Layer 1 blockchain
Aeternity ticker AE
Summary
Proof-of-work chain built on Bitcoin-NG. Miners solve the memory-bound Cuckoo Cycle graph puzzle to produce key blocks, targeted at about one every 3 minutes. A key block names a leader, who then signs micro blocks carrying transactions, at least 3 seconds apart, until the next key block; each micro block may use up to 6,000,000 gas. Fees are split 40% to the leader that included a transaction and 60% to the next key block's miner, and rewards are paid 180 key blocks later so that a leader who signs conflicting micro blocks can lose them through a proof-of-fraud report. The live protocol is Ceres (version 6, since height 941,700 in May 2024); node 7.3.0 adds a gas-repricing protocol called Arcus that had no mainnet activation height at review. 1281819222627
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainPermissionless proof-of-work base layer with its own blocks and fork choice, matching the package hint. It uses Bitcoin-NG: key blocks elect a leader and micro blocks carry transactions. aeternity.com describes a Hyperchains consensus upgrade for mainnet as coming via governance and says Hyperchains consensus would draw randomness from Bitcoin's proof of work; if applied to mainnet, block production would presumably become stake-based (an inference, since no mainnet design or activation height has been published). Node 7.3.0 only reserves a placeholder protocol version for it.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Work (proof of work)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Probabilistic
- Who makes blocks
- Miners, solo or in pools, win key blocks by proof of work, and each key block's leader alone signs the micro blocks of its generation, so it decides which pending transactions are included for roughly three minutes. In 1,000 key blocks from 25 to 27 September 2026 the chain's middleware recorded only three reward addresses, with about 75%, 18% and 7% of blocks. These are probably pool payout addresses, so the number of individual miners behind them is unknown.
- Fork choice
- Nodes follow the valid chain with the most accumulated proof of work and prefer the block received first on a tie. Micro blocks add no weight, so the last micro blocks of a generation are often dropped and their transactions re-included after a new key block. By default the node also refuses to switch to a competing chain that forks more than 20 key blocks (about an hour) below its current top; this is a local setting, not a consensus rule. The docs say 51% attacks remain possible.
Qualifications
- Block interval · Partial. Two block types: key blocks target about 3 minutes (177 seconds on average in the sampled window) and elect a leader, while micro blocks with transactions follow at least 3 seconds apart. A single block-time figure must say which kind it means, and inclusion in a micro block is not confirmation.
- Finality · Partial. Confirmation is probabilistic under proof of work. Nodes also refuse reorganizations deeper than a configurable depth: 20 key blocks (about an hour) by default since node 7.1.0 in May 2024, although an older docs page still says 100 (about 5 hours). This is node policy, not an on-chain finality proof, and the docs warn a low setting can split nodes onto different chains.
- On chain governance · Partial. The docs describe coin-weighted, delegable voting, but it signals preferences: upgrades such as Ceres activated at heights fixed in node releases that operators chose to run. The Hyperchains consensus upgrade for mainnet is described as coming via governance, with no scheduled height or published vote.
- Settlement family · Partial. Recorded as other: Aeternity runs its own node software and protocol, Bitcoin-NG with Cuckoo Cycle proof of work, with Sophia contracts on the FATE virtual machine.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability and Decentralization
- Gives up
- Security margin. Block production rests on a small proof-of-work economy: reward addresses were highly concentrated in the sampled window, a majority miner could rewrite recent history or censor during its generations, and each leader controls transaction ordering for about three minutes. Protection against deep reorganizations comes from a node setting (20 key blocks by default), not from economic finality. Capacity beyond the base chain is pushed to two-party state channels and experimental Hyperchains, which add their own trust assumptions.Decentralization here is a design aim: memory-bound mining meant to suit commodity hardware, and a full node that fits home hardware. Observed mining in the sampled window was concentrated in three reward addresses, so the operational reading is weaker than the design reading; both are recorded, not scored. The scalability emphasis refers to transaction inclusion in micro blocks at least 3 seconds apart, not a measured high throughput. The Aeternity Foundation said in May 2025 that it was winding down; node releases continued through September 2026.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 7The node hardware guide (updated 1 October 2024) suggests 2 CPU cores at 3.0 GHz, 8 GB RAM (4 GB for modest use), a 500 GB SSD, and about 30 KB/s each way in normal operation, rising to about 1 MB/s during initial sync. The full database was then 270 GB, growing about 13.5 GB a month (lightweight setup about 60 GB); at that rate it would be near 600 GB by late 2026, above the 500 GB disk (an extrapolation, not measured). After sync, ordinary hard disks are enough. Competitive mining needs GPUs and is a separate question.
- Throughput claims
- Theoretical peak: 117 tx/s 1719Theoretical peak; not comparable across chains or with observed load.Figure stated in the Aeternity documentation's consensus pages for the base chain.The docs give no measurement window, hardware or transaction mix for this figure. It matches 6,000,000 gas per micro block every 3 seconds divided by roughly 17,000 gas for a simple payment; this derivation is an inference, and contract calls use far more gas, so fewer fit. It ignores propagation delay, micro blocks dropped at each leader change, and state growth. Not a measured rate and not comparable with observed figures.
- Observed window: 1.5 tx/s 727Observed in the stated window only; not capacity.All transaction types counted by the chain's middleware indexer, divided by elapsed time.1,000 key blocks, heights 1,357,806 to 1,358,805 (25 to 27 September 2026): 263,352 transactions over about 49 hours.Observed load in one two-day window, not capacity. Two 100-transaction samples at review were about 90% token-transfer contract calls, in the later sample all to a single token contract; whether the activity is organic or automated was not assessed. Counts come from the Aeternity middleware indexer, not from an independent node. Home compatibility refers to this observed load under the hardware guide's figures, not to peak load.
Scaling layers
- Aeternity state channels (two-party, built into the protocol) · State channels, mainnet 920212628
Two parties lock AE on chain and exchange co-signed state updates, which may include Sophia contract calls, off chain. Either party can close alone; a solo close starts a lock period during which the other party can post a newer co-signed state or force a contract forward on chain. Each party must stay online, or delegate, to contest an outdated close. Only two parties per channel; use is small (49 open channels holding about 2 AE in total at review). - Hyperchains (stake-based child chains that pin to a parent chain) · Sidechain, testnet 34142539
Each hyperchain has its own stake-weighted validators, takes leader-election randomness from parent-chain block hashes, and periodically writes its block hashes to a parent proof-of-work chain (Aeternity or Bitcoin in the docs). The parent does not verify the child's transactions, so pinning records history rather than proving correctness. Node 7.3.0 calls the protocol experimental and usable only on custom networks from genesis, the setup app says to test only on the Aeternity testnet, and the bridge's repository says it is not production-ready.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; there is no protocol swap object. Sophia contracts have SHA-256, SHA3 and BLAKE2b hashing plus block height and timestamp, so hash-locked, time-locked escrow contracts could be written, but these are building blocks and no deployed, audited or published swap contract or cross-chain swap service was reviewed. 17 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; protocol-level oracles let a registered operator answer queries with responses recorded on chain, and names in the naming system can carry up to 32 pointers, including raw data of up to 1,024 bytes since Ceres. Both keep the data in chain state, and oracle answers are not verified by the chain, so neither counts under this row. The middleware counted 27 active oracles at review. 102328 |
| Light clients | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; the documentation's node-types page describes light nodes that keep block headers and rely on full nodes, but it specifies no light-verification method, and no shipped light client or wallet doing its own header checks was found. The lightweight node in the hardware guide appears to be a node that prunes old state (an inference), not a header-only client. 738 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Two-party state channels are part of the protocol: open, deposit, withdraw, mutual and solo close, slash, settle and force-progress are on-chain transaction types, and channels can run Sophia contracts off chain. Use is small: 49 open channels holding about 2 AE in total at review. 20212628 |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Sophia smart contracts run on the FATE virtual machine. Generalized accounts (since the Fortuna upgrade) replace the signature check with a contract's authentication function, and a paying-for transaction (since Iris) lets another account pay a transaction's fee. These are protocol features. 61719 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; generalized accounts let an attached contract decide whether a transaction is authorized, which could encode multisignature, spending limits or delayed recovery, but that is a building block: no standard or product for sender reclaim, cancellable delayed transfers or recovery was verified, and the protocol does not reverse a confirmed transfer. Since Ceres (May 2024) only a fresh account can become a generalized account. 623 |
| Rollups | None found Earlier definition | No rollup that posts transaction data or proofs to Aeternity was found. Hyperchains are separate stake-based chains that write checkpoints to a parent chain; the parent does not verify their execution, so they are not rollups. 3 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | First-partySuperhero DEX | Superhero DEX is developed in the aeternity GitHub organization. Its pair contracts follow the constant-product rule (x times y equals k) with a 0.3% liquidity-provider fee, and its README reports an April 2022 audit by QuviQ. Liquidity depth and current trading activity were not measured. Wrapped AE also trades on Uniswap on Ethereum, outside this chain. 113036 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Neither Tether's supported-protocol list nor Circle's USDC list names Aeternity. USDT and USDC exist on Aeternity only as wrapped tokens released by the ærc bridge against deposits on Ethereum, so they carry the bridge's risk rather than an issuer's redemption promise. 293435 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | No algorithmic or hybrid stablecoin with material use on Aeternity was found; absence was not exhaustively checked. |
| Bridges | First-partyærc bridge (Aeternity and Ethereum), Hyperchains bridge (Aeternity and Hyperchains, experimental) | The ærc bridge, presented in the Aeternity docs, locks tokens on one chain and releases wrapped tokens on the other: wrapped AE as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, and wrapped ETH, USDT, USDC and other tokens on Aeternity. The docs say its contracts are provided by Acurast. The Hyperchains bridge moves tokens between Aeternity and Hyperchains. Risk: ærc transfers depend on an off-chain bridge service that verifies a lock on one chain and releases funds on the other, so users trust that service and whoever controls the contracts, not a proof checked on chain. At review the official bridge website returned not-found, the middleware showed no calls to the Aeternity-side bridge contract after 18 July 2026, and forum users reported stuck transfers in May and July 2026 (unverified). The Hyperchains bridge's repository says it is not production-ready, uses a trusted operator key and risks loss of funds. 12131429373940 |
| Block explorers | First-partyæScan (aescan.io; explorer.aeternity.io redirects to it) | The docs call æScan the official explorer, and aeternity.com links to explorer.aeternity.io, which redirected to aescan.io at review. It relies on the Aeternity middleware indexer. No independent explorer was confirmed reachable at review. Listing is not a quality check. 1536 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (through Superhero Wallet) | See custody rows: an Aeternity device app for Ledger exists and Superhero Wallet can import Ledger accounts, but no Ledger-published Aeternity coin page was found; Trezor says it does not support Aeternity. 163133 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediarySuperhero Wallet (third-party wallet) with the Aeternity app on the Ledger deviceSame as native: No | Can: Install an Aeternity app on a Ledger device so private keys stay on the device, according to the Aeternity SDK's Ledger guide Can: Import Ledger accounts into Superhero Wallet and approve transactions on the device (added in Superhero Wallet 2.5.0, January 2025) Cannot: Add Ledger accounts in Superhero Wallet's Firefox extension, which its 2.5.0 release notes say hides the optionThe device app's source is published under Ledger's GitHub organization, but Ledger's website showed no Aeternity coin page at review, and whether Ledger's own wallet app manages AE accounts was not verified. The Superhero Wallet 2.5.0 notes name only the Ledger Nano S, over USB; newer Ledger models were not confirmed. 163132 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Hold or sign AE with a Trezor device: Trezor's Aeternity page says Trezor does not currently support it 33 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Aeternity yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Superhero Wallet 2.11.0 adds default name setting and signing fixes
Superhero Wallet 2.11.0 lets users set a default Aeternity name through a new name contract and adds an account switcher in the confirmation screen. It moves to Aeternity SDK 15.0.0 and fixes several issues, including checking that the transaction shown is the one actually signed, fee double-charging with multiple recipients, and lost account names after network switches.
- Implementation:Implemented
- Release:released 2026-09-10
- Activation:available to users who update
Source: superhero-com/superhero-wallet releases on GitHub — Superhero Wallet v2.11.0 (external site)
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Node 7.3.0 released with the Arcus protocol upgrade built in but not yet scheduled
Aeternity node 7.3.0 adds code for Arcus, protocol version 7, which charges contract storage reads in proportion to the size of the value read. It also brings performance work, an endpoint listing consensus parameters, and a database format change that prevents downgrading. The release says Arcus is not enabled on mainnet and its switch height will be announced in a future release. Version 8 (Salus) is reserved as a placeholder for Hyperchains, which remain experimental.
- Proposal:defined in node code; activation height to be announced
- Implementation:implemented in node 7.3.0
- Release:released 2026-09-06
- Activation:not active; mainnet reported protocol version 6 on 2026-09-27
Sources: aeternity/aeternity releases on GitHub — Aeternity node v7.3.0 (external site) · aeternity/aeternity pull requests on GitHub — Size-proportional FATE store-read gas at Arcus (v7), plus Salus (v8) placeholder (external site) · Aeternity public mainnet node (mainnet.aeternity.io) — Aeternity mainnet protocol parameters (read on 2026-09-27) (external site)
-
Node 7.2.2 limits dry-run contract calls to 3 seconds by default
Node 7.2.2, a maintenance release on the stable branch, sets a default 3-second execution limit on the dry-run endpoint that wallets and apps use to simulate contract calls, where previously there was no limit, and lets operators disable more external endpoints in configuration.
- Implementation:Implemented
- Release:released 2026-07-08
- Activation:applies to nodes that upgrade
Source: aeternity/aeternity releases on GitHub — Aeternity node v7.2.2 (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Aeternity through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- Who is behind the three reward addresses that mined the sampled 1,000 key blocks (pools or individual miners), and the hashrate and cost needed to overpower them, were not established; the concentration figure covers one two-day window.
- Superhero DEX liquidity depth and trading activity were not measured, and whether the Foundation's May 2025 liquidity incentive program ran as described was not verified.
- The ærc bridge's operator set, how its off-chain bridge service is run and secured, contract admin keys, the reason its website returned a not-found page at review and whether the bridge still processes transfers were not established. The forum reports of stuck transfers are unverified user posts.
- Whether Ledger's own wallet app manages AE accounts, and which Ledger models the current device app supports, was not confirmed from a Ledger page. Aeternity's own docs describe only a developer kit for Ledger; the third-party wallet rating rests on Superhero Wallet, which Aeternity's docs describe as powered by æternity, documenting Ledger account import in its own release notes. Whether current Superhero releases still support it was not tested.
- No published or audited hash-locked swap contract on Aeternity was reviewed, so the atomic swap entry is unknown even though Sophia has the needed hashing and time primitives.
- No light client or wallet doing its own header verification was found; absence was not exhaustively checked.
- No public production hyperchain pinned to Aeternity mainnet was verified, the hyperchains.ae project site showed a hosting-suspended page at review, and the design, process and timing for the announced Hyperchains consensus upgrade of mainnet are unknown.
- The activation height for the Arcus protocol upgrade had not been announced at review.
- Documentation disagrees with the code in places: the fork-resistance page gives a 100 key block default while the node configuration schema and the 7.1.0 release give 20, and a docs page says the Cuckoo Cycle graph uses 30-bit edges while the protocol specification lists 29.
- Who maintains the node, middleware, explorer and wallets after the Foundation's May 2025 wind-down was not established; node releases in 2026 came from GitHub contributors whose affiliation was not checked.
- State channel counts depend on the middleware endpoint: the network totals report 49 open channels while the channel listing returned more than 100 entries marked active; channel activity beyond these counts was not reviewed.
- The observed transaction rate is dominated in a small sample by token-transfer contract calls; whether that activity is organic or automated was not assessed.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Next Generation Nakamoto Consensus (Bitcoin-NG) (external site)
- Cuckoo Cycle Proof of Work (external site)
- Hyperchains (external site)
- Hyperchains web app (external site)
- Aeternity Governance (external site)
- Meta-transactions and Generalized Accounts (external site)
- Hardware Requirements (node documentation, last updated 1 October 2024) (external site)
- Fork resistance in Aeternity nodes (external site)
- State Channels (external site)
- Oracles (external site)
- Superhero DEX (external site)
- ærc Bridge user guide (external site)
- ÆRC Bridge (developer tools) (external site)
- Hyperchains Bridge app (external site)
- æScan: æternity blockchain explorer (external site)
- Ledger Hardware Wallet (JavaScript SDK guide) (external site)
- Sophia standard library (external site)
- Bitcoin-NG for æternity (protocol specification) (external site)
- æternity consensus protocol (specification) (external site)
- State Channels (protocol specification overview) (external site)
- State channels: on-chain transactions (external site)
- Aeternity node configuration schema (sync fork-resistance and mining defaults) (external site)
- Aeternity node v7.0.0 (Ceres release) (external site)
- Aeternity node v7.1.0 (default network finality reduced to 20 blocks) (external site)
- Aeternity node v7.3.0 (Arcus protocol support) (external site)
- Aeternity mainnet protocol parameters (node API, read on 2026-09-27) (external site)
- Aeternity middleware key-block listing (1,000 key blocks to height 1,358,805, read on 2026-09-27) (external site)
- Aeternity middleware network totals (height 1,358,807, read on 2026-09-27) (external site)
- Æternity <> Ethereum bridge app: mainnet bridge and asset configuration (external site)
- Superhero Dex Contracts (external site)
- Superhero Wallet v2.5.0 release notes (Ledger Nano S support) (external site)
- app-aeternity (Aeternity Ledger device app source) (external site)
- Aeternity wallet (external site)
- Supported Protocols and Integration Guidelines (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- æternity blockchain home page (external site)
- Bridge Not Working (community forum thread, July 2026) (external site)
- Node types (external site)
- Hyperchain Bridge (repository README: work in progress, not production-ready) (external site)
- Aeternity middleware transactions for the ærc bridge contract (most recent call 18 July 2026, read on 2026-09-27) (external site)
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Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding