aelf 2022 Round-up
2022 was a year when revolutionary changes were brought to aelf. From node election and two hackathons to a comprehensive upgrade of aelf network and services, these remarkable accomplishments drove the unprecedented evolution of aelf network. Looking back at the past year, we find not only some well-completed missions that have achieved more than we expected, but also a variety of ongoing programs which will lay a solid foundation for aelf’s ecosystem growth, the establishment of a well-connected blockchain world, and what’s more, a brighter Web3 future.
Timeline of aelf’s milestones in 2022
Q1
January
aelf completed its first-ever node election where all 17 seats for block producers were determined. Among them, there are top-tier exchanges represented by OKX Pool, aelf’s strategic partners like FBG, RockX, bountyblok, and volunteers from the community like aelfie.
February
aelf’s metaverse-themed hackathon cohosted with DoraHacks, Top of OASIS, came to a conclusion with 11 projects evaluated as qualified. Top of OASIS is aelf’s first attempt to hold a hackathon that is open to global developers and hackers. It took active steps to grow a prosperous ecosystem and set a high standard for aelf’s future exploration of the blockchain world.
Q2
April
aelf launched a Web3-themed hackathon together with Devpost. Offering generous prizes and diversifying the tracks for developers to compete in, this hackathon gave out over $500,000 to a total of 8 categories of projects, DAO, NFT, GameFi, DeFi, DID Network, SocialFi, Creator Economy, and Web3 infrastructures.
June
aelf completed its upgrade to v1.2.0. This version implemented multiple changes, like dependencies upgrade, adding BigInt value, and feature upgrade from a set height. MultiNFT contract was built so that users can create their own NFT Protocols (collections) and mint NFTs. This contract supported the cross-chain transfer of NFTs within aelf network and injected new energy into aelf ecosystem.
Legend X hackathon ended with more than 300 teams or individuals participating. Among all the innovative or practical projects they submitted, there were altogether 11 projects that won track awards or theme awards.
Q3
July
Binance completed its integration with aelf Mainnet and enabled the deposit and withdrawal of all 4 types of ELF token: aelf Mainnet, ERC20, BEP20, and BEP2. Binance users can swap their tokens from and to any of these networks. Later that month, an AMA event was held in the Binance English community. Currently, Mainnet ELF is available on top-tier exchanges including Binance, Bithumb, Upbit, Huobi Global, OKX, and gate.io.
August
aelf explorer was upgraded to v1.2.0. The explorer experienced a multitude of changes, from the optimized classification of contents to the newly-added function of contract management, all catering for the needs of users and developers. With it, developers can complete contract deployment, update, or naming without using any other tools, helping those with little tech background to easily build on aelf.
aelf completed its upgrade to v1.2.1. This version made some changes to the naming policy of JSON response, guaranteeing the consistency of aelf network.
September
aelf distributed hackathon prizes to projects who had completed deployment and met their own criteria. These 11 projects became the first batch of contributors that received their prizes in Top of OASIS and Legend X hackathons and some of them have been running on aelf Mainnet or Testnet since then.
aelf upgraded multiple contracts, including Token Contract (AElf.Contracts.MultiToken) and CrossChain Contract (AElf.Contracts.CrossChain), and deployed a new NFT Contract (AElf.Contracts.NFT). This upgrade added and changed the contract events to simplify cross-chain transactions within aelf ecosystem, providing a foundation for the realization of accessing cross-chain transactions between aelf MainChain and SideChains and automatically receiving cross-chain tokens.
aelf explorer was further upgraded to v1.2.1. This time, the layouts of some key pages were adjusted so that the info that interests users the most could be easily seen. Data of blocks and transactions were better organized and frequently used links are provided for users’ easy access.
Q4
October
aelf explorer was upgraded for the third month in a row to v1.2.2. This version enabled not only a better display of the same type of info, like presenting addresses by their token holding amount, but also a clearer distinction between different data, like contracts and addresses.
November
aelf’s official website was upgraded to v2.1.0. The homepage’s contents were thoroughly optimized, from text to structure, and a new “Ecosystem” page was added so that users can try out the DApps deployed and developers can quickly submit applications to list their projects.
December
Prize-givings for projects from aelf’s first two hackathons were completed and all eligible teams or individuals received their prizes.
aelf carried out its upgrade to v1.2.2. This version made changes centering on the optimization of developer experience and user experience, enhancing multiple aspects including vote transfer, contract upgrade and deployment, and adding new functions like transaction fee exemption.
A comparison with 2021
Governance
Node election was kicked off in late 2021 when 12 out of 17 vacancies were available for external nodes who wanted to become aelf’s block producers. Then in early 2022, all the seats for block producers were determined for the first time. The elected nodes in each term, together with candidate nodes and voters, have been securing aelf network since then. All block producers’ info can be obtained via the “Governance” page on aelf explorer.
As aelf DAO was formed at the end of 2022, the governance of aelf network will gradually evolve towards deeper decentralization, making everything transparent and every movement approved by this organization, which primarily comprises aelf’s stakeholders.
Ecosystem
Before the first hackathon in 2021, aelf was a barren land where there were no DApps or projects for users to interact with. In virtue of the two hackathons that brought hundreds of developers to us, aelf has grown into a diversified ecosystem equipped with DApps covering DeFi, NFT, GameFi, etc. Apart from those that are already accessible via the “Ecosystem” page, there are a number of other projects/developers in active negotiation with aelf who are expected to complete building or deployment soon.
Services
Compared with the previous year, 2022 has seen several major upgrades of aelf’s multiple products like explorer, wallet, and official website. All the upgrades placed a high priority on user and developer experience, making these products easy to use and well-capable of meeting the communities’ needs.
With respect to the architecture, the upgrades to v1.2.0, v1.2.1, and v1.2.2 have all been successfully implemented. With respect to the architecture, the upgrades to v1.2.0, v1.2.1, and v1.2.2 have all been successfully implemented, enhancing aelf’s network performance, creating the standards of aelf’s NFT Protocols and NFTs, simplifying the operation of cross-chain transfer while promoting its efficiency, further increasing the overall security, etc. Concerning governance, vote transfer has been enabled so that users can transfer their votes with one click, and the proposal expiration time has been extended, offering block producers a greater degree of flexibility. Besides, transaction fee exemption gives users holding a certain amount of ELF tokens an allowance that is free from transaction fee payment so they can use aelf at 0 costs. Also, to deepen users’ understanding of aelf and facilitate developers’ building, the restructuring and content optimization of aelf developer documentation was started and will be constantly pushed forward. The updated documentation will consist of Docs, Resource Center, and Community. Each segment caters for different needs, providing developer guides, resources needed, and educational materials as well as communication hubs.
Looking forward and carrying on
Following our steps and reviewing what has been achieved since aelf Mainnet went live, we notice that from Mainnet swap, node election, and hackathons to a comprehensive upgrade of aelf’s infrastructures, tools, and services, everything is performed well according to plan and to the benefit of aelf network and communities. Now that we have left another productive year behind us, it’s time to forget about the old merits and set out new plans for a new year.
2023 is set to be the year when users and projects from the Web2 world flood into the Web3 space. aelf, as the next-gen platform for Web3 infrastructures, is well-prepared for the upcoming ecosystem expansion, or rather, explosion. To accelerate this process, aelf will keep upgrading all our products and services, bringing the cloud-native upgrade, and hosting more events like hackathons and grants. aelf team is dedicated to and excited about driving a new round of ecosystem growth, contributing to not only aelf or blockchain industry, but to the broader Web3 space where infinite possibilities are waiting to be discovered.
aelf is a high-performance blockchain designed to support the development of Web3 and its explosion in the next 5 to 10 years. As a layer-1 network, aelf has incomparable processing speed which is even faster than most of the layer-2 projects. Built on cloud computing, aelf has a distributed network of nodes on various cloud data centers. Multiple tools like browser extensions, aelf blockchain explorer, wallet App, and SDKs have been built and open-sourced so that developers can easily build and contribute to aelf ecosystem.
As a public blockchain, aelf provides a high-speed running environment for smart contracts and enables the execution of contracts in parallel and smart contract microservitization running on server clusters. Its MainChain and multi-SideChains architecture supports efficient indexing within the network and guarantees almost unlimited scalability. The built-in cross-chain design facilitates ultra-fast interaction of data. The innovative hybrid of shared SideChain and exclusive SideChain greatly lowers the cost for developers and users and further enhances the overall network performance.
Join us on TG or Discord to stay tuned and interact with aelf communities:
Telegram: https://t.me/aelfblockchain
Discord: https://discord.gg/bgysa9xjvD
