AION Report
A solution to bring interoperability in a world of isolated systems
Aion allows dApps to operate across different networks.
The Aion network uses a Hub-and-Spoke model with the Aion-1 public blockchain at its core, purposefully built to create an ecosystem for various chains to fully cooperate. Aion is not only building a protocol to connect disparate blockchains together, but also creating the infrastructure for decentralized applications to operate across this ecosystem of networks through the Aion nexus.
Project details:
Website: https[Suspicious link removed]cutive summary : https[Suspicious link removed]cutive-summary_en-1.pdf
Technical whitepaper :
https://aion.network/media/2018/03/aion.network_technical-introduction_en.pdfWorking Product :
Mainnet v1 launched in May 2018 during Phase 1 Kilimanjaro.
Roadmap
2018 Phase 1 Kilimanjaro :
Aion’s mainnet is operating since May 2018 using an adapted equihash PoW consensus algorithm, the FastVM (modified Ethereum Virtual Machine) and the first bridging infrastructure and interchain communication.
Rebranding :
The website and some visuals have been redesigned but mostly the real change is in the message. Aion shifted its focus away from the crypto market towards the mainstream market and getting real enterprise adoption. The Aion Foundation is not referring to the project as a “Blockchain 3.0” anymore. Aion Network is now marketed as developing the roots of a framework for “the internet, decentralized”. AIONEX Summit 2018 happened on May 2nd (the event was hosted on the historic trading floor of the Toronto Stock Exchange, “building the new economy on the grounds of the old one”).
2018 Phase 2 Denali :
- Aion Virtual Machine v1 (AVM)
- Proof of Intelligence (PoI) Consensus Algorithm
- Aion Scripting Language
2019 Phase 3 Everest:
- 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.
- AVM2 : This Virtual Machine will be an evolution of AVM with a focus on higher performance.
- Complete Validator Nomination Stage (which is inducing the Hybrid DPoS/PoI model).
Technicals
Market Cap: $90 M at the time of writing
Circulating Supply: 225 M AION at the time of writing
Circulating Supply in Nov. 2018 (after Token Release Schedule Program completion): 261 M AION
Total Supply: 465 934 587 AION
Funds raised through ICO: $23 M
Public ICO canceled after successful private sale & pre sale.
ICO Price: 50 cents in private sale and from 75 to 95 cents during the presale.
Today’s price: $0.40
ERC20: Yes (The AION token was initially being offered on the Ethereum blockchain as an ERC-20 token. These ERC-20 tokens can be seamlessly converted to AION coins, and will continue to be able to flow freely back and forth between these two blockchains though the bridge)
Exchanges: most of the volume found on Binance. Also trading on KuCoin, LAToken and Bancor.
Elevator Pitch
“The Aion network is a multi-tier blockchain network designed to support a future where many blockchains exist to solve unique industry problems and to power the services of the modern world. Aion will become the common protocol used for these blockchains, enabling more efficient and decentralized systems to be built. The Aion protocol enables the development of a federated blockchain network, making it possible to seamlessly integrate dissimilar blockchain systems in a multi-tier hub-and-spoke model, similar to the internet.”
Introduction
PC’s in the 1980’s: innovative, exciting, full of promise, are some of the descriptive adjectives which come to mind. However, while the machines themselves were promising, it wasn’t until access to the internet, and subsequent scaling and broadening of access, that the world was truly transformed. One can draw analogies from this experience to blockchain’s development since 2009. The first generation of blockchain was characterized by being an alternative currency platform, Bitcoin, birthed by a desire to democratize finance and avoid trusting central governments in the aftermath of the financial crisis. The second generation of blockchain involved the establishment of platforms such as Ethereum to build decentralized applications upon¹. This is more or less where we stand today. The blockchain space is filled with a handful of protocols and then hundreds of chains that have distinct advantages and shortcomings. While the rate of innovation has been increasing, as well as that of excitement and adoption (which can be seen through the popularization of ICO’s in 2017), there is one key issue preventing larger scale adoption and growth. Coincidentally, it is the same issue which plagued those same PC’s in the 1980s. It’s about time we enter the third generation of blockchain: interoperability, and through it, scalability.
In the current development of emerging technology, blockchains are isolated, and rely mostly on centralized intermediaries, such as exchanges, over which to exchange coins and tokens based on the different chains. This irony defeats one of the founding purposes of blockchain technology, which is the ability to interact and communicate on a decentralized basis. Current blockchains have performance and scalability issues, essentially intertwined with each other, which serve as additional roadblocks to further growth and adoption. In addition, privacy requirements from the enterprise industry (healthcare, finance, government agencies), make the current public construction of blockchains unsuitable, but also render private chains useless unless they can fulfill ALL the required functions of an enterprise firm, which is simply unfeasible for any blockchain². This critical issue of a lack of interoperability between blockchains is the next major hill over which the blockchain community must climb in order to further increase adoption and scalability. AION is aiming to just that.
~ Stories from the Enterprise Industry ~
Achieving interoperability between blockchains is going to exponentially increase the adoption and development of this technology, and the enterprise industry is going to be a leader in this growth. AION’s connection to this industry stems from the fact its founder, Matthew Spoke, as well as other critical members of the team, hail from this very industry, and worked with enterprise clients which often talked about the same problems plaguing their industry. Since 2014, before AION was founded, Nuco the parent company, has achieved some very interesting use cases for blockchain in the enterprise industry. For example, in a panel discussion about blockchain interoperability in business, TMX (the group owning Canada’s stock exchanges and clearing houses), represented by their Managing Director of Enterprise Innovation, John Lee, talked about how Nuco helped one of their subsidiaries, a supply chain management company for natural gas pipelines. The company looked at bilateral agreements across pipelines and used the software provided by Nuco to decrease the reconciliation of mistakes/breaches in the pipeline from 30 days to just 2 minutes. The real-time information provided by the software made the time-consuming manual checking process obsolete. This incredible improvement in efficiency helps the users of the pipeline avoid having to delve into natural gas reserves, and data provided from the blockchain used to manage the pipeline was effective to inform insurers about the relative riskiness of different areas of the pipeline (owned by different entities), which affected insurance premiums³. The power of real time information and reconciliation, as well as increased data provision allowing for enhanced analytics, significantly changed how this particular enterprise industry firm conducted its operations. In the same discussion, Somak Chattarjee, the head of blockchain at Deloitte Canada, agreed that there will be multiple networks in the future, and some will fulfill certain functions better than others. Because of this reality, large industry players are going to need access to multiple channels, while providing a user interface compiling them into one point of access; in other words, interoperability is the key to adoption by industries. For example, say there is a healthcare service provider looking to provide its services through blockchain. It cannot place patient’s private health records on a public chain; for this storage and transfer of information, a proprietary chain has to be used by the service provider. However, that information is used to determine things like plan eligibility and coverage, which must naturally be connected to a payment mechanism, and these functions won’t be fulfilled on the same chain. The payment function will be conducted through a blockchain specializing in payments processing, with a focus on efficiency, speed, and scalability. In addition to all of this, the user is going to need an application to access all of these functions, making it a requirement that the service provider be able to connect these chains to each other, with the ability to send information and value from one to the next, and have a dApp built atop the connecting network which is able to gather information and logic from each one of the chains. This is how AION disrupts the enterprise industry: by allowing them to place their services on the appropriate blockchains which specialize in different functions, segregating them in functionality but not in communication, still garnering the ability to have the chains, thereby the services, interact and exchange information and logic, to provide an optimized service and user experience through an application encompassing this entire infrastructure.
Vision
Technology
The core AION team can be traced back to Deloitte Canada, where they worked on problems plaguing the enterprise industry. Matthew Spoke left to create Nuco, a software engineering company dedicated to creating blockchain solutions for enterprise companies. According to the Whitepaper, the three primary and founding principles of the AION network are to Federate, Scale, and Spoke: AION federates by enabling the sending of data and value between AION-compliant blockchains, including its own AION-1 Network, Ethereum, and other blockchains. It scales by enhancing fast transactions and increased data capacity. And spokes by creating custom public and private chains which maintain interoperability but allow publishers to customize settings (such as governance, consensus mechanisms or issuance).
This interoperability is achieved through Connecting Networks, which fulfill the following functions: route messages between chains through a standard bridging protocol, and provide decentralized accountability. AION-1 will serve as the genesis Connecting Network, however, AION makes it very clear that there will be more than one connecting network in the future, so long as they fulfill the aforementioned functions. The function of connecting the different blockchains to a connecting network so they may interact with each other is fulfilled by bridges. Bridges are essentially decentralized pools of nodes which are created through the staking of tokens. The participating and staking nodes in bridges become validators for interchain transactions. A registry contract on the connecting network keeps track of bridges which can be used, and proves transactions through the root hash. Following a fee payment, these bridges sign and broadcast interchain transactions. In addition, they inform the connecting network of merkle hash updates of the participating networks⁴. A BFT-based (Byzantine-Fault-Tolerance) consensus algorithm is used to approve transactions, in which ⅔ of bridge validators are required to approve the transaction to a Connecting Network. Each bridge is like a stand-alone blockchain with its own set of validators. A validator should be able to stake on multiple bridges simultaneously, along with staking on Aion mainchain creating different staking opportunities.⁵ The process is truly democratic in the sense that multiple bridges can compete to be used by different connecting networks to connect participating blockchains, incentivizing optimal fees and technical competence. This is the essence of the idea of AION’s attempt to create a mechanism to enable interchain communication; a closer look at AION-1 is merited.
AION’s genesis Connecting Network and blockchain, AION-1, includes two critical features: the AION Virtual Machine (AVM) and the Delegated Hybrid Consensus mechanism (the latter of which has been briefly explained). In this consensus mechanism, the validators mentioned earlier, responsible for block creation and maintaining a positive reputation, are supported by Aion coins stakers and by solvers, who use the Proof of Intelligence algorithm to prove computations⁶. Together, they form part of the consensus algorithm which the bridges use to validate transactions to the Connecting Network, which then routes them to the intended blockchain. The reason AION envisions and encourages competition between bridges, apart from the reasons mentioned above, is that the delegation of responsibility effectively spreads security risk and avoids masternodes⁷.
The AVM, on the other hand, is the mechanism responsible for running dApps on AION-1. Most existing blockchains are already compatible with Aion⁸, as long as they support the following functions: support atomic broadcast and transactions, be able to distinguish interchain and regular transactions, be aware of bridge consensus protocol and store valid transactions, and be able to implement locktime to temporarily hold tokens, all per the Whitepaper. The innovative aspect of the AVM is that dApps built on AION-1 will have the ability to pull logic and information from multiple chains without a centralized layer. This means that an application for a bank using the AION-1 blockchain can retrieve information and transfer value from multiple chains that the bank is using, while providing users with an application to view and interact with all of these functions. While the technology is more complicated than what has been presented here so far, the essence of how AION-1 works as a connector of blockchains, as well as a platform for dApp creation, is what is important to understand when discussing use cases, and how AION is going to disrupt the enterprise industry and entire blockchain community.
The other important technical aspect that AION has to offer is its already established bridge with Ethereum. This makes the AION tokens on its AION-1 blockchain immediately interchangeable with ERC-20 tokens on the Ethereum protocol. This is an important step for AION, as it prefaces the establishment of a generic bridge, under the framework explained above, through which the AION network can connect to a multitude of other blockchains. On May 2nd, 2018, AION’s team proved their concept in a live demonstration, transferring AION ERC-20 tokens to the native AION network through their trademark bridging mechanism⁹. This initial demonstration of interoperability with the second largest blockchain network today is a massive step in the right direction for AION, and proves that their concept is less of an idea and more of a work in progress which has already experienced successful implementation.
Token Utility
The AION blockchain will be fueled and made viable by the AION coin. The coin has a broad-scope utility in that it powers the native AION-1 blockchain, as well as support inter-chain transactions on bridges to other blockchains. In addition, interoperable dApps and spoke chains will also use it.
As mentioned above, AION advertises two types of staking rewards. The first involves staking as a validator on AION cross-chain bridges. The second related to staking on the native AION blockchain. This second type of staking reward is set to come in 2019 when consensus on the network changes from current Proof of Work to a Delegated Proof of Stake hybrid. The staking rewards on the main AION blockchain are determined by AION monetary policy, whereas staking rewards on AION bridges are determined by the bridge builders, who set the fees. This is explained in further detail later in this paper, and relates to the democratization of the cross-chain transaction model which AION envisions for the future.¹⁰
Value Proposition and Apps
Now that a general understanding regarding the technical background of AION’s network has been established, one can better envision the applications and use cases which AION will enable in the future. The first major enterprise industry which this company can disrupt is supply chain management and logistics. What Nuco achieved through its software on the natural gas pipeline is an example to get the gist of what AION can really do. The issue with this example is that a pipeline is relatively straightforward, from start to finish, and the product can be quite easily localized, from origin to transit to destination. What about a situation in which the supply chain is of global scale, the product is tangible and traceable, and multiple companies are involved?
Using AION-1 as a connecting network between the blockchains of the different entities along the path of the supply chain, relevant parties would be able to view real time and historical information, from provenance to product, all the while achieving instant reconciliation. In such a scenario, a smart-contract-supporting blockchain such as Ethereum could be connected to participating blockchains to automatically trigger events along the supply chain, such as delivery, reorder, and so on. Through the integration of RFID chip reading applications built on other blockchains, consumers too could conceivably monitor a product they ordered as it moves along the supply chain, to ensure it is ethically sourced, track the progress of a delivery, and much more. The ability for a company to be able to use different, specialized blockchains to support the different functions within their operations, without sacrificing the interconnectedness of traditional ERP systems, as well as significantly improving reconciliation, speed, and monitoring, is truly groundbreaking.
Another advantage of this development, expressed by Deloitte’s Somak Chattarjee, is the ability to introduce financing to the lower layers of multi-layered supply chains, such as that of Foxcon¹¹. He explains that the smaller layers of such an enterprise are unable to access capital due to the fact that financiers don’t possess, or trust, data provided by those lower levels. With the inherent trustability of a blockchain system, and with AION’s ability to connect those blockchains to each other and monitor the supply chain across multiple chains, this could open an entire new business segment to financing. This could quite possibly improve efficiency, quality, and things like working conditions, down the road of large supply chains. In an AMA hosted by AION, Richa Vajpeyi, the head of marketing at the company, expressed that large organizations could use AION to hedge against the infrastructure risk associated to using a single network in particular. Smaller groups of stakeholders could also be catered to through the connection of their customized private chains to larger blockchains¹². Therefore, AION allows organizations to funnel transactions to the network of greatest efficiency, while hedging the risk of relying on a single network.
Another interesting and perhaps less discussed application of the AION network is fundraising, as the network supports company ICO’s. New developers who choose to use AION’s AVM to build their blockchains and subsequent dApps can use the network to take advantage of all the benefits of interconnectivity, as well as use smart contracts to customize their blockchain’s token economics and governance system. These smart contracts built on blockchains on the AION network will be able to receive and convert data from other networks through the bridging technology described earlier. This creates an incentive for projects to construct their blockchains using the AVM and host subsequent ICOs on their AION-supported chain because they would be able to leverage all of the interconnectivity functions which AION-1 offers, create dApps which span multiple chains, and generally transfer tokens/coins, information, and logic through transactions and smart contracts. These functions simply do not exist in the current state of development of blockchain technology.
Currently, one of the more popularized and mainstream applications of blockchain technology is the digitization of personal identities. The advantages of keeping birth certificates, health records, passports, and other sensitive information on the blockchain include the permanence and inalterability of the information, as well as the ease of access and ownership. However, these advantages are limited due to the isolation of blockchains; one would have to keep their digital passport on a passport blockchain for travel, their health records on a healthcare blockchain for hospitals, and so on. While a step in the right direction, this remains incredibly inefficient, until AION-1 enters the picture. If users are able to digitize this sensitive information and send it to different networks using AION’s bridging capabilities, there would be incredible potential to streamline processes. For example, the same digital identification used to pass through security at an airport (and instantly verify whether or not the person has travel restrictions, valid identity, etc), could be transferred to an investment firm’s blockchain to ensure the user complies with KYC/AML regulations. Rather than having to enter information across the web on centralized databases, which inherently lack security, one could keep their information on the blockchain, access it with a private key, and send it to networks which request the information instantly and securely, in a decentralized manner.
In August 2018, Northern Block announced the launch of Titan Suite, a dApp building product designed specifically with AION developers in mind. Titan will consist of two primary components, the Command Line Interface, and the Integrated Development Environment. Simply put, an IDE is a suite which provides developers with the basic tools required to write software. A CLI is just a means for users to interact with a computer program and receive prompts while providing inputs. The provision of these tools will facilitate AION developers when they are creating dApps to run on the AION blockchain, as well as those which will have inter-chain capabilities.¹³
Another recent development and application of AION’s technology came in July 2018, when VeriTransfer announced the first proof of concept based blockchain solution for firearm rights possession and transfer. Essentially firearm ownership rights are decentralized on the blockchain, also providing the possibility of storing government licenses on chain. By scanning QR codes of user licenses, ownership rights can seamlessly and transparently be transferred between individuals or at the point of sale. AION backed smart contracts power a significant portion of the VeriTransfer network. Individuals are issued licenses for ownerships, and firearms are digitally stored and associated to an individual holder, using smart contracts. The firearms are stored as non-fungible tokens. The ability to transfer the licenses, as well as the tokens, between individuals with the ability to store them on different chains thanks to AION’s interoperability, will serve to make the ownership and transfer of firearms more transparent, safe, and effective.¹⁴
Background and Team
Matthew Spoke, Founder and CEO
“Having spent more than four years working exclusively in the blockchain space, I’ve committed my professional career to seeing this technology achieve its potential within enterprise markets. I’ve had the pleasure of working closely with some of the world’s foremost leaders on this topic, and I look forward to playing a part in the continued development of this technology in the years to come”
Member of Board of Directors of Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, original founder and CEO of Nuco before AION became a separate foundation, former fintech advisor for Ontario Securities Commission, former founding steward at Muskoka Group to advance the blockchain ecosystem, former consultant and blockchain specialist at Deloitte Canada’s Rubix, focused on disrupting the enterprise industry with blockchain technology,
Kesem Frank, co-founder and COO
Co-founder of Nuco with Matthew Spoke, also former consultant and blockchain specialist at Deloitte Canada’s Rubix, former program fellow at Creative Destruction Lab, an organization focused on helping science and tech entrepreneurial ventures to attract funding and grow
Jin Tu, CTO
CTO of Nuco, former blockchain architect and lead developer at Rubix, former senior risk engineer at Morgan Stanley’s CVA team, former senior software developer at China Securities Depository Trust & Clearing
Ian Chan, Operations Senior Executive
Another member of the Deloitte brigade which has become the core of AION, Ian Chan has joined the team in July 2018.¹⁵
Former Google Alliance Executive at Deloitte Canada, blockchain executive for enterprises
Former managing partner of the CIBC account for HP
Former leader of Thomas Cook corporate foreign exchange program
Jay Tseng, lead engineer
“Blockchain engineer focus on kernel improvement & development, API development, blockchain service build & deploy”
Also fulfilled this function as part of Nuco, former technical consultant at Fullrich Capital where he developed a research system using data fetched from Taiwan Stock Exchange, filtered stock data through technical analysis, and auto-connected stocks to related interior investment reports, former senior software engineer at NUUO Inc, a video surveillance company
Jason Burke, CFO
CEO and founder of Positive Ventures Group, a firm which lends corporate level financial advisory services to multiple companies, including AION; also currently the CFO at Orion Biotechnology, Fusebill, BetterU Education, Sensibill, and reDock. Former CFO of IBM’s Business Analytics Division
Richa Vajpeyi, head of Marketing
Former national accounts coordinator and retail, consumer, and industry marketing coordinator at KPMG, former marketing manager at BrandSpark International, current director of accente, a Toronto-based lifestyle products company
Advisors
Anthony Di lorio
“Anthony Di Iorio is a serial entrepreneur, VC, community organizer, and thought leader in the field of decentralized technologies. Born and raised in Toronto, Di Iorio is the former Chief Digital Officer of the TMX Group and Toronto Stock Exchange, founder and CEO of Decentral, a software development company focused on blockchain technologies, and founder and CEO of Jaxx, a multi-token, blockchain interface that provides a unified experience across 9 platforms and devices. In 2013, Di Iorio funded, and along with Vitalik Buterin and 3 others founded the smart contract platform Ethereum”
Eric Gu
Co-founder of ViewFin, the creator of Metaverse in 2014, which was/is China’s first public blockchain based on PoW consensus, as the company focuses on integrating blockchain as a service to industries such as financial services, medicine, the arts, and more
Former director of business development in the big data space at Hua Data Technology of Shanghai
Steven Nerayoff
ICO legal architect for Ethereum in 2014, former board member of Bancor, CEO and founder of VC firm Maple Ventures, founder and CEO of CloudParc, a smart city platform with data collection/analytics and automation focus
CEO and founder of Alchemist, a blockchain advisory and investment firm with involvement in Ethereum, tZero, RSK, Lisk, ZCash, Bancor, Global Blockchain Technology Corporation, Ripio Credit Network, and Factom
Jeff Pulver
“Known as a globally renowned Internet thought leader. In 1995 defined “VON” to stand for Voice/Video on the Net. From 1997 to 2008 he hosted/produced the VON Conferences. In 2009 started the #140conf events. Founded MoNage in 2016. His work in Washington is the reason services like: FaceTime, Messenger and WhatsApp are free. Has influenced the creation of numerous other startups. Currently exploring the intersection of: Computing, AI and Communications. Strategic advisor to a number of Blockchain projects”
Vice Chairman at Alchemist, founder of MONage, a messaging focused organization dedicated to driving the technology forward into new spaces including blockchain
John Lee
Current managing director of enterprise innovation at the TMX Group (encompassing Canada’s major stock exchanges and clearing houses), former senior executive of the USAM Group, former Head of Global Equities at TD Securities
Eric Wetlaufer
Member of the Board of Directors of the TMX Group, former senior Managing Director of the Canada Pension Plan investment board, former group CIO of Fidelity Investments in Boston, former partner at Oxhead Capital Management, former CIO of Putnam Investments
Salim Ismail
“Salim is the best-selling author of Exponential Organizations, a sought-after business strategist, and a serial entrepreneur, having founded technology companies including Confabb, PubSub Concepts, and Ångströ, which was acquired by Google in 2010. He led Brickhouse, Yahoo!’s internal incubator, and was recently named an XPRIZE Foundation Board member. Salim is also Founding Executive Director of Singularity University; Chairman of ExO Works; Founder of The ExO Foundation; an Aion Advisory Board member; and General Partner of Rokk3r Fuel ExO Venture Fund”
Michael Terpin
Founder and CEO of Transform Group, which has represented/serviced over 150 blockchain companies including Augur, Bancor, Bittrex, Counterparty, Dash, Ethereum, Factom, Gnosis, Golem, Kraken, NEM, Neo, Qtum, Tether and ZCoin
Founder and CEO of CoinAgenda, a conference series connecting mainstream investors to blockchain companies
Co-founder and Chairman of BitAngels
Founder and former Chairman of Marketwire, currently the third-largest press release newswire in the world under the NASDAQ
Moe Levin
CEO of Keynote Global, responsible for organizing and hosting several important blockchain conferences such as the first global blockchain conference in Amsterdam in 2013, the platform for the Ethereum launch in Miami 2014, several installations of the World Blockchain Conference, and more
Advisor to tZero, Wanchain, 0xcert, among others
Member of the Executive Committee of the Global Blockchain Council, a 30 company council based in Dubai dedicated to blockchain innovation and growth
Company Culture and Mission
AION was originally created under the umbrella of Nuco, which operated as a for-profit company. This officially changed in July 2018, when AION became a non-profit foundation, separated from Nuco¹⁶. In an article published on Medium, the company added “This restructuring will allow for the launch of new strategic Aion ecosystem initiatives, including many new 3rd party companies and products; some of which have already started and will be announced in the coming months”.¹⁷
This move is consistent with the expressions made by core members of the AION team. In an aforementioned AMA with the AION community, Richa Vajpeyi mentioned that adoption is more valuable than self-promotion at AION. In a separate AMA, Matthew Spoke insisted that the company’s priority was to establish technical credibility first and foremost, although in the second half of 2018 AION would begin to provide more updates on finances and token metrics analysis.¹⁸ He also mentioned that they had a goal of becoming a top 10 company in terms of market cap by mid-2019, although he placed more emphasis on market awareness, which market cap happens to be a relatively good indicator for. In reality, AION is governed by the interests of its users, and works to incentivize participants in their network to behave in a way which is conducive to the growth of the community.¹⁹
Their emphasis on growth was amplified by the cancellation of their public token sale earlier this year, and subsequent enhancement of the TRS program that incentivized long-term investment into the project. The TRS allows AION token holders to send their tokens to the TRS address and receive a minimum 292.73% redistribution bonus by November 2018. ²⁰
Kesem Frank assessed that AION has moves from having a platform-driven focus, such as that of Amazon or Google, to a network focus, which is open and expanding. Becoming a foundation, in addition to being an open source project, means that AION is committed to hosting an ecosystem which grows organically, and doesn’t have to be significantly driven by management through things like airdrops or pump-and-dump schemes.²¹ All of these actions and expressions point to a company with a vision to be a key player in the future of the world, disrupting industries, enhancing accessibility, and democratizing processes for the better. Investors should realize that if this vision comes to fruition, value will inherently follow. The benchmark for AION shouldn’t be current ICO’s, but to be an internet institution of tomorrow.
Partnerships
Moog
“The blockchain landscape is like the railroad system of the 1850’s, when there were multiple switching networks. At some point there had to be a consolidation of gauges so that railroads could use each other’s tracks to reach more customers. That same phenomenon exists today in blockchain. There’s going to need to be a hub. For us, Aion is that hub,” said James Regenor, Director of Transformative Technologies at Moog. “Aion will allow us to move data between the multiple blockchains that could be present in our supply chain. We think this is a very important step, and we’re glad to be participating in it”.²²
Bitt
“Companies such as Bitt, which are blockchain agnostic, can benefit from using the Aion Network to achieve its objectives, as it will allow for the company to bridge multiple production environments and systems in a truly decentralized way. “We are excited to have Aion as part of the blockchain hub in Barbados and look forward to exploring a partnership with them to achieve Bitt’s Settlement Network and financial inclusion goals using the Bitt payment ecosystem.” Oliver Gale, Co-Founder Bitt”.²³
Icon
ICON, AION, and Wanchain have formed the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance, with the common goal of achieving interconnectivity between blockchains.²⁴ ICON is based primarily in South Korea, but they offer a similar proposition as AION, with a bridging network used to connect participating blockchains. These bridges also support smart contracts, giving them the ability to traverse multiple chains.²⁵ However, as mentioned several times by Matthew Spoke, interconnectivity is such a critical and large field to be developed in the future of the crypto space that to think that a single network will be responsible for connecting the whole world is simply foolish. These are two companies with similar visions which are collaborating to achieve that vision as soon as possible, and with the greatest efficiency and effectiveness possible for all stakeholders.
Wanchain
Similar to AION, Wanchain allows developers to create blockchains on its network. Its value proposition deals with cross-chain asset transfer, which also supports smart contracts. A proof of stake mechanism is used by a validating node(s) to translate protocol from Wanchain to the participating network. Different to AION and ICON, Wanchain sees themselves holding a direct stake in the financial world of the future, through which users can use Wanchain as a digital bank of sorts, with full convertibility of assets across chains, as well as asset transfer and smart contract compliance across different blockchains.²⁶
Enigma
“Enigma is an off-chain peer-to-peer network that enables different parties to jointly store and run computations on data while keeping data completely private through the use of secret contracts. Connecting Aion with the Enigma secure multi party computation platform enables users and developers to process sensitive data, computation and storage from the Aion ecosystem in the off-chain Enigma network. Through Aion’s powerful bridging protocol, which allows for transacting with multiple blockchains without involving a centralized integration mechanism, the overall accessible network of the Enigma platform will be securely enhanced. This would allow Enigma’s secret contracts — smart contracts that keep sensitive data encrypted at all times — to be available across the Aion network”.³⁰ Enigma plans to use Aion to bring their Secret Contracts to every blockchain, which could disrupt the $50 Billion privacy coins sector dramatically (as suggested in this article from Tyler Jewell:
https://medium.com/@LibertyCrypto/the-future-of-blockchain-is-private-cd5b5ba7ee95), especially taking into consideration that most of them can’t host dApps (Monero, Dash, ZCash…).
Bancor
Bancor and AION teamed up in late 2017. Bancor’s Smart Tokens allow users to exchange ERC-20 tokens instantly through smart contracts, as opposed to centralized exchanges. The purpose of this convertibility is to sidestep the illiquidity that plagues smaller market cap coins on exchanges, in which there are often imbalances between buyers and sellers.²⁷ The advantage of the partnership with AION is that Bancor’s Smart Tokens will no longer be limited to the Ethereum network, expanding the amount of tokens which can be included in the Smart Token mechanism, thereby increasing general liquidity in the crypto currency market. The Bancor Protocol will be able to convert across participating blockchains in the AION network, either existing networks which have adapted to become compatible, or networks built using AION’s AVM.²⁸ Basically, Bancor has the opportunity to build the first blockchain-agnostic DEX to exchange across and between several blockchains, unlike Ethereum specific dexes (EtherDelta, 0x, Kyber, OmiseGo, EthFinex, etc.) that can only exchange tokens within this single blockchain.²⁹
Metaverse
“This partnership will focus on exploring the ability to transact native digital assets on the Metaverse protocol across other blockchains and providing access to new user bases, industry or geography based assets and the unique attributes of other blockchains. In addition, we will be investigating connecting and leveraging protocol-specific oracles across networks, exponentially increasing the quality and accessibility of trusted oracles”.³¹
SONM
“The Aion and SONM teams recently met in Toronto to discuss the technical roadmap for Aion’s upcoming public network release and the opportunity for SONM’s platform to support and participate. SONM is excited to support Aion’s technical roadmap by providing the community with the ability to rapidly deploy the Aion kernel. SONM will also be an early (November 2017) adopter in mining Aion upon the release of the public network”.³²
SingularityNET
SingularityNET is exploring how AION-1 can be utilized to scale their platform and expand their possibilities. The company sells AI services on demand to developers and companies alike. AI agents on different blockchains will be able to communicate and interact with other agents and purchasers of services. This may allow AI agents on different chains in the future to leverage information from each other and use this to become more effective, execute functions, and learn. A GE washing machine and a Whirlpool refrigerator, for example, could communicate to optimize electricity usage in a smart-home setting; while operating and storing information on different chains, they would be able to communicate and interact through SingularityNET powered by AION-1.
Investors
Goldenwise Capital Management
Ripple Ventures
Transform Group
YouBi Capital
Jaxx Wallet integration
Competition
Aion vs. Icon
AION’s two primary competitors also happen to be part of an alliance with them, being ICON and Wanchain. The advantages and disadvantages of both networks have already been presented, but out of the two, the one which most closely emulates the concept which AION is offering would be ICON. Wanchain, while enabling interoperability, is aiming to be the center of future crypto finance, whereas these two networks act more so as facilitators on which to build applications (financial dApps are most certainly included in this concept) which gather information and logic from different blockchains, through transactions and smart contracts. ICON, through its Loopchain technology, aims to connect otherwise isolated blockchains through “community representatives” which communicate with the ICON blockchain; these community nodes are responsible for governance of their respective chains. Also similar to AION, members of these participating communities can built dApps on top of the ICON loopchain-based blockchain with interchain connectivity.³³ Differences present themselves primarily in the bridging technology used by the two companies, as well as the fact that ICON has so far been operating almost exclusively in the South Korean crypto space, whereas AION, based in Toronto, has achieved more diverse enterprise partnerships. However, it is important to recall that Matthew Spoke himself said that people have different hypotheses to solve this problem of interoperability, and that the space is big enough to support, and most likely require, multiple solutions.³⁴ It is not a far cry to believe that both of these companies, as well as others yet to be established, will be driving and participating in the development of the crypto community through achieving interoperability.
Aion vs. Polkadot
Amongst the list of other credible competitors to AION are Cosmos and Polkadot. Polkadot, founded by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, aims to make chains parallel to each other through a relay chain which facilitates the authentication of transactions. Polkadot also offers pooled security for members of its network, irrespective of protocol, which allows newer chains to benefit from shared security on the network without having to develop it from scratch. Their DOT token acts as the incentive mechanism in the network, similar to AION coins, through which validators are compensated, fees are paid, etc, although it is also required to create parachains by bonding the tokens; unbonding these tokens results in the removal of the parachain from the network.³⁵ ³⁶ Polkadot also offers bridges to connect to existing networks, as well as the inherent interoperability of the parachains which are developed with this function from their genesis. However, the Polkadot network does not possess the proprietary VM which Aion does, nor is it very abundant with regards to smart contract interoperability or dApp development. The mainnet is set to launch in Q3 2019, so there is still some time until we see the true functionality of this network; AION has already proved its initial functionality through its two-way Ethereum bridge. In general, AION seems to offer much more user friendly explanations as to the potential developments on their blockchain and the applications and use cases, in my experience. However, Polkadot has a robust background and strong following through Parity Technologies, and certainly poses as a competitor in this space.
Aion vs. Cosmos
Cosmos is built upon the Tendermint, a BFT consensus mechanism like the one AION uses to connect participating networks to connecting networks through its bridges. Like AION, Cosmos aims to be the connecting network at the center of this interoperability, which includes both public and private blockchains, opening the gates to the enterprise industry which has been extensively explained in this paper.³⁷ Cosmos plants to release Ethermint, an high speed implementation of Ethereum built on top of Tendermint by Q4 2018; this essentially replicates the existing network, although Cosmos has also created “Peg Zones”, its version of bridges, to connect to the original Ethereum network as well. Again, the Cosmos token, the Atom, is used as the incentive mechanism to keep the network functional, fair, and growing. Cosmos is releasing an SDK to build chains on top of their network, and have announced that building dApps will be possible on the Ethermint network. So far Cosmos gave more focus on solving Ethereum scaling issues. The lack of VM to transfer logic between blockchains and the lack of incentives for third party devs to bridge with other blockchains should slow down its adoption and we can expect Cosmos to experience a few roadblocks in the future.
Accomplishments in 2018 and goals for 2019
Outlook
AION began as a potentially transformative company and has since morphed into a conceptual framework which transcends what normal companies in the blockchain space are about. It is not often that a project is run by a group of highly competent individuals which are attacking a fundamental problem in the blockchain space with an innovative solution meant to create change rather than money-grab and attract investors. The AION team currently includes 60 members in 4 different offices in North America, Europe, and Asia, and the team has plans to expand to 100 members and more offices. In the blockchain community, both the physical presence and number of team members are extremely impressive. So far, the team has had no gaffes, they update constantly on developments within the organization, and demonstrate a true interest in what it is that they are doing.
For dApp developers, AION presents several advantages. First of all, it makes centralized token swaps a thing of the past, and significantly expands the potential reach for startups by connecting them to numerous networks, or take advantage of the scalability of the AION network as a spoke chain. This also implies an inherent security advantage with the absence of centralized token swaps. There are also legal implications with this development, since centralized token swaps are regulated by the SEC, while decentralized token swaps are not because of the fact that the company is never in possession of users’ tokens.
Of course, AION’s potential will only be realized if other existing blockchains make themselves compatible with the network and create the infrastructure for more bridges. More importantly, AION’s success depends on developers creating new blockchains using the AION network. AION is truly a pure concept in that it depends squarely on usage; if it becomes popular, it will become one of the most important blockchain companies in the crypto space. If it doesn’t, it will be relatively meaningless and the tools it possesses will not garner much use on a small scale basis. However, based on the evidence presented in this paper, there is plenty of reason to believe that the former is much more likely to occur than the latter.
