8 Key Facts and Dates about AO Token
1. AO is a 100% fair launch token that follows the Bitcoin economic model. (No pre-sale, completely given to AR holders, encouraging external funds and ecosystem application developers)
2. AO tokens will be used to secure messaging in its network. You can learn more in the new AO whitepaper. (most likely POS, node staking mining)
3. The minting mechanism will be retroactively run from 13:00 EST on February 27, 2024 (block 1372724). 100% of the AO tokens minted during this period have been awarded to Arweave token holders based on their respective balances held every 5 minutes. If you hold AR at an exchange or custodian, you should ask them how to receive your tokens. (The pressure is on users, because Arweave officials do not have that much power to make exchanges compromise directly. Only when users put pressure on exchanges can they make calculations. To make accurate calculations, exchanges still need to spend some effort)
4. After this, one-third (33.3%) of AO tokens will be minted every 5 minutes to AR token holders based on their ownership. In the future, two-thirds (66.6%) of AO will be minted to bridge assets into AO to strongly incentivize economic growth. (AR holders are fixed to receive 33.3% of AO airdrops, and the earlier you pledge other chain assets to enter AO, the more AO airdrops you will receive. Later, as the total amount of pledged assets increases, the number of airdrops per unit of funds will decrease. First come, first served and more get)
5. The first phase of the cross-chain bridge contract is live today. In this pre-bridge phase, your tokens will remain securely on their native network while you earn AO tokens. Once the Phase 2 cross-chain bridge is live, you will be able to deposit your assets into the new bridge contract and use them on AO - while earning rewards. You can deposit your staked Ethereum (stETH) tokens into the audited pre-bridge contract here.
6. Cross-chain rewards will begin at 11:00 AM EST on June 18, 2024.
7. You can withdraw tokens from the pre-crossbridge at any time, but you will only start earning AO after the rewards start on June 18. Rewards are paid every 24 hours.
8. AO tokens will remain locked until ~15% of supply has been minted. This will happen around February 8, 2025.
Overview
AO is a 100% fair launch token modeled after Bitcoin.
Like Bitcoin, AO has a total supply of 21 million tokens, a halving period of 4 years, and AOs are distributed every 5 minutes, with a monthly distribution of 1.425% of the remaining supply. As of June 13, there are 1,038,700 AOs in existence. This makes them very scarce. In comparison, there are 120 million Ether, 461 million Solana, and 55 billion Ripple.
AO’s minting mechanism means that, although the number of newly minted tokens halves every 4 years, there is no sudden “halving event.” Instead, the number of new tokens decreases slightly every month, creating a smooth release schedule.
While most token distribution models favor insiders over the community, AO's model upholds the principles of fairness and equal access that are at the heart of the crypto revolution. There is no presale or pre-allocation. Instead, the AO token reward mechanism incentivizes two key aspects of a successful ecosystem: economic growth and base layer security.
The mechanism is as follows:
~36% (100% + 33.3% in first 4 months) of AO tokens are minted over time by Arweave token holders, whose tokens incentivize the security of AO’s base layer – Arweave.
~64% of AO tokens are minted over time to provide external yields and bridge assets to AO to incentivize its economic growth. This creates an extremely powerful incentive to increase liquidity in the ecosystem, leading to an economic flywheel.
At the same time, without any token sales, the network funds its own ecosystem development in two ways:
Permissionless Ecosystem Funding
Once the cross-chain bridge is live, developers who attract users who deposit eligible assets into their applications will be rewarded with corresponding AO tokens. This provides developers with a permissionless, long-term revenue source without having to apply for grants, external investment, or even tokenize their projects. If these developers wish, they can also choose to share part of their AO rewards with users - allowing users to continue to earn AO tokens when using applications in the ecosystem.
Permaweb Ecosystem Development Guild
In addition, a number of dedicated ecosystem growth organizations and builders will also share in the native revenue of assets stored in the cross-chain bridge. These organizations and builders work on the core protocol of AO, marketing operations, and key infrastructure development. Over time, this funding will gradually disappear, consistent with the decay rate of network mining - helping the network cold start, but allowing it to remain a neutral shared protocol.
How to Check Your AO Balance
Arweave token holders’ AO token minting has been retroactively applied to the launch of the AO testnet on February 27, 2024 at 12:00 AM UTC. Minting AO tokens since the start of the testnet will ensure that there is enough float before the tokens enter circulation, with a goal of reaching ~15% of the total supply (3.15 million) around February 8, 2025.
If you held $AR in the months following the testnet launch, you would have accumulated approximately 0.016 AO tokens for each AR as of June 13, 2024. Keep in mind that the current supply of AO is 1/65 of that of AR.
Several major exchanges are currently investigating whether and how to pass $AO on to their users. Please contact your exchange or custodian to determine how they manage this process.
If you have been self-custodying your $AR tokens, you can easily check your balance by visiting ao.arweave.dev. Click on the Arweave tab and connect your self-custodial wallet (such as ArConnect).
Earn AO by holding AR
New AO tokens are minted every 5 minutes. Before the pre-cross-chain bridge launch on June 18, 100% of all AO tokens were minted by AR token holders. After the pre-cross-chain bridge launch, 33% of AO tokens were distributed proportionally to AR holders, and over time, ~36% of the total AO supply will be distributed to AR token holders. This process will happen automatically. (Just put your AR tokens in your wallet, no need to do anything)
The following list shows the amount of AO that a given AR balance can accumulate over the next 12 months:
1 AR: 0.016 AO 1 AR：0.016 AO
10 AR: 0.16 AO 10 AR：0.16 AO
50 AR: 0.8 AO 50 AR：0.8 AO
100 AR: 1.6 AO 100 AR：1.6 AO
500 AR: 8.0 AO 500 AR：8.0 AO
1000 AR: 16.0 AO 1000 AR：16.0 AO
The amount of newly minted $AO will decrease over time until all AO tokens have been minted. AO tokens will become transferable on or about February 8, 2025.
Be the first to cross-chain your stETH to get AO mining
NOTE: AO Cross-Chain Bridge Rewards are not available to people in the United States
During this initial phase, stETH (ETH staked in Lido) can be deposited in AO to accrue token rewards. As we begin opening AO to more of the ecosystem, other proof-of-stake assets will become eligible.
During this initial phase, pre-cross-chain assets will not be usable in applications on the AO network. Once the Phase 2 cross-chain bridge is live, you will be able to use your stETH in AO applications while still earning AO token rewards.
When you pre-crosschain stETH to AO, your original stETH deposit remains in an audited contract on the Ethereum network, while native earnings are distributed among dedicated ecosystem development organizations and builders in the AO ecosystem to drive growth. These organizations are the Open Access Supercomputing Foundation, Forward Research, Autonomous Finance, Warp Contracts, Longview Labs, and ao/acc at launch. More organizations will be added as the ecosystem grows.
You can withdraw your initial stETH deposit at any time
New AO tokens will be minted every 5 minutes after 11am EST on June 18, 2024, exactly 16 weeks after the launch of the AO testnet. After the rewards start, 66% of the newly minted $AO are allocated and distributed proportionally to wallets that pre-crossed to AO. This process happens automatically.
The exact number of AO tokens a yield provider receives depends on the proportion of assets they deposited in the contract relative to the total assets deposited. As AO opens up to more ecosystems and more than one proof-of-stake asset can be offered, the number of AO tokens received will depend not only on the proportion of assets provided, but also on the yield generated by each asset.
The list below shows how many AO tokens you can expect to accumulate for holding a given percentage of the total yield pool over the next 12 months, assuming the only asset on offer is stETH:
0.01% : 210 AO 0.01% ：210 AO
0.1%: 2.105 AO 0.1%：2.105 AO
0.5%: 10,524 AO 0.5%：10,524 AO
1%: 21,049 AO 1%：21,049 AO
5%: 105,243 AO 5%：105,243 AO
AO Tokens will become transferable on or about February 8, 2025.
How to deposit stETH to accumulate AO
NOTE: AO Cross-Chain Bridge Rewards are not available to people in the United States
You can start depositing stETH into the pre-bridge today. Rewards will begin accruing at 11am EST on June 18, 2024. Rewards are paid out daily, so it may take up to 24 hours for you to receive your first reward.
Follow these simple instructions to exchange your stETH for AO token mining:
1. Visit the Minting page on the AO website.
2. Click on the Ethereum tab and connect your Ethereum wallet (Metamask or Rabby)
3. Enter the Arweave wallet address where you want to receive AO tokens.
4. Deposit stETH into the audited contract by entering the amount you want to provide. These tokens will remain in a trustless contract on Ethereum and can be withdrawn at any time. If you do not have stETH in your wallet, you will need to exchange other tokens to get some stETH before depositing.
5. Sign a transaction in your ETH wallet to deposit stETH into the contract.
6. You will receive AO tokens directly in your designated Arweave wallet.
Smart Contract Security
The pre-bridge contract has been fully audited and is trustless: no one but you can access your tokens. The only privilege of any kind is that the Open Access Supercomputing Foundation (the organization that coordinated the launch of the AO token with the Arweave Ecosystem Organization) is able to eject the tokens from the contract in the event of a security incident - sending them back to their original owner. This feature provides an additional layer of security without placing the pre-bridged assets under the control of any centralized entity.
The contracts themselves are minor modifications of the MorpheusAI deposit contracts. These contracts are used to provide a battle-tested base, thus reducing any security risks.
in conclusion
The AO token minting process introduces a completely different model that rewards users and developers based on the principles of fairness and equal access. The different teams behind the initiative drew inspiration from Bitcoin’s groundbreaking innovations and the fundamental principles established by Satoshi Nakamoto.
The crypto industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past fifteen years. However, this expansion has not always aligned with the broader societal good. To truly advance the mission of creating a permissionless and decentralized network that safeguards user rights, it is imperative to rethink how values and incentives are aligned to achieve these goals. We hope that the principles we promote resonate with you and inspire you to join this movement as well.
HelloRWA has also set up a discord forum for sharing high-quality ao projects. Welcome to join: https://discord.gg/wsCrS3CJ6u
