Today is the day. With the launch of Shimmer and the release of the new Firefly Shimmer app, we now enter a new era of utility within the IOTA ecosystem. It’s time to download Firefly Shimmer, claim your SMR tokens and try out the host of new features. Firefly Shimmer is available on Mac, Windows and Linux, and installs separately from your main Firefly IOTA version. Download Firefly Shimmer here and start your journey into the Shimmer universe.
A Variety of New Features
Shimmer introduces many new exciting features, many of which are supported by Firefly Shimmer at launch. Firstly, we have a new token: Shimmer. At the beginning of 2022, IOTA holders had the opportunity to stake their IOTA for a 90 day period and earn Shimmer staking rewards. With the launch of the Shimmer network, it is now possible to claim your SMR tokens in Firefly Shimmer. The process is straightforward and should only take a few minutes. Follow this guide and claim your Shimmer rewards now. Firefly Shimmer supports both software (Stronghold or 24-Word Recovery Phrase) and Ledger Nano profiles.
Native Tokens
Native tokens take centre stage within the new app. Within Firefly Shimmer, you can mint these new custom tokens in seconds, without fees. Unlike ERC20 tokens, native tokens are first class citizens with Shimmer, created on layer 1 without the need for a smart contract. This powerful feature allows project teams within the ecosystem to launch tokens for all sorts of different use cases, from governance to payments to real-world asset tokenisation. Sending a native token also incurs no fee and Firefly Shimmer provides a convenient interface for managing all of your native assets.
Transaction Expiry Times
Transaction expiry times add flexibility to transacting with Shimmer. When sending Shimmer tokens or native tokens you can set an expiry time for your transfer. The recipient must claim the tokens within the specified timeframe, or ownership of the tokens is returned to you, the sender. Fears of sending large tokens to the wrong address are now a thing of the past. Firefly Shimmer automatically attaches a small token storage deposit to your transaction when you set a transaction expiry, and once the recipient has claimed their tokens (or the expiry time has passed), the deposit is returned to you.
Microtransactions
Storage deposits allow for the introduction of microtransactions in Firefly Shimmer. In the cryptocurrency space, small amounts of tokens (e.g. < 1 SMR) are referred to as “dust”. Dust is a concern with Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) because, without restrictions on sending dust, it would be possible to bloat the ledger, and thereby the database of nodes (servers) that form the DLT network. By using a combination of transaction expiry times and storage deposits, it is possible to send very small amounts of tokens (as small as 1 glow i.e. 1/1,000,000th of a Shimmer) in Firefly Shimmer. Microtransactions like these are a core part of modern commerce, from the purchase of a singular replacement screw to cosmetic items in video games, and will become increasingly important in future economies, like the buying and selling of data between machines. For most cryptocurrencies, prohibitively expensive fees preclude microtransactions — why would you pay a fee greater than the price of what you are purchasing? Shimmer has no fees and we now have a convenient way to execute microtransactions in Firefly Shimmer.
Other New Features
Firefly Shimmer represents a complete rearchitecture of Firefly. The application has been redesigned in a more modular way, with improved reliability, and easier future expansion. Some of the finer details in the application have also been improved. We have redesigned the dashboard to simplify asset management. We have extended the search and filtering system to accommodate for all new transaction and token types. We have added support for transaction metadata and tags, enabling users to attach data to their transactions that is publicly viewable on explorers. For developers, we have improved developer profiles, allowing for a more seamless connection to testnets, private networks and locally-hosted nodes. We have also revised the deep link system and extended its support to native tokens, allowing community projects like Soonaverse to seamlessly link transactions with Firefly.
What is next for Firefly Shimmer?
With Firefly Shimmer released and the first wave of features available we now look ahead to what’s to come. Our immediate focus is on two new core features: NFT support and Decentralised Voting.
The first version of NFT support will cover the most prominent current use cases for NFTs: art and ownership. A “Collection” tab will be added to Firefly Shimmer with everything needed to view, send, manage and burn NFTs within your portfolio. We will gradually expand the NFT functionality as the NFT space develops and the Shimmer ecosystem grows to accommodate the needs of projects and users. Some potential areas for expansion include NFTs holding other NFTs and tokens, or granting access to events by presenting or burning an NFT ticket.
Decentralised voting is already a feature within the main Firefly IOTA app and we will now work on a more comprehensive voting feature for Firefly Shimmer. The new voting tab will allow community members and teams to host governance votes from within Firefly Shimmer, and Firefly Shimmer users will be able to browse and participate in these governance votes.
Firefly has a packed roadmap for the coming months, and we have already divulged some of those plans, including the ability to purchase tokens with a credit/debit card and layer 2 asset support. As always, there is a lot of work to do. But for today, we celebrate Shimmer launch and commend the huge amount of work that has gone into it across the IOTA Foundation, ecosystem teams, alpha and beta testers, and translators. Stay tuned and start shimmering ✨
