Aeternity Hardfork is Happening Today: A Look at the AE Token Migration Process and Costs

The much-awaited hardfork of Aeternity is scheduled on February 20, 2019. Following their mainnet launch on November 26, 2018, the project seems stronger than it has always been.

What Is Aeternity?

æternity powers Turing-complete smart contracts that allow the execution of credible transactions without third parties and intermediaries. The consensus is achieved via a novel hybrid algorithm. The “Cuckoo Cycle” Proof-of-Work (PoW) is more power-efficient and indirectly useful, as it encourages the development of better dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips. Proof-of-Stake (PoS) is used for governance, which is done via (delegated) voting, weighted by the number of tokens each account holds.

æternity provides tools enabling participants to govern themselves effectively. It is essential to note that governance is very much a human problem that most likely cannot be “solved” by purely technical means. æternity's governance is implemented via delegated voting, weighted by the number of tokens each account holds and provides technical tools to permit governance, as well as frameworks for human interaction and effective discussion.

Migration Process

Phase 0 is the migration phase before Mainnet launch. The genesis block, the first block of the æternity blockchain, will include all tokens migrated by users during Phase 0. Each of the following three phases, with a timeframe of around 3 months, will end with a scheduled hard fork of the æternity blockchain. This means that after Mainnet launch there will be three scheduled hard forks. Each hard fork will migrate tokens and add or expand features of the æternity blockchain, that can only be implemented via hard fork.

This also means that users will only receive their tokens on the æternity Mainnet with one of the Phases ending and a fork having been completed. All scheduled hard forks will include new features and improvements to the æternity protocol such as the governance system or the new virtual machine. After Phase 3, the migration process will change due to the smart contract managing the AE tokens expiring and Ethereum AE tokens becoming non-transferable.

The provisional post-Mainnet fork schedule is:

• End of Phase 1: February 2019
• End of Phase 2: May 2019
• End of Phase 3: After 2 September 2019 (Ethereum AE tokens become non-transferable)

  There will be no cost for the AE token migration, other than the transaction fees charged by the Ethereum network for the token transfers. MetaMask or MyEtherWallet wallets are recommended and are integrated into the migration process. The transaction fee for withdrawing tokens from an exchange or a leased wallet is subject to the service’s transaction fee policy and can vary.