Dear Aion followers, we have a lot of interesting news to share with you, as the team has worked fingers to the bone these weeks. Aion Java Kernel v0.4.2.0 with Amity testnet and AVM v1.5 integrations released. Another sapid article by Matt Spoke was published in Forbes Crypto last week. Check it out in our report below.
Aion continues its mini-interview series with Ali (ARRT). Andrzej interviews Matt Spoke at Aion HQ. Mike Mason (Aion Ecosystem Development) answers community questions on Aion official subreddit at the end of each week.
As for social encounters, Sam attends Staking Economy meetup on his trip to DevCon 5, Matt and Aman presented “Open Apps” and the AVM to Java developers at JAX London, video to be published by JAX soon. They also to speak about Hybrid Consensus design and economic models at The Capital Conference on November 12th-13th in Singapore.
The Aion community continually grows, and the ecosystem is impressive, and it continues to flourish! Aion Connect is live, and there are many projects build on Aion. Developers have been working extremely hard over the period of the last two weeks, so many updates on the ecosystem appeared. Northern Block released Supply Chain Report. POKKET announced a partnership with Chaion to boost cryptocurrency development. Pocket Network makes Tampa Bay Inno’s Inaugural “Inno on Fire” list. Velocia ads now in Miami-Dade busses.
For those who are little behind of times, the team updated the Aion Improvement Proposal (AIP) process. Check it out on Aion Github. Latest AIPs for technical review and discussion are in our report below.
Development
GitHub metrics:
Developer activity (from Coinlib.io):
Aion Java Kernel v0.4.2.0:
The release includes enhanced network syncing performance, kernel memory usage, and kernel data-store performance. The AVM has been updated to version 1.5, and supports Amity testnet for the hybrid Unity consensus protocol. Also added is a CLI edit mode.
Features:
- Integrated with [AVM 1.5] for improved AVM tooling and user library, along with other enhancements to the AVM
- Added CLI tooling edit mode #949 #953;
- Supports Amity testnet (unity consensus protocol) #975 #981 #986 #987 #989 #1006 #1008 #994
- Configurable pending transaction timeout settings in the transaction pool #998
- RPC call support for getBlockdDetails #974
- Added option for storing internal transactions #955
Showcases paused until the end of November:
Aion Improvement Proposals
Aion updates the Aion Improvement Proposal (AIP) process
An AIP is an Aion Improvement Proposal. An AIP can be proposed by anyone in the Aion community. The proposal is a document which provides a concise overview to the Aion community of a new process, functionality, standard or convention. The document should be thorough, technically precise and provide a clear motivation for the proposal. Proposal are submitted by one or more authors, these authors are responsible for the creation, modifications, socialization and most importantly — consensus building around the proposal.
Check it out on Aion Github.
AIPs for technical review and discussion:
Awareness and social encounters
Andrew Yang’s America Should Be Built On Blockchain
by Matt Spoke in Forbes
I’m generally a pretty level-headed person. I don’t get star struck, and I don’t fawn over celebrities. But last month, when I ran into Andrew Yang in a Manhattan restaurant, I felt like a kid meeting Iron Man at Disney World.
Being a Canadian, I’ve always taken a somewhat passive interest in following the reality show-like entertainment that passes for the US elections recently. But this time around, I find myself captivated by this candidate who by all accounts should not be standing on the same stage as career politicians.
Andrew Yang has not only brought a different perspective into an age-old discussion, he’s also demonstrated an understanding and appreciation of things that are new, and technologies that could fundamentally change our lives. Putting AI and robots aside for a minute, try having a conversation about Bitcoin, Libra, Aion or Ethereum with 76 year old Joe Biden or 78 year old Bernie Sanders — “…kids these days, and the things they’ll dream up on the interweb…” I’m paraphrasing of course.
You don’t have to be a partisan Democrat to be inspired by Yang’s candidacy. I certainly am not one — in fact I have historically supported fiscal policies that are more conservative than what is currently being debated in the Democratic primary. What excites me most about Yang’s platform is the obvious relevance to how the blockchain could be used to roll out some of his key ideas.
Consider Yang’s proposed Freedom Dividend — the $1,000 per month payment to every adult American. Whatever you think of the policy, the payments themselves could be implemented using what the blockchain industry has come to know as airdrops. Imagine a system that not only automates distributions, but also places rules and considerations on how these payments should be calculated and ultimately used by the recipients –not to mention the ease with which we could automate the compliance and tax implications of these payments.
Yang has also proposed “Democracy Dollars” — a program that would provide $100 to every voting-age American to contribute to a campaign or campaigns of their choice, at any level of government. The program’s goal is to reduce the influence of large donors and corporations on campaigns. You probably see where I am going with this… once again, the most efficient way to execute such a program would be a blockchain, where the form of contribution could be rules-based and programmatically enforced and verified.
Perhaps most interesting among Yang’s policy ideas is the still undefined concept of “data as property rights”. This is a timely and important concept in an era of near constant data breaches, and with an entire industry built on the backs of our personal data. But it’s still unclear how such a policy could ever be feasible. At the end of the day, your data will always exist on a company’s servers, and remain vulnerable to what that company allows to happen to it… or, not? Associating age-old property rights to modern data requires a new type of data infrastructure — unowned and unmanipulated by centralized entities, including the government. Such a system should be built on the blockchain; permitting individuals to demonstrate ownership of their data, manage how and when it’s used, and where relevant, monetize it.
Beyond his current platform, as the digital asset economy continues to grow in relative size to the American and global economy, it’s encouraging to imagine a President who could think constructively about how to best manage this change and prepare the economy for this inevitability.
Whoever the next US President is, they will need to fundamentally understand the issues facing our technology sector, and how these impact society more broadly. For some candidates, the simple yet ill-informed answer will be to go down the path of additional regulation, or even going as far as Elizabeth Warren in proposing the break-up of the country’s biggest tech companies. These policies are just knee-jerk reactions to a much more complicated challenge. To prepare the country for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century, we need to look to technological solutions of the 21st century. Anything short of this will simply be a country taking its first steps towards a slow decline in global economic leadership.
I wish I could say with confidence that, short of American leadership, Canada could be counted on to step up and demonstrate an openness to this new data revolution we’re preparing to enter, but I’m not so naive. So my best bet is to turn my optimism to our BBQ-eating neighbors. But I suspect that will only be the case under a newly elected President Yang.
Hopefully next time I meet him, I’ll be able to call him that.
Aion continues its mini-interview series:
Ali (ARRT):
Can we update AION Staking Contracts in the future?
How is Unity protected against attacks?
What should we be excited for with Unity?
Jeff Disher (Lead Engineer):
Aman Alam (Developer Relations):
- What is a developer advocate?
- What is the difference between Web 2.0 and Web3 Dev Relations?
- What are the biggest challenges facing blockchain developers?
- What are some advantages blockchain can bring to mobile devs?
Marcus (Accounting & Finance):
- What is Regulation A+?
- What can Governments do to increase blockchain adoption?
- What can companies do to increase adoption?
Ayush (Aion Dev) answering questions about ABIs:
- What is an ABI?
- Are there differences Ethereum ABI and Aion ABI?
- Would it be hard to create a custom ABI?
Yao Sun answering questions about the ARRT team and Unity:
• Why is Unity more favorable than other consensus methods?
• Does Unity change anything for current AION miners?
AVM interviews with Jeff Disher:
- What does the AVM do?
- Why has nobody tried this before?
- What are the next steps for the AVM?
- Why should developers build on Aion with Java?
- Can we run any Java app on blockchain now?
Andrzej interviews Matt Spoke at Aion HQ:
These weeks events:
October 7th-10th: The team at JAX London:
October 8th-11th: Sam attends Staking Economy meetup on his trip to DevCon5:
Upcoming events:
November 12th-13th: ‘The Capital’ by CoinMarketCap in Singapore:
Reddit:
Weekly Community AMA — October 11: Mike Mason (Aion Ecosystem Development) answers community questions here at the end of each week.
Finance
Statistics from Aion Explorer:
There is a stable slight grows in the number of token-holders these weeks.
Roadmap
Phase 2: Denali
- Aion Virtual Machine (AVM) Version 1
This AVM is a custom-built, lightweight, performant, and stable VM that leverages key characteristics of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), providing concurrency and robustness within a blockchain-specific context. The AVM is responsible for running applications on top of Aion. The AVM will include its own scripting language.
- Aion Scripting Language
The Aion scripting language is used for writing chain logic that runs on Aion-Everest and potentially any connecting/participating network. The Aion language is compiled into AVM bytecode and executed by the AVM. The Aion language provides the following features: Defensive programming, Blockchain runtime environment, Blockchain context injection, Security.
- Proof-of-Intelligence Consensus Algorithm
An economic measure to deter denial of service attacks by requiring participants, solvers in Aion-Everest, to perform artificial intelligence (AI) computation. The intent is to motivate the creation of AI-specific or specialized hardware that could be used for machine learning and neural network training in the future.
2019:
Phase 3: Everest 2019
- Participating Network Bridging
The generic bridge protocol is designed to enable the atomic movement of value and data between heterogeneous networks. This will enable the development of cross-blockchain contract logic and free-floating token supplies. - Complete Validator Nomination
The Hybrid DPoS / PoI consensus mechanism aims to achieve high performance while providing a fair and decentralized validator set. This is achieved through a token staking system and partly through a novel verification algorithm based on concepts used in modern neural networks called Proof-of- Intelligence. - Aion Virtual Machine (AVM) Version 2
Aion release milestones:
• Q4: Unity Consensus (PoW/PoS hybrid)
Partnerships and team members
No updates.
Ecosystem
Northern Block releases Supply Chain Report.
VeriTX takes root in Buffalo, NY.
A Place for Cloud Agnostic Solutions with Brendan Lee of Nodesmith.
POKKET Announced Partnership With Chaion to Boost Cryptocurrency Development: Chaion partners with Pokket to allow Makkii wallet users to earn interest on their crypto.
Pocket Network makes Tampa Bay Inno’s Inaugural “Inno on Fire” list.
Velocia ads now in Miami-Dade busses:
Satya previews upcoming Aion4j IntelliJ plugin upgrades:
• JS Client code generation
• Account managment
Projects Building on Aion:
• SPRXS
• Digital Liquidity Factory
• THÉO (theoproject.io) (with Syná wallets)
• Agora (beta.agora.theoproject.io)
• Spiro (centrys.io/enterprise)
Community dApps:
Ecosystem builders:
See also Aion Connect.
Social media metrics
Aion Community Commitment: a few initiatives that will involve participation from everyone and enable two-way communication.
Social media activity:
Social media dynamics:
There is a slight fluctuation in the number of subscribers of Aion social media channels.
Twitter — The average number of retweets is 15–30 for one post.
Facebook — 10–15 likes per publication.
Reddit — Threads with 2–10 comments. The community is quite active in discussing the latest news, development, mining, token price and possible partnerships.
The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of Aion Reddit subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook likes. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
Aion Community — unofficial community-run Telegram channel for humor, memes, and trading discussion.
Developer Subreddit — r/AIONgineering.
Discord — Active discussions on the latest updates and mining.
Aion forum — Discussions on mining, news, network statistics etc. Popular topics:
Global Telegram Channels:
Korea — Kakao chat
Russia — @AionNetworkRU
Poland — @Aion_Poland
Spanish — @AionNetworkES
Kenya — @AionKenya
Netherlands/Belgium — @AionBenelux
India @Aion_India
See also the community-built Aion Telegram Bot and Aion Newsfeed — feed of Aion’s YouTube, Blog, and Twitter posts and project updates.
