New Aztec Release Decentralized And Private Ethereum L2 On Mainnet,...
Aztec launched its Ignition mainnet with no centralized operators, opening community staking amid its major token sale and positioning itself as a fully decentralized L2.
Ethereum layer-2 network Aztec launched its mainnet Wednesday — albeit with partial functionality — marking the launch of one of the few fully decentralized networks in the ecosystem.
According to an Aztec email viewed by Cointelegraph, Aztec has launched its “Ignition” mainnet chain, a functional consensus-producing chain that generates blocks, but without the smart contract execution layer.
According to L2Beat, only the trustless, optimistic rollup network Facet v1 and Aztec’s old decentralized finance (DeFi) anonymization project, Zk.Money are classed as a stage 2 system with full decentralization.
Together with Facet, Aztec is among the few protocols with no centralized “training wheels,” as ownership of the rollup contract was renounced, and Aztec is neither a rollup processor nor an operator. Users or third parties must run the rollup system themselves to withdraw or transact.
Aztec had not responded to Cointelegraph’s request for comment by publication.
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Aztec staking is now available to holders, allowing them to participate in network consensus, earn block rewards and shape governance decisions. The email suggests that early stakeholders receive higher rewards because “early participants benefit from distributing block rewards amongst fewer stakers.”
The staking dashboard indicates that 107.2 million AZTEC tokens are currently staked. Both the investors and the development team are currently barred from staking, so it is likely that those funds are sourced from the 200 million AZTEC sold in the genesis sequencer sale, which targets whitelisted community members explicitly to bootstrap the mainnet.
The minimum stake amount (also applicable to delegated stakes) is 200,000 AZTEC, equivalent to about $6,000 at the prices of the ongoing community-only Continuous Clearing Auctions phase. Still, the tokens may be sold at higher prices than the current $0.03 per AZTEC if demand increases.
Source: CoinTelegraph
