Ethereum Layer 2 network Aztec launched its mainnet on Wednesday – albeit with partial functionality – marking the launch of one in all the few fully decentralized networks within the ecosystem.
According to an email from Aztec seen by Cointelegraph, Aztec has launched its mainnet chain “Ignition,” a functional consensus-generating chain that generates blocks, but without the smart contract execution layer.
According to L2Beat, only trustworthy bullish rollup network Facet v1 and Aztec's legacy decentralized finance (DeFi) anonymization project Zk.Money are classified as a Level 2 system with full decentralization.
Along with Facet, Aztec is one in all the few protocols without centralized “training wheels,” as ownership of the rollup contract has been waived and Aztec is neither a rollup processor nor an operator. Users or third parties must run the rollup system themselves to make withdrawals or transactions.
In an email to Aztec mailing list subscribers, the Aztec team emphasized that “neither the Aztec Foundation, the core team, nor investors will give you the option to operate nodes, provide equity investments, or take part in governance in the subsequent 12 months.” “This makes Aztec the primary community-launched L2 in Ethereum history,” the team told subscribers.
Source: Aztecs
Aztec didn’t reply to Cointelegraph's request for comment via publication.
Aztec Stakes at the moment are live
Aztec staking is now available to holders, allowing them to take part in network consensus, earn block rewards, and influence governance decisions. The email states that early stakeholders receive higher rewards because “early participants profit from the distribution of block rewards amongst fewer stakers.”
The staking dashboard states that 107.2 million AZTEC tokens are currently staked. Both investors and the event team are currently prohibited from placing stakes, so it is probably going that these funds got here from the 200 million AZTEC sold as a part of the Genesis sequencer sale, which is explicitly geared toward whitelisted community members with the intention to boot the mainnet.
The minimum stake amount (also applies to delegated stakes) is 200,000 AZTEC, which is roughly $6,000 at the costs of the present Community-only Continuous Clearing Auctions phase. Still, the tokens could sell at higher prices than the present $0.03 per AZTEC if demand increases.
The ongoing token sale
Aztec is currently locally members-only phase of its token sale and has received assets price $2.77 million from 2,209 individual bidders since its launch on November thirteenth. This phase ends on December 1st, just before the general public sale begins on December 2nd and ends on December sixth.
The tokens acquired through the sale can be locked for no less than 90 days and as much as 12 months, depending on whether the community votes for early release. The sale will distribute 1.547 billion tokens, representing 14.95% of the entire supply.
Aztec claims that the token sale can be at a 75% discount to the implied network valuation from previous fundraising events. According to ICO Drops data, Aztec has raised $2.1 million in its seed round, $17 million in its Series A funding round, and $100 million in its Series B funding rounds. Backers include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm, Consensys, Andreessen Horowitz and HashKey Capital.
However, Aztec's own token sale disclaimer notes that “any reference to a previous valuation or percentage discount is meant solely to tell potential buyers as to how the initial minimum price for the token sale was calculated.” The floor price is currently 0.000010 ETH, or about $0.03 per AZTEC, giving the project a completely diluted valuation of $310 million. The disclaimer also notes that unsold tokens “could also be reclaimed by the Foundation.”
On December sixth, a Uniswap pool with 273 million AZTEC (2.64% of supply) will go live to spice up liquidity. Tokens purchased on the secondary market usually are not subject to blocking.
