@aeternity_Foundation
I stumbled upon this news on the Web Summit website, and it’s nothing short of astounding. Could this signify that the Hyperchains project is on the verge of being released? I spotted the project website: https://aeternity.com/hyperchains, within the news piece. However, access to it demands a password. Is there anyone who knows the password and would be kind enough to share it with the community so that we can access and take a look?
我也想知道密码你可以找GM问问
The head of the foundation, Nikola, announced Hyperchains live on stage at Websummit in Lisbon. I’m sharing the following PR. Stay tuned for more long-form content focusing on Hyperchains!
Cointelegraph - https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/web-summit-2024-hyperchains-break-down-blockchain-barriers
When can we expect more information to come up @ranko ? I guess there are many who want to try this…
@ranko
This is a piece of news that we have been looking forward to for a long time. The progress of the Hyperchains project is really exciting. Could you please provide further information, such as when the aeternity hyperchains will undergo a consensus upgrade and when users can get hands-on experience with Hyperchains themselves?
Thanks for being patient until I could write a detailed update to answer your questions in this thread and earlier here.
The road to hyperchains has been a long one, starting back in 2016 with a blogpost from Yani that is still the North Star guiding our understanding of what hyperchains can be 8 years later.
Niko announced hyperchains to the general public at the Web Summit Lisbon 2024 conference last week. Hyperchains is on track for its first public release in the coming weeks.
Here’s what you can expect
A hyperchain will be a proof-of-stake blockchain compatible with the existing tools and features built for æternity that will “pin” a hash of the state of the hyperchain to a proof-of-work blockchain selected by the user. We hope to go live with options for æternity and Bitcoin (with more options in the future).
The first release will allow for the following:
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A user that we call an Initiator will be able configure all of the chain performance and token economy settings, e.g., fees, rewards, penalties, etc., to start their own custom hyperchain.
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Validators will be able to stake the hyperchain’s native tokens into a staking contract in order to be eligible to process transactions for the hyperchain, thereby earning rewards for block production, pinning, etc.
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Delegators will be able to delegate the hyperchain’s native tokens to individual validators in order to increase their stake in return for a percentage of rewards (and penalties!).
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It should also be possible to run a hyperchain as a permissioned chain by only distributing hyperchain tokens to validators within an organization or among a selected group.
Here’s when you can expect it
The specification for hyperchains has been updated substantially since the 2020 whitepaper with dozens of improvements and changes published during this last sprint.
The core team is pushing the final code that will mark the end of the development period and the beginning of testing. This is always the most exciting and most terrifying part of software development. We expect a smooth process that will provide the basis for two essential steps: creating a UI and testing parameters of the configurations via economic modeling.
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The first part is easy as the roles and activities involved in hyperchains are well-understood by this point of the development. We are already far along with the look-and-feel as well as the user flows for a web application that should allow for a “no-code” set-up of a hyperchain.
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The second part is less straightforward. The set of dependencies for hyperchain economics is complex with variables like the frequency with which a hyperchain pins data to the PoW chain affecting not just the hyperchain performance, but dramatically affecting the cost of running a hyperchain. Knowing how to adjust the hyperchain transaction fees and block rewards in order to make the chain economy viable for validators is key to the usefulness of hyperchains.
So we will work together with data scientists and economists to help us to do the modeling for the hyperchains economy and use this information to provide guardrails in the web application that guide Initiators to configuring their hyperchains correctly.
Of course, the core team will publish everything open source to GitHub so devs who want to jump right in don’t have to wait for the web application to follow a couple weeks after the final hyperchains code goes live. However, we strongly recommend waiting.
What happens after launch
Hyperchains is the kind of technology that really shines at scale. The æternity blockchain is already great for the other 99.9% of what users need from a blockchain. Large companies that need control over every aspect of their technology are the most probable hyperchains users and the interest we saw at Web Summit confirmed that.
Since the functionality is largely the same as the original æternity chain, the biggest leap in innovation is the level of control that one gets by spinning up their own blockchain. Not compromising on decentralization and doubling up with the best possible PoW security makes hyperchains truly revolutionary, but the use case for a custom blockchain is large-scale implementations.
In the near term, we are working with global consulting firm REPLY Blockchain to explore how they can offer hyperchains to their customers. They are a division of the 20k strong REPLY Group, so we hope they can help us develop hyperchains in the best way possible for mammoth projects with durable use cases.
We are also already looking ahead to v1.1 and v2.0. Updating the protocol is always a big project, so we didn’t want to slow down hyperchains for the first release. However, the second iteration will require a protocol update in order to unlock the true potential of hyperchains. In the meantime, we will work to integrate all of the æternity ecosystem with hyperchains, e.g., EVM bridge, DEX, etc., so that anyone spinning up their own hyperchain can get all the benefits of the æternity universe right out of the box.
Could you help to answer what role does the native token of aeternity play in this economic model?
@thoughtfulcool @ranko @keno.chain @NikolatheBoss.chain @aeternity_Foundation
Dear all,
I’m writing to convey my heartfelt gratitude for your elaborate and informative response. It has shed much light on the exciting Hyperchains project.
However, I do have a couple of follow - up questions. Concerning the aeternity token AE, what precise functions will it perform within the Hyperchains environment? Will it be central to all forms of transactions, or are there specific roles designated for it, such as in the consensus process, staking, or other crucial operations?
Moreover, I’m eager to know if the aeternity foundation intends to create a dedicated token for Hyperchains, perhaps something like HC. If so, how will this new token interface with the existing AE token? How will their coexistence be managed to ensure a seamless and efficient ecosystem?
I cannot emphasize enough how much I appreciate your efforts and the painstaking work of the development team. Your commitment to this project is truly inspiring. I’m wholeheartedly looking forward to the successful implementation of the Hyperchains project and have no doubt that it will revolutionize the blockchain landscape. Thank you once again for all that you do. With warmest regards and best wishes for the project’s continued success.
Hi @AE_UP
There are two answers to that question:
Hyperchains are independent blockchains and can be configured according to the Initiator’s wants. There is no innate relationship of the hyperchain economy with AE or any other particular chain. At one extreme, one could theoretically set up a hyperchain with one native token and operate a single validator with 0 rewards and 0 fees pinning to a privately run forked version of a PoW chain. In that scenario, the Initiator could run a hyperchain with no externalities.
In practice things are a bit different. The native token belonging to a new hyperchain will be compatible with the æternity blockchain and we are working to make sure that there is way to bridge tokens from a hyperchain to the æternity chain. It won’t be practical to try to distribute hyperchain tokens to users who want to run validator nodes on a newly created hyperchain which does not yet have participants. The æternity blockchain is the likely destination for that as it is fully compatible and has users as well as things like DEX smart contracts and on/off ramps that can be used as a way to attach value to the hyperchain’s token economy.
Obviously, using the æternity chain as the PoW pinning chain for a hyperchain also has quite a few advantages in terms of price, throughput, and simplicity.
So while there is no technological imperative for a hyperchain to interact with æternity or AE tokens, in practice there are benefits to using the æternity blockchain for various functions to help run an efficient hyperchain.
Hi @Bigtree.chain,
I think my previous reply probably answers your question about AE and hyperchains.
As for a dedicated hyperchains token, there will be new tokens for every hyperchain. When an Initiator spins up a hyperchain it will create a native token (just like AE) that is unique to that hyperchain.
I see coexistence between AE and hyperchains tokens just like I see coexistence of tokens throughout the crypto ecosystem. New tokens are launched on L1s every day.
The existence of a token is only meaningful when there is a value assigned to that token by users in a market. The exchange value allows participants in the hyperchain network to determine if their participation will be rewarded.
The hyperchains web application will be the destination for discovering hyperchains and becoming a validator or delegator. Joining a new hyperchain as a validator or delegator will require a user to obtain the hyperchain token somewhere. The logical destination for this is the Superhero DEX as all hyperchain tokens will be compatible with the DEX.
It will be up to the hyperchain Initiator to determine how they want to distribute their hyperchain token and manage the fees and rewards of their hyperchain and æternity infrastructure will be fully compatible and available to support the healthy operations of hyperchains.