology makes difference.

Many cryptocurrencies have pump-and-dump games going on but a good coin has good technology, a profitable coin has good marketing and a very good coin has good technology and good marketing.

On the question of what people should pay attention to, Darvan explains: ‘’The technology is the most important thing. A good coin does not have to mean for me that it has to make a profit. A technologically very well structured coin is, for example, æternity‘’

Read the whole interview:

cash-Interview - Dadvan Yousuf: "Bei vielen Kryptowährungen laufen Pump-and-Dump-Spiele"

We are happy to see æternity open-source blockchain technology is changing the world ⛓ 🚀

📢 Stay in tune with all updates: @aeternityCF & Forum

The æternity Foundation is a non-profit organization established in the Principality of Liechtenstein. The Foundation brings together all the necessary resources and infrastructure to ensure a stable æternity environment and thriving ecosystem around open-source blockchain technology.

AE Technology valued by Dadvan Yousuf was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

To continuously support its ecosystem, the aeternity foundation is pleased to announce its eighth round of grants. Thanks for the following applications’ contributions to the growth of the open-source platform.

1. Accounts monitoring tool for the exchanges: AeCanary

This tool is developed by the core maintenance developers Dimitar, Ulf, Dnicho and Sean. It tracks suspicious accounts for the exchanges. When the account is considered as suspicious one, the user of the tool can mark, monitor and trace it. It improves the exchanges security to a high level by monitoring the transactions and warning the 51% attack.

2. AeonNet dynamic derivative swap

This application focuses on the time locked, mixed oracle powered derivative contracts first ever implementing in the aeternity protocol. It also enhances the management of synthetic assets in aeternity blockchain. Cokul Alex is the application developer.

3. Logic qualified data types for Sophia

Sophia is a novel language in the world of smart contract languages. It offers static and strong type system with powerful inference algorithm, so despite being strict on the rules, the syntax is clearly readable and convenient to use. The application purpose is to extend its awesomeness even further by enhancing it with liquid types 3 which will allow more precise control over the processed data and apply assertions not only to the domains of the variables, but also to their values.

The extension will allow the compiler to perform additional reasoning on the data flow by disallowing constructions that would normally result in runtime errors — like negative spends or out-of-bounds list queries.

This application is the master thesis in computer science at the University of Warsaw of Radosław Rowicki.

4. Aepp store: Fast & easy aepp discovery

Aepp store includes a way for users to upvote the apps that are listed by sending small tips. These tips will be automatically shared with the builders with a smart contract that verifies they are in fact the cryptographically proven builders of the app. This application is applied by Zafer Ozsoy, from the U.S.

5. Say network Oracle service for aeternity

This project is an automatic provable Oracle service. It facilitates Dapp developers to integrate API data feeds on their smart contract with easy-to-use Say API library. Jeevanjot Singh is responsible for developing this project.

All the applications details can be found at the foundation forum.

At the same time, the core team is continuously working on the planned roadmap which improves stability of the network, performance or provide new tools to empower developers and node operators.

Grant Report #8: The crypto projects haven’t been stopped the development by the pandemic —… was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

aeternity Foundation is happy to announce that the core developers team (core team) and the hyperchains developers team (hyperchains team) had joined forces to improved the æternity ecosystem and make it even more healthy for the next evolution level.

Our goal is to make the ænode faster, better and lighter and the ae ecosystem more attractive for the users. The hyperchains network using the ænodes has been designed to attract the Æternity enterprise customers and their users. On top of the faster æternity network and hyperchains network the decentralized applications (dæpps) can be run with higher performance and in a private context. Therefore the whole æternity ecosystem will perform with higher availability, scalability, security and performance.

The aeternity Foundation supports the Maintenance Application for the æternity network. Weekly detail reports on the progress of the core team and hyperchains team can be found respectively in the forum under core 2 and hyperchains 3 development updates.

We are excited to announce the following æternity release schedule and roadmap from December 2020 until March 2021:

Release 5.6

Released Date: 15.12.2020

Some of the important functionality improvements are the following:
• On-chain Protocol related bugs fixing
• Accept identical DB state
• Dead peer eviction
• Peer pool persistence
• Client endpoint for retrieving the peer pool status
• Decrease the reliance on centralized seed nodes for bootstrapping the node.
• Maintain and provide the community with the peer list for healthy networking.
• Upgraded Rocksdb
• Removed Windows Support

Release 5.7

Released Date: 15.01.2021

Features:
• Hyperchain consensus implementation
• Launching the private hyperchain network for test

Release 6.0 (Iris Hard Fork)

Release Date: 25.02.2021
Important Condition: A positive result on community Iris Hard Fork Voting is required prior to the Release 6.0

Users, Node operators and Miners can experience higher performance for the creation of a new aenode compared to the present creation process using the archive nodes approach. The new sync process uses demand requests for the sync of the older node states. The newer Erlang Protocol OTP ensures aenode is running faster, better (bugs free) and more secure.

Main Features:
• Erlang Upgrade to OTP22 or OTP23 depending on the tests
• Fast Synchronization and related issues
• Beam sync — a radical optimization of fast sync

Release 6.1

Release Date: 25.03.2021

Includes:
• Launching the Hyperchain network in two stages: Public and Main
• Bugs fixing if necessary

We believe that Æternity Foundation can inspire financial, social and political innovation projects running on æternity ecosystem.

Sponsors, Customers and User having an excellent idea how to contribute, use and improved the æternity ecosystems are welcome to contact us under the Email: hello@aeternity-foundation.org

Æternity core protocol roadmap and schedule Q4 2020/Q12021 was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The aeternity foundation is excited to announce the launch of Æ Studio, a new easy-to-use, accessible development Web-IDE for the Sophia smart contract language.

Æ Studio, formerly known as Fire Editor, is a brand-new platform for developers in the æternity ecosystem that allows them to write, compile, and deploy smart contracts, as well as call local and stateful functions.

The blockchain environment has traditionally been a complex, messy environment for developers to navigate. Developers are often forced to perform tedious hacking and extensive research in order to perform basic tasks, slowing down iteration cycles.

To solve this, æternity developer Nikita Fuchs has been working for the last several months on a major upgrade to the Fire Editor Web-IDE for Sophia, culminating in the launch of Æ Studio — a new easy-to-use contract editor for Sophia that makes dev lives easier.

Æ Studio is unique in the world of blockchain development and provides developers with a simple, streamlined web application that can be used in-browser. Æ Studio delivers intelligent assistance and collaboration features that help devs new to Sophia overcome common challenges and get started fast.

Simple Smart Contract Development & Deployment — In Real Time

The Æ Studio platform combines multiple components into a single, seamless experience.

The Æ Studio editor performs all the heavy lifting — communicating with various compilers, formatting libraries, and verifying — assembling everything needed to visualize, compose, and interact with smart contracts.

The end result is a straightforward, intuitive editor that is accessible even to users that have no experience with blockchain development.

The blockchain development learning curve can be steep. The traditional approach when working with a new development platform involves days of studying complicated documentation, followed by a trial and error process of implementation.

Æ Studio allows new users to experience instant success through experimentation, facilitating a hands-on learning and understanding process that motivates new developers to grasp the more complex elements of blockchain development.

Æ Studio New Features & Functionality

Æ Studio provides developers with all of the features and tools available when working with languages other than Sophia, such as error highlighting, but also delivers seamless code sharing for collaborative troubleshooting.

Most importantly, Æ Studio allows users to deploy and interact with smart contracts in the same manner as developers interact with regular apps or standard code. Using Æ Studio, it’s possible to generate a fully operational blockchain application based on the smart contract you’ve composed on the fly.

Æ Studio takes smart contract and blockchain application development into real time. With the new Æ Studio, you won’t begin by studying documentation and figuring out how to build on æternity before getting started — you start using æternity. Anyone can do it.

How Can Æ Studio Help You Write & Deploy Smart Contracts?

Æ Studio is packed with intuitive, straightforward tools and features that help you create powerful smart contracts in the most efficient manner possible.

1. Intelligent Error Highlighting

When you work with smart contracts in Æ Studio, you’ll edit live in-browser. If you make a mistake or overlook a critical element, Æ Studio will immediately highlight any compilation issues and provide a helpful hint.

2. Seamless Contract Deployment

Æ Studio provides users with hard-coded public accounts, or provides access to private personal testnet accounts via Github account login. Compiled contracts can be rapidly deployed within one microblock — extremely fast on the æternity protocol.

3. Dynamic UI Generation

Æ Studio parses your contract and generates a UI element for each function. Each UI piece is generated based on your own personal contract — the UI even differentiates between static calls without transactions or if a function requires a transaction.

4. Instant Collaborative Troubleshooting

When you’re working with Æ Studio, you’ll never work alone. Æ Studio integrates instant contract and selection sharing via a context menu function that automatically generates a shareable link, which can be shared with colleagues and friends — no more Pastebin!

5. Superhero Wallet Integration & Mainnet Interaction

Æ Studio keeps your key data secure. Prior to the release of Æ Studio, it has only been possible to use the æternity Web-IDE to interact with the æternity testnet.

Now, the Superhero wallet integrates directly with Æ Studio, a major leap forward that allows users to deploy interactive contracts right on the mainnet. Connecting your Superhero wallet to Æ Studio is extremely straightforward — Æ Studio provides a handy link to install the Superhero extension

Once you’ve installed the Superhero wallet extension, you’ll be able to switch to mainnet on Æ Studio and use your own funds to test contracts deployed directly onto the mainnet.

This new feature dramatically speeds up the development process, allowing new devs to deploy a first-tour contract and delivering a significant security improvement over the placement of hard-coded keys into scripts in order to run transactions or call functions.

What do I Need to Get Started?

Absolutely nothing — apart from an inquisitive mind and a passion for learning about the æternity ecosystem. To get started, head over to Æ Studio and start experimenting. For the full Æ Studio experience, be sure to install the Superhero wallet and claim your .chain name.

Stay tuned for more details on this. A more technically in-depth view of Æ Studio will be published on æternity’s main blog soon.

Æ Studio: The Future of Smart Contract Development in the æternity Universe was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

The æmbassadors program was first announced in May 2018 with its mission to grow the global æternity community. The program is designed to promote awareness, educate, and inspire the wider community to drive the adoption of æternity blockchain for better use cases, solving real-world problems.

Since its announcement, we have received about 200 applications from people all around the world who were excited to join the æcosystem. Currently, our active æmbassadors are based in 25 different countries and so far about 500 000 AE tokens have been given to the community in the form of bounty rewards.

The æternity community is privileged to have devoted members. These passionate individuals drive adoption by being proactive and going above and beyond their duties or the bounty requirements, by being involved in community discussions, sparking enriching idea exchange, offering timely, consistent, and beneficial contributions to the open-source project.

That’s why we wanted to evolve the individual concept of the æmbassador program to the æmbassies program, wherein community members with different backgrounds can cooperate more closely to get a more enriching experience while developing local ecosystems in close contact with the æcosystem team. The æcosystem team has been recently implemented to strengthen relationships with different stakeholders of the blockchain community all over the world together with the æmbassies and increase the adoption of the æternity protocol. Thus, further driving æcosystem growth by leveraging the personal and professional skills of æmbassy members all over the world.

In a bid to further strengthen the transparency and decentralization of the æternity ecosystem and to expand its scope of actions, we developed the new æmbassy program with new tasks and new rewards (bounties) to motivate and recognize ambassadors for adding value to the community. Gone are the days of the lone bounty hunter. Now you can join the æmbassy program to co-create and leverage a new network of blockchain professionals in your local community together with likeminded æmbassadors! The skillsets that constitute a full-fledged æmbassy are Entrepreneur, Developer, Enterprise, and Community Builder. New opportunities will arise within the program and beyond. Take this chance to get yourself a name in the local blockchain community and get closer to the leading figures in the æcosystem. Who knows, you might as well take your new æmbassy team as a stepping stone for creating a brand-new blockchain company!

The æmbassies program is OPEN for new members. The æcosystem team is looking forward to welcoming more keen individuals from all around the world who are passionate about æternity blockchain and Superhero, the revolutionary social blockchain platform that delivers a means for a decentralized future realized by a global community.

Who can apply?

An æmbassy is for people with different skillsets and backgrounds to unite as a local team to serve their own local communities. An æmbassador is someone with basic knowledge of (æternity) blockchain and can be described as any or all of the following:

• Curious
• Enthusiastic
• Generous
• Self-starter
• Community-driven
• Open-source believer

Why apply?

Become a part of а vibrant community, accomplish meaningful tasks, get rewards in AE tokens, drive adoption, change the way we communicate, and inspire people!

How to apply?

All candidates can apply for the æmbassies program directly by filling up the æmbassador application form.

For more information, reach out to the æmbassador Program Manager Erik Vollstädt via mail erik@aeternity.com or Telegram @erikv_93.

The Launch of the æmbassies program! A new direction for æternity’s æmbassador program was originally published in aeternity Foundation on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.