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What is a mainnet?
According to 101blockchains, a mainnet is a blockchain that performs the functionality of transferring a digital currency from a sender to a recipient. Mainnet is simply the main network, whereby actual transactions take place on a distributed ledger. In other word, a mainnet is the main blockchain network for a project to run and seemed to be the final product of it.
In contrast with mainnet is testnet. A testnet is just a prototype blockchain where programmers and developers test and find faults or bugs...
Mainnets are usually followed by mainnet swap. As mentioned above, mainnet is the official (also native) blockchain of a project. After a mainnet is launched, that whole project must migrate from the old blockchain to the native one. That process calls mainnet swap.
Why it matters?
Here's my story. In early 2018, I bought a bunch of Cybermiles token (CMT) worth ~ 100 USD and stored them on my MEW. But as the serious downtrend darkened the market during that year, I shut down my computer to temporarily forget about cryptocurrencies. A year later, I came back with the intention of investing some more on cryptocurrencies and oops, I can't deposit those CMT tokens to Binance. Turned out, it had finished mainnet swap from ERC-20 to its own blockchain a few months ago. My tokens became a bunch of crap then.
The lesson here is "Always keep yourself updated on all altcoins you're investing in", especially mainnet schedule. There's usually a deadline for swapping your tokens after mainnet release. After that deadline, your tokens become worthless most of the case. You can do this by joining or following their social platforms: facebook, twitter, telegram, discord, medium, etc...
Some of the ongoing/upcoming mainnet releases:
- Insolar (INS): Mainnet realeased on 03 Feb, 2019; deadline for swapping token (from INS to XNS): 03 Aug, 2020
- Constellation (DAG): scheduled on 30 Mar, 2020
- Matic Network (MATIC): scheduled by end of Q1, 2020
- Origin Protocol (OGN): scheduled by end of Q1, 2020
- Verasity (VRA): schedule by end of 2020
Reference:
- https://101blockchains.com/what-is-a-mainnet-in-cryptocurrency/
- https://medium.com/okex-blog/what-is-a-mainnet-and-what-would-happen-when-it-is-launched-bd249d6129f7
