Happy æternity Cake Day!

It’s that time of the year again!

Four years ago, on this very day, the world’s premier next-generation blockchain was born. It was on this day, back in 2018, that the æternity mainnet was launched, and we are very proud to say that, since then, the æcosystem has never stopped developing, growing, and evolving.

It is hard to believe that it has only been four years — given all of the shocks and turmoil that the blockchain space, and the entire world, went through. Still, even though it was not easy at times, we are very happy that we have stayed the course and that we have not waivered, not for one inch, in our path towards creating a decentralized community built on the principles of cryptographically-secured open economy and inclusion.

Now, exactly four years after the Roma Release, the æternity blockchain has grown in many directions — without any intentions of stopping or slowing down. Next year will see the Ceres hard fork become a reality and take the æternity blockchain further still.

Thanks to the community of developers as well as miners and users — the æternity blockchain has managed to stick to its guiding light. It has continuously furthered decentralized operations and community contributions focused on trailblazing technology advancements. Surviving all the market volatilities, crypto winters, and overall shake-ups of the blockchain and crypto spaces, the protocol has made progress in all areas.

And what kind of a year has it been!

Working tirelessly on improving the core blockchain protocol and crafting an environment that everybody, not just developers, can enjoy, use, build in, and create — the development team has made waves!

To keep in mind

The æternity blockchain is, inherently, a layer one protocol. That means that it is more efficient and stable than other blockchains. By utilizing layer 1 in such a way, æternity is able to be on par with all other blockchains, all the while keeping fees down and making development easier and more profitable. Compared to the rest of the market, æternity is equipped with the optimal mix of speed and specialization, thanks to FATE and Sophia. Of course, there is still an open avenue towards users to employ their own token economics by using AEX-9 tokens, just like it is done with Ethereum.

Speaking of Ethereum, which has certain design flaws and allows for erring — æternity, thanks to the Sophia smart contract language, is a much more difficult environment to make an error in. Furthermore, the æternity blockchain needn’t resort to workaround solutions, such as sharding, to make sure that the system does not get clogged — thanks to the very nature of Erlang that facilitates concurrent transaction processing, as well as the efficiency of the FATE VM.

Moreover, with Hyperchains coming soon, it is only a matter of time before the paradigm shifts for everyone. Thanks to Hyperchains, all will be able to run their own secure blockchain — private or public — without having to invest a fortune in mining equipment or facing other risks. Infinite scalability at a low cost.

-And much, much more to come-

Of course, the æcosytem also had the opportunity to benefit from the fact that travel has been made easier this year! Starting with a developer’s meet-up in Istanbul this May, the community also had the opportunity to come together at the Æternity Universe Two conference that took place this September!

The Æternity Universe Two brought together the forefront thinkers, market leaders, pioneers, and overall brilliant people from the crypto and blockchain spaces, facilitating high levels of fruitful knowledge transfers, experience swaps, and boosts in inspiration and creativity. (The best talks are available right here for those who missed it!)

Moreover, not to reveal too much, but we are very excited for the Æternity Universe Three, and while we cannot say more at this point — we can encourage you all to save the date — August 28 — September 3!

Keeping the æternity blockchain secure, operational, and ever-so innovative has been, is, and will remain the North Star for our community.

It is difficult in such bleak times, as the ones we live in right now, to be an optimist — nonetheless, the æternity community has shown amazing levels of focus, patience, attentiveness, and enthusiasm. For all these reasons, we are proud to say that we are optimists and are, now more than ever, eagerly and with enthusiasm looking forward to the road ahead!

Happy æternity Cake Day! was originally published in æternity blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.