Blockchain development lab Aeternity announces public testnet

By posting the platform on GitHub, a website that hosts code for programmers, Aeternity is opening for public feedback the foundation of its ambitious plan to build a blockchain solution for storing, verifying and executing smart, or automated, contracts.

Users who visit Aeternity’s GitHub can download the code, compile and run a test version of the latest software on Ubuntu, an open source operating system. Users will also need Erlang, a general-purpose, concurrent, functional programming language, as well as additional libraries.

While the testnet will feature just a basic proof-of-work model of consensus, the fully-fledged “mainnet”, or full version platform, will be based on a hybrid, proof-of-work and proof-of-stake consensus mechanism. The objective of this early test phase is to demonstrate the function of state channels.

The “mainnet” version of the Aeternity blockchain is slated to launch in early 2018.

The blockchain platform will be fuelled by aeon tokens, which users will be able to purchase with fiat or digital currency. Aeternity will be launching an initial token offering in the first quarter of 2017, with further details to be announced in the coming weeks.