The Ethereum Layer 2 network Aztec launched its mainnet on Wednesday—albeit partially functional—marking the launch of one of the few fully decentralized networks in the ecosystem.
According to an email from Aztec reviewed by Cointelegraph, Aztec has launched its "Ignition" mainnet chain, which is a functional consensus-generating chain capable of producing blocks but lacks a smart contract execution layer.
According to L2Beat data, only the trustless optimistic Rollup network Facet v1 and Aztec's previous decentralized finance (DeFi) anonymization project Zk.Money are classified as having fully decentralized second-layer systems.
Along with Facet, Aztec is one of the few protocols without a centralized "auxiliary rollup," as ownership of the Rollup contracts has been relinquished, and Aztec is neither a Rollup processor nor an operator. Users or third parties must run the Rollup system themselves to withdraw or trade.
In an email sent to subscribers of the Aztec mailing list, the Aztec team emphasized that "for the next 12 months, the Aztec Foundation, core team, and investors cannot run nodes, stake, or participate in governance." "This makes Aztec the first community-launched L2 in Ethereum's history," the team told subscribers.
As of the time of publication, Aztec has not responded to Cointelegraph's request for comment.
Aztec staking is now open to holders, allowing them to participate in network consensus, earn block rewards, and influence governance decisions. The email indicated that early stakers receive higher rewards because "early participants benefit from block rewards being distributed among fewer stakers."
The staking dashboard shows that currently, 107.2 million AZTEC tokens are staked. Both investors and the development team are currently prohibited from staking, so these funds likely come from the 200 million AZTEC sold in the genesis sorter sale, which was explicitly targeted at whitelisted community members to facilitate the mainnet launch.
The minimum staking amount (also applicable to delegated staking) is 200,000 AZTEC, which, based on the ongoing community-only liquidation auction phase, is approximately $6,000. However, if demand increases, the token price may exceed the current $0.03 per AZTEC.
Aztec is currently in the token sale phase limited to whitelisted community members, which has attracted 2,209 unique bidders bidding $2.77 million in assets since it opened on November 13. This phase will end on December 1, just before the public sale begins on December 2 and ends on December 6.
Tokens purchased through the sale will be locked for at least 90 days, up to a maximum of 12 months, depending on whether the community votes for an early release. This sale will distribute 1.547 billion tokens, accounting for 14.95% of the total supply.
Aztec claims that this token sale enjoys a 75% discount relative to the implied network valuation of previous fundraising activities. According to ICO Drops, Aztec raised $2.1 million in seed funding, $17 million in Series A funding, and $100 million in Series B funding. Supporters include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, Consensys, Andreessen Horowitz, and HashKey Capital.
Nevertheless, Aztec's own token sale disclaimer warns that "any reference to previous valuations or discount percentages is solely for informing potential buyers how the initial base price of the token sale was calculated." The base price is currently set at 0.000010 ETH, or about $0.03 per AZTEC—bringing the project's fully diluted valuation to $310 million. The disclaimer also notes that unsold tokens "may be reclaimed by the foundation."
On December 6, a Uniswap pool containing 273 million AZTEC (2.64% of the supply) will go live to guide liquidity. Tokens purchased on the secondary market will not be subject to lock-up restrictions.
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
