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200 Days of AO! Latest Updates Summary | 2024.9.18
Author: Kyle
Translator: Kyle
Reviewer: Marshal Orange
Source: Content Guild - Translation
1. AO Network Data Overview
Arweave Network Transaction Volume Hits Record High
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Source: ViewBlock
As of September 18th, the total transaction volume on the Arweave network has reached a significant milestone of 9 billion. Over the past three months, Arweave's weekly transaction volume has been consistently around 20 million, showing steady growth.
AO Network Message Volume Surges
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Source: AOLink
As of September 18th, the total message volume on the AO network stands at 560 million. From July 10th to September 18th, 300 million new messages were added to the AO network, with an average daily message volume of 4.24 million, marking the fastest growth period to date.
The data shows an accelerating trend in message growth, indicating high activity levels within the AO network. In terms of user base, the total number of AO users has exceeded 200,000, with daily active users consistently staying above 8,000.
Overview of Tokens Deposited
Currently, eligible bridged assets for minting AO tokens are $stETH and $DAI, representing 64% of the total token minting supply.
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Source: https://dune.com/zkayape/ao-tokenomics-steth-deposit-breakdown
According to the Dune dashboard data:
The total amount of $stETH deposited is 141,324 tokens, with an approximate value of $329 million, and the number of participating addresses is 2,119.
The total amount of $DAI deposited is 70,360,340 tokens, with an approximate value of $70 million, and the number of participating addresses is 235.
The total value of deposited assets is close to $400 million, with $stETH accounting for 82.4% and $DAI accounting for 17.6%.
2. Technical Breakthroughs and Innovation Drivers
AO Whitepaper Released: A Decentralized Open-Access Supercomputer
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On June 13, the official AO whitepaper was released—"The AO Protocol: A Decentralized Open-Access Supercomputer"—which detailed AO's core functionalities, architecture, operating principles, protocol specifications, security model, economic framework, and token minting mechanism.
AO, built on Arweave, is an Actor Oriented computer that provides a modular, trustless, unified computing environment supporting unlimited parallel processes that cooperate through message passing. AO’s architecture includes Scheduling Units (SU) for message ordering, Computing Units (CU) for process state handling, and Messaging Units (MU) for message transmission, creating a flexible, scalable computing platform.
AO’s economic model features a dynamic staking market, lock-in periods, and fair security pricing mechanisms to efficiently allocate and price security resources while reducing network operational costs. The native token, $AO, incentivizes participants and ensures network stability and efficiency. With a total supply of 21 million tokens, AO follows a Bitcoin-like four-year halving mechanism, minting every 5 minutes, maintaining scarcity with gradual halvings. 36% of the tokens are allocated to AR holders, and 64% are for bridged asset incentives (currently $stETH and $DAI).
Three Major Technological Breakthroughs in AI
AO's ecosystem has made significant progress in supporting large AI language models, including the following key breakthroughs:
64-bit WebAssembly Support: Overcomes the 4GB memory limit of the original 32-bit architecture, expanding memory capacity to 16GB, enough for nearly all mainstream AI models.
WeaveDrive Technology: Simplifies developer access to on-chain Arweave data, supporting seamless operations similar to local hard drives, improving dApp performance.
Fusion of Large Language Models with Smart Contracts: Through the Llama.cpp system, AO now supports open-source models like Llama 3 and GPT-2 running within smart contracts, expanding decentralized application possibilities.
These breakthroughs suggest AO's enormous potential in supporting AI application development, aiding autonomous finance infrastructure and facilitating the launch of AI-based applications like Llama Land, Apus Network, dstor, and ForeverAI.
Temporary Storage Platform ArFleet
ArFleet, developed by AO/ACC Labs, offers a temporary storage platform complementing Arweave’s permanent storage. It acts as a short-term storage layer, working alongside Arweave’s permanent storage and AO’s computing layer, advancing the Permaweb.
ArFleet is ideal for data that doesn’t require permanent storage, such as real-time document editing or interim game data states. It also supports large-scale data storage, encouraging decentralized video platforms like Odysee to migrate to the AO ecosystem. ArFleet offers flexible short-term storage options, from minutes to years, with payment options in any token (default payment in $wAR).
ArFleet also opens storage and retrieval markets, enabling micropayments for content distribution and automatic caching, similar to CDN functionality. When files become popular, the network smartly caches them to improve access speed and reduce transmission load. This flexible and scalable solution pushes forward AO’s storage capabilities.
3. Ecosystem Expansion: Flourishing New Projects
According to recent estimates, more than 30 new projects have been added to the AO ecosystem in the past three months.
Source: EverVision Labs
Odysee and Solarplex Acquisition, Building a Decentralized Media Ecosystem
Web3’s largest video-sharing platform Odysee, with 7 million monthly active users, was acquired by Forward Research and integrated into the Arweave ecosystem. Recently, Odysee removed all ads and is exploring new monetization strategies using the UDL protocol.
Odysee is now building a Decentralized Media Ecosystem (DME) using the Arweave tech stack. This ecosystem supports censorship-resistant media applications with unlimited storage potential. DME allows developers to deploy their media applications in minutes, with all data stored on Arweave, ensuring unified management and eliminating single points of failure. DME’s open data infrastructure enables creators to freely distribute and display content according to their terms.
Developer Incentive Activities Spark New Projects
A surge of new AO ecosystem projects, driven by hackathons and builder programs, have introduced innovative solutions across various sectors. This includes the decentralized weather options platform NEO, the AO confidential computing network PADO, and the ANyONe Protocol, an onion-routing privacy network.
Reality Protocol Quests, AO Game Jam, and PermaDAO Grants spur the rise of gaming projects:
Meka City: An on-chain world built on Llama Land.
Satoshi's Palace: A fishing game in Aqualandia, built on Llama Land.
Yalla Jamel: AO’s first match-3 game.
ao happy town: AO’s farming game.
In addition, AO Builders have developed a multiplayer battle survival game called Cyber Beavers, as well as a detective game built on Llama Land. As the AO Game Jam event continues, more game projects are expected to launch in the near future, further expanding the AO ecosystem's gaming portfolio.
AO Venture Incubation Program Attracts Over 100 Developers, Incubating 11 New Mature Projects Over Ten Weeks:
Tau Oracle: Zero-knowledge proof privacy layer.
Astro: Stablecoin protocol on AO.
Onairos: Digital persona project.
Copus: AO ecosystem hypertext publishing platform.
Apus Network: Decentralized GPU network.
Outcøme: AI-based prediction market.
Aftr: On-chain asset management and governance platform.
Liteseed: New bundler built on AO.
dstor: AI-driven Web3 search platform.
0rbit: Decentralized oracle network.
LiquidOps: Decentralized lending protocol.
Astro Labs launched the Quantum cross-chain bridge platform with $qAR (Astro’s native wrapped $AR). Apus Network rolled out Benchmark POC to test network performance, introduced Playground 1.0, and engaged users in data set uploads and interaction with on-chain AI models. 0rbit processed over 250,000 messages, while LiquidOps gathered a waitlist of over 1,600 users and $40 million in assets.
Arweave India Hacker House Birthed 10 Emerging Projects Through Three-Person Teams:
FundARs: Permissionless financing platform on AO and Arweave.
Convergent: Decentralized perpetual contract exchange on AO.
aoVest: Token vesting platform on AO.
ForeverAI: Customizable LLMs platform on AO.
ArKey: MPC wallet based on Arweave.
USDX: Partial algorithmic stablecoin protocol.
SAM: Smart contract audit and on-chain message monitoring platform on AO.
LOOM: 3D interactive platform on AO.
AssetX: Data ownership and content monetization platform.
PIXEL GAMING: Play-to-earn arcade game on AO.
The top three projects were aoVest, FundARs, and Convergent, all in the DeFi sector.
MEME Trend Takes Off: Dumdumz NFT Captivates the Market
A standout project is Dumdumz, an NFT series inspired by the elephant character Dumdum, which has captured the community’s enthusiasm, sparking a Dumdumz craze. Community members have started changing their avatars to Dumdumz, and the NFTs have driven significant traffic to BazAR, even surpassing mainstream marketplaces like OpenSea at one point.
Dumdumz NFTs were initially priced at 0.1984 $wAR, and the current floor price hovers around 5 $wAR—a 25x increase from the original price. Even in the current market downturn, Dumdumz NFTs continue to see daily trading activity.
Following the explosive growth of Trunk tokens, Dumdumz NFTs have risen in prominence. Trunk laid the foundation for the MEME ecosystem, and Dumdumz has sprouted from this fertile soil, forming a MEME alliance with Llama Land and Cyber Beavers, combining the imagery of llamas, elephants, and beavers into a popular trend.
4. Product Iteration: Continuous Improvement in User Experience
Upgrades and Migrations of Established Projects
Projects that were initially rooted in the Arweave ecosystem, such as everPay, Permaswap, ar.io, and BazAR, have successively migrated to the AO network. Among these, Permaswap is now compatible with both AO and everPay versions. Following the migration, everPay launched the Everloot campaign to encourage user participation in the ecosystem, while Permaswap introduced multiple trading pairs and used incentive programs to attract liquidity providers.
After completing its migration to AO, the decentralized gateway ar.io developed and open-sourced the ArNS domain system within the AO ecosystem, along with launching the test token $tIO.
BazAR Exchange optimized its Helix tool, making it easier for regular users and project teams to upload and customize atomic assets. The explosive success of atomic assets like Dumdumz and Meka Human not only drew significant traffic to BazAR but also accelerated the improvement of its product features.
The oracle project RedStone, always a strong performer, quickly announced its launch on AO after securing $15 million in Series A funding. This enabled the AO network to leverage RedStone’s functionalities and services. Additionally, RedStone used the Pull model to verify bridged assets on-chain, ensuring the accuracy of $AO token minting.
Infrastructure Enhancements: Building Bridges to the "Outside World"
ArConnect is currently the most popular native wallet in both the Arweave and AO ecosystems. As its user base grows, the team is actively iterating and optimizing features. Following the minting of $AO, ArConnect released version 1.14.0, which allows users to view $AO income. Subsequent updates included Simplified Chinese language support, automatic import of all AO network tokens held by users, asset spending limits, a revamped explorer page, and the addition of new Arweave and AO applications. Additionally, ArConnect became the first wallet to support buying AR tokens via bank transfer in USD. Currently, ArConnect is at version 1.18.1, and support for mobile is expected soon.
everVision, one of the largest labs in the Arweave and AO ecosystems, has launched a $10 million AO ecosystem fund in collaboration with SevenX Ventures and BuidlerDAO, aiming to accelerate the development of the AO ecosystem. everVision’s three products—everPay, Permaswap, and AOX—are key infrastructure projects within the AO ecosystem. They are compatible with mainstream wallets like MetaMask and now support 0x addresses. The AOX cross-chain bridge allows for bridging USDC from Ethereum to AO, marking the first EVM asset integration into the AO network. Permaswap also introduced a Spot order book feature and allows users to access and trade using MetaMask and OKX Wallet’s built-in browsers.
Decent.land, previously focused on developing decentralized social protocols in the Arweave ecosystem, shifted to fully developing WeaveVM, a sovereign Layer 1 blockchain compatible with EVM chains, after AO’s launch. WeaveVM introduced the cross-chain Molecular Bridge, the decentralized exchange Tapestry Finance, and the identity linking protocol Ark Lambda, bridging Arweave, AO and the EVM ecosystems.
Developer Support: Tools and Activities Combined
The AO network is still in its early stages, having launched just over 200 days ago, and requires a strong foundation of builders. Various stakeholders in the ecosystem have been actively organizing hackathons and builder programs. As mentioned earlier, the AO Venture Incubation Program and the Arweave India Hacker House event have brought many outstanding new projects into the ecosystem. The official AO Reality Protocol Quests encourage developers to build on-chain worlds and AI Agents based on Llama Land. PermaDAO’s grant program has incubated several DeFi and cross-chain gaming projects. AO Game Jam attracted over 70 teams to participate. Additionally, Weavers organized the Bounty Bot competition and the Raid series of bounty tasks, attracting many developers and content creators who contributed tools and Meme packages. Other initiatives include the Balangay Builder Program initiated by the Arweave Philippines community, the AO Product Proposal Collection event by Arweave Oasis, and the Game-Making Memeathon jointly hosted by Satoshi’s Palace and Trunk.
On the developer support side, the AO official team launched AOS Web, which allows developers to connect wallets directly from their browser to build and interact on AO. AOS 2.0 was also introduced, simplifying message processing and process management, with new features like Receive(), semantic messaging, and more flexible Handler management, significantly improving development efficiency and code readability. Additionally, Autonomous Finance released several AO ecosystem tools, including the Ownable Package, which offers fine-grained control over processes, similar to the OpenZeppelin Ownable module in EVM, with support for smart contract and multi-process system testing. The Subscribable Package allows subscribing to data streams from other processes, suitable for low-latency critical infrastructure, with anti-spam and data monetization features. AOForm supports deployment and upgrades of multi-process systems, while Teal, a typed version of Lua, enhances code security.
5. Offline Engagement: Strengthening Community Cohesion
Arweave Oasis launched the Hyper Parallel 2024 Asia Intercity Tour, traveling through six major cities—Shanghai, Hangzhou, Tokyo, Beijing, Shenzhen and Taipei—alongside Arweave’s head of developer relations, Patrick. This event provided developers, ecosystem project teams, investors, and enthusiasts with opportunities for face-to-face exchanges and in-depth discussions on the latest developments and future potential of the Arweave and AO ecosystems.
The annual Arweave Asia 2024 event was held on September 19 in Singapore, marking the largest gathering for the Arweave and AO ecosystems this year. The event brought together official representatives, project teams, and builders from both ecosystems to deeply explore ecosystem development and technological innovation. Additionally, the event featured exclusive project announcements, exciting demos, live AO gaming competitions, and limited-edition souvenirs.
6. Conclusion
September 14 marked the 200th day since the launch of the AO testnet, during which the AO ecosystem has made significant progress. User participation and developer activity have continued to rise, driven by incentives and events, leading to the addition of over 30 new projects, with gaming and Meme projects standing out, enriching the ecosystem’s application scenarios.
The release of the AO whitepaper outlined its core functionalities, protocol architecture, and economic model, providing a solid theoretical foundation for future development. Technologically, AO has not only made breakthroughs in AI but also launched the ArFleet temporary storage platform, enabling full-stack development on the Permaweb and addressing developers’ needs for efficient and flexible storage solutions.
Simultaneously, upgrades in ecosystem infrastructure, compatibility with mainstream wallets, and the introduction of new development tools have improved user experience and developer efficiency. Offline events have strengthened community cohesion and facilitated exchanges and collaborations within and beyond the ecosystem.
Looking ahead, the AO network should continue to focus on practical implementation and ecosystem development, addressing real-world problems, and meeting the needs of both users and developers. Through continued innovation and pragmatic actions, AO can achieve greater breakthroughs and contribute to the advancement of the Web3 industry.
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