The first-generation blockchain projects were created as alternative currency projects, secured by cryptography and able to record peer-to-peer transactions on a publicly available distributed ledger system.
Bitcoin was the first featured blockchain technology. Then came the 2nd generation blockchain projects; many of which came on stream in the early part of the present decade. These projects were basically platforms where developers could build and host their own projects, using more advanced logic and algorithms.
Ethereum is the prototype of these second-generation blockchain projects. However, both the 1st and 2nd generation blockchain projects are yet to fully harness the power of seamless interconnectivity of blockchain networks on a global scale.
The dissimilarity of blockchain projects is a major challenge with blockchain projects. For instance, a supply chain blockchain project may need to tap into one blockchain project’s protocol to deliver its enterprise solution; it will also require a different blockchain project to deliver on say, the insurance component of its project. Having to tap into numerous isolated systems to generate a solution is a problem that the 3rd generation of blockchain networks aims to solve.
For the first time ever, discrete blockchain communication is made possible by 3rd generation blockchain projects.
AION is the world’s first 3rd generation blockchain network (Blockchain 3.0) which will be capable of allowing dissimilar systems to communicate on a global scale.
What is AION?
AION is a multi-tier blockchain network that is designed to address issues of privacy, interoperability among dissimilar networks as well as scalability; issues that were not solved by the 1st and 2nd generation blockchain networks. AION Network will allow for the passage of logic, information and value among participating blockchain projects.
History
AION was founded in 2017 by Matthew Spoke, who is also the CEO of Nuco. The project is backed by a solid team that features Chief Operating Officer Kessem Frank, CTO Jin Tu and software engineers such as Yulong Wu and Yao Sun.
How it Works
AION Network will allow projects to be created, customized and connected. AION will serve as the ecosystem supporting these networks.
What Makes up the AION Network?
The core of the AION Network is formed around the public enterprise blockchain known as AION-1. AION-1 is capable of supporting its own blockchain projects as well as those of connected external blockchain projects. It is also the fulcrum of the incentive system for projects which promote the exchange of value and logic on the AION network.
The fuel on which the AION ecosystem runs is the AION token. The AION token is used to create new applications and secures the overall network. AION is built in such a way that any blockchain project can become AION-compatible.
AION is also created to have interconnectivity with the Ethereum blockchain; thus, allowing for the AION token to be used interchangeably on both blockchain networks seamlessly. It has been created to harness the future, where thousands of new blockchain projects will be added. Many of these blockchain projects will be dissimilar; however, AION will provide the network that can potentially make all these systems connected. You can call AION, the blockchain project that will be the connecting bridge for other blockchain projects.
AION Use Cases
AION will find use in the following applications:
Healthcare: Imagine a situation where a blockchain project has been built to warehouse information from research on certain rare infectious diseases and their treatments; this information being harnessed by another blockchain project run by an international public health agency for use by their response team in dealing with an epidemic in a remote part of the world. This is what AION has the potential to deliver.
E-government: Information sharing for international cross-border crime prevention can be performed using blockchain systems; they would link government law enforcement agencies in several countries together, using the AION Network as the integrating network. It will also provide the security required for the integrity of such a connection.
Transactions on Other Blockchains: they can be confirmed on the AION network, provided they are connected to the AION protocol. This is because AION allows other blockchains to adapt to AION’s protocol without performing any upgrades on their own native protocols.
Supply chain management and many others
Where can AION Be Obtained?
Before proceeding to obtain your AION tokens, you have to understand that you will need a compatible wallet to store the AION tokens. AION can be stored in a variety of software and hardware wallets.
Hardware wallets where your AION tokens can be stored are the Ledger Nano S and Trezor hardware wallets. For those who do not want the inconvenience of carrying the hardware wallets which run the risk of being misplaced or stolen, there are also several software wallets that can be used.
AION is a token that is built on the Ethereum network, and so will work on various Ethereum wallets such as Metamask, MyEtherWallet, Jaxx, etc. Metamask also works as a browser extension, which enables users to transfer tokens to their wallets without the fear of them ending up on phished sites.
So you can simply get a hardware wallet, or you can sign up for any of the software wallets mentioned above. Once you have your wallet, put away your public and private keys as well as your 12-word password recovery phrase in a safe location and move to the next step.
Mining
The AION Mining algorithm is still being developed and tested. Those who want to acquire AION tokens are better off getting them from exchanges.
Exchange Purchase
AION can be purchased using Ethereum or Bitcoin from exchanges such as Binance and Kucoin. These exchanges do not allow the use of fiat currency to purchase cryptocurrencies. Therefore, the user must purchase either Bitcoin or Ethereum from fiat-crypto exchanges such as Coinbase or Cex.io. Then they can use these to purchase their AION tokens on the exchanges earlier mentioned.
It is cheaper to use Ethereum for this purpose and the transactions are also faster. You can use the Metamask extension to transfer your Ether to the Ethereum address of the exchange for funding of your account, as this provides a secure transfer pathway.
Future Projects
What does the future hold for the AION Network? Here is a glimpse into what AION plans to do as from 2018 up until the end of 2019.
The focus of the first phase in the Aion release schedule is the setting up of inter-chain communication and bridging infrastructure.
Phase 1 Milestones Include
Virtual Machine (FastVM with EVM source compatibility)
A modified proof-of-work consensus algorithm
The release of the Aion Virtual Machine Technical Paper, Aion Proof-of-Intelligence Paper and Aion Bridging Paper
Phase 2 of the AION Project
It kicks off later in 2018 and it will be targeted at migrating to the proposed Aion Virtual Machine (AVM) structure. Other milestones to be targeted and completed in the 2nd phase of the project include the following:
The creation of the Aion scripting language
The release of the Aion participating network paper
The development of the Proof-of-Intelligence consensus algorithm
In 2019, AION will launch the 3rd phase of its project. According to the Aion Network Economics Paper, AION Phase 3 will put finishing touches to the network infrastructure for more efficient inter-chain communication and applications. Some of the deliverables for this stage of the project include the following:
The Bridging of participating networks
The launch of the 2nd version of the AION Virtual Machine
The completion of the Validator Nomination consensus mechanism
