Recap: aelf AMA with Binance
aelf answered a series of questions that interest Binance community the most
On July 12, Binance completed the integration of aelf mainnet and started to support deposits and withdrawals of mainnet ELF tokens. Two days later on July 14, aelf held an AMA event in the Binance English community with more than 150,000 community members. During the event, Ean, aelf R&D Director, introduced the features and roadmap of aelf, the purpose of mainnet token swap, the use cases of mainnet ELF token, and details regarding ecosystem construction and governance. Here is the recap of the fantastic event. Have a look!
General Introduction of aelf
aelf is a high-performance next-gen layer-1 blockchain based on the cloud computing infrastructure. The processing speed of the layer-1 network, as aelf has it, is even faster than most of the layer-2 projects. To enhance the performance of aelf, aelf has optimized a lot for both single-chain and multi-chain functions. For a single chain, aelf provides an environment that supports smart contracts to run in parallel and at ultra-high speed. The execution of smart contracts can run on server clusters, which is exactly an implementation of microservice. For multi-chain, aelf has realized a multi-level main-chain side-chain structure and built-in cross-chain function.
At the same time, aelf’s built-in governance system can ensure aelf maintains a high level of decentralization and guarantee the security and stability of the blockchain network. The nodes of the aelf mainnet are run by different organizations on different cloud computing data centers.
Later, I will walk you through the details of aelf’s technology, performance, ecosystem, and the efforts we have made to achieve all these.
Q&A with aelf
1. Can you please give us a detailed introduction of aelf and its features?
aelf is a high-performance next-gen layer-1 blockchain based on the cloud computing infrastructure. The performance optimization on aelf can be mainly classified into two, single-chain and multi-chain.
A. Performance of single-chain:
1) High-speed running environment for smart contracts:
The execution speed of our smart contracts, as has been tested, is 1,000x that of EVM. Test codes and the report can be found here:
https://medium.com/aelfblockchain/aelf-has-reached-35-000-tps-b3861d2ef16c
https://github.com/AElfProject/aelf-automation-test/tree/performance-test
2) Execution of smart contracts in parallel:
As set in the contract definition and pre-execution phase, aelf categorizes the smart contracts by tags so that contracts in one block can be executed in parallel;
3) Smart contract microservitization can run on server clusters. Based on the GRPC protocol, aelf defines the remote call protocol of smart contracts, realizes aelf contracts as microservice, and realizes the automatic scalability of single-chain smart contract operation environment by combining with the strategy of cloud computing.
B. Performance of multi-chain:
1) Multi-level main-chain side-chain structure:
This structure enables that the blockchain network can be both efficiently indexed and unlimitedly scaled. Suppose that we index 8 side-chains on each layer, then on a three-layer network, aelf can index a total of 8*8*8 side-chains. That means 512 side-chains, and if we do it on a four-layer, the total number of indexed side-chains will be 4096. This can support us to build one Web3.0 application on each side-chain;
2) Shared side-chain and exclusive side-chain
Shared side-chains are used by developers for verifying their projects. While for exclusive side-chains, the verification process is eliminated and users will not be charged, hence the performance is greatly improved. The exclusive side-chains adopt a charging mode similar to Amazon servers’ monthly charging;
3) Built-in cross-chain functionality
To ensure data interaction within all systems of blockchains (inner), aelf realizes the built-in interaction of cross-chain data. This is achieved by production nodes interacting with each other in the data center.
aelf’s governance design supports the blockchain to be highly decentralized and guarantees the security and scalability of the network. The mainnet nodes are currently run by different organizations on various cloud data centers. aelf has a mature online DAO governance system. Users can participate in network maintenance through the governance system and by voting, they can receive staking rewards. Now, Binance has supported staking on aelf mainnet.
aelf is dedicated to the construction of Web3.0 and strives to build a Web3.0 infrastructure that’s beyond comparison. The system should support the development of Web3.0 and its explosion in the next 5 to 10 years. Metaverse, in particular, will be of great importance. As C# is the language used to build smart contracts on aelf, innumerable traditional companies will be attracted.
Around aelf ecological construction, aelf team has built and open-sourced browser extensions, aelf blockchain explorer, wallet APP, SDKs in multiple languages, aelf command line tool, on-chain data querying system like The Graph, aelf contract developing boilerplate and contract template code generator. All projects above, now available in aelf official GitHub, are open for everyone to build upon.
Through hackathons, aelf’s ecosystem has further improved its DeFi infrastructure, NFT trading platform, IDO platform, and other applications. Users holding ELF on aelf mainnet can participate in lending, provide liquidity, trade NFTs, and so on.
With Binance’s support for aelf mainnet and development of the ecosystem, aelf will put more efforts into investment and marketing, expand the building of communities, and reach out to more partners and developers.
Q2. Why is aelf doing a mainnet swap?
aelf mainnet is one of the most cost-effective blockchain networks so that everyone can use it. The transaction fee is very close to zero. And aelf will launch a transaction fee reduction mechanism that allows the reduction of up to 1,000 ELF token per account per day in the very near future. In other words, our users will be free to do anything, including transfer fungible and non-fungible tokens.
Essentially, a mainnet swap means switching from one blockchain network to another. At this point, the old ERC20 and BEP20 ELF tokens are gradually replaced by newly generated mainnet ELF tokens, and all blockchain activities are moved to aelf mainnet. Once swapped to the mainnet ELF token, everyone can contribute to aelf’s ecological development and participate in various events on aelf mainnet. The events include on-chain governance, voting, and interacting with DApps, etc.
Q3. What are the use cases of mainnet ELF tokens?
With mainnet ELF token, you can stake&vote, pay for transaction fees, and you can use mainnet ELF token to purchase resource tokens.
To be specific:
1. ELF holders can stake and vote. On aelf mainnet, users can choose their roles to participate in the on-chain governance. They can be production nodes, candidate nodes, and voters. Different roles have different contributions.
2. ELF is used to pay for transaction fees and side-chain index fees;
3. Developers can use ELF to purchase resource tokens (tokens needed for projects to be developed and running on aelf) and pay method fees for calling smart contracts.
Q4. How can I swap my old BEP20 ELF tokens?
The easiest way is to deposit your tokens into your Binance account and withdraw through the network you want. Binance supports ELF tokens in 4 networks: aelf mainnet, ERC20, BEP20, and BEP2 token.
And if you want to try out the manual swap, you can also go to the aelf swap site. It will give you a direct presentation of how smooth the experience is on aelf mainnet. After you have equipped yourself with the mainnet ELF, you can participate in the mainnet staking, ecological governance, project voting, and many more.
Tutorial for BEP20 holders
Tutorial for ERC20 holders
Q5. What will happen if I fail to swap my old tokens?
In this case, you will not be able to stake, vote, or participate in the Grant raffle, and many other events. aelf team would highly encourage you to swap to the mainnet ELF tokens so that you would be able to surf the aelf ever-expanding ecosystem. However, you can keep your ELF tokens in whichever network that is supported by your favorable exchange. Deposits and withdrawals on all four networks are supported by Binance.
Selected questions from the community
Do you guys have NFT marketplace?
Currently, some of the participants from our hackathons have developed NFT projects and we are busy negotiating with them. To name one, Forest marketplace has been deployed to our TestNet. So basically, we will have many NFT marketplaces on our MainNet very soon.
Are there any active grant programs or hackathons for AELF builders? Or maybe there is an upcoming one?
aelf welcomes and supports builders to develop and deploy their DApps on aelf. So far, two hackathons have been successfully hosted, attracting a number of projects which are now running on our TestNet. Meanwhile, aelf DAO is also planning to launch Grant and bug bounty programs for developers. Please do feel free to join our developer community if you want to participate.
Many new projects develop well at first, but then fail to achieve good results. How will you manage and develop your eco projects to gain a position in the market and become good projects in the blockchain industry?
It’s pretty true that many projects fail to achieve good results, but aelf, as a developer-friendly public blockchain, we provide many solutions to help developers gain a position in the market, such as offering technical support, granting large amounts of seed funds, and sharing marketing resources.
You stated this during the introduction aspect that “AELF has a DAO online governance. How do I apply for AELF DAO online governance to be eligible to participate in network maintenance and also how do I become eligible to receive STAKING REWARDS?
1. So far, users can propose and participate in proposals through our explorer. A proposal is essentially a contract. You can vote for or against these contracts based on your own judgments. This is how you can participate in the governance of the ecosystem.
2. If you want to be deeply engaged in the construction of aelf, you can run a node to become a BP (block producer) or a candidate node. These nodes shall have more voting weight and claim more rewards from the network.
3. If you are a common user, you can vote for the nodes mentioned above to receive rewards.
What is the vision and where do you see yourself in 5 years? What are your competitions and challenges you face?
aelf has great faith in the development of the Web3.0 industry and is trying our best to keep pace with the industry. We have the ambition to lead the development of the industry. aelf will play an important role and will provide an accessible entrance to the metaverse for everyone. Since C# is used to build smart contracts on aelf, it will attract developers from the Unity community to write smart contracts here, leading aelf one step forward towards the goal. However, to achieve this, we need to be more dedicated to the construction of Web3.0 and other infrastructures, such as privacy computing, decentralized storage, and decentralized identity (DID).
Join us on TG or Discord to stay tuned and interact with aelf communities:
Telegram: https://t.me/aelfblockchain
Discord: https://discord.gg/bgysa9xjvD
