ARK Mainnet Goes Live on March 21, 2017, Token Distribution to Follow

ARK blockchain ecosystem gears up for the mainnet (main blockchain) launch on March 21, 2017.

​​The blockchain ecosystem, ARK proudly announces the launch of its mainnet — the ARK blockchain on Tuesday, March 21, 2017. Along with the genesis block, the platform will also generate all the ARK tokens for distribution amongst the Token Exchange Campaign (TEC) participants.

A result of few months of extensive coding and testing, the mainnet launch will mark a major accomplishment for both the ARK Crew and ARK Community. The team behind the development of mainnet prioritized core’s stability over the speed of delivery to ensure a flawless, efficient system. ARK Crew expresses its gratitude to the understanding community that has been supporting them all along.

Once the genesis block is created on March 21, 2017, at 19:00 UTC, the crowd sale participants will be able to visit http://tec.ark.io/ to claim their ARK tokens. They can start withdrawing the tokens into their personal ARK wallets or addresses. ARK TEC participants and community members can also download an updated version of the ARK personal desktop wallet from the website before March 21st. At the same time, ARK insists existing wallet users to upgrade their ARK wallets to the latest mainnet version before launch.

The ARK Crew will soon start adding bounties to the Token Exchange website or manually process them after the mainnet launch, ensuring ample time for verifying the network before distribution. ARK will make the exchanges available to the community during the initial launch period. While additional details about the exchanges are limited at this time, the platform will soon update more information on its Slack Chat and official blog during the mainnet launch.

About ARK

A new decentralized digital asset token, ARK is based on a much-advanced blockchain technology and is meant for mass consumer adoption. ARK, with its extensive capabilities, incorporates some of the best features like SmartBridge Technology, allowing it to communicate with other blockchains. It uses Encoded Listeners that listens for any communication sent via the ARK SmartBridge vendor fields inserted as small code snippets by participating blockchains. The SmartBridge can be utilized by other coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and even SmartBridge Apps.

ARK is the first Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) consensus based cryptotoken, with initial upgrades like HD (Hierarchical Deterministic) Wallets. ARK has made significant improvements to its DPoS algorithm and the Lisk codebase from which it was forked.

ARK Updates

Significant upgrades made to ARK ecosystem includes the replacement of sidechains with SmartBridge, removal of custom node version, UI (for stability and security reasons), changes in constants like block time, block rewards, etc.

ARK now adds simple PBFT before forging a new block. It has also made some changes to the address format, keeping it close to the Bitcoin type addressing format while enabling HD Wallet (as per BIP32) functionality. Other changes include completely rewritten node management (using single Node-Manager and messaging system), forging round management (removal of mem-round, reward block fee to forger – zero delay reward) and an addition of 64 bytes Vendor Field as the first SmartBridge iteration.

In-memory Peer management processing for improved efficiency, strengthened transaction management and broadcast core functionality, division of relay nodes and forging nodes, modified nodes broadcast pattern for improved transaction speeds and SPV support for lite clients are some of the other additional updates included in the mainnet.

Once the ARK mainnet is launched, the platform intends to add IPFS as first class citizen (using SmartBridge addressing), improve the protocol (uncle forging, voting weights), remove unsecure APIs and create routing tables.

The ARK network is secured by 51 delegate nodes, chosen by a voting process involving public votes with ARK tokens. Each ARK token containing wallet will be eligible to cast one vote during the launch. However, once the mainnet starts operating smoothly, the voting mechanism will change to support multiple votes per wallet.

Approximately one week after the mainnet launch, ARK will introduce Community Forging at block 75,600, allowing anyone to run a forging node by making use of the ARK Commander Node installer and monitoring tool (instructions available on the blog). ARK has successfully tested 25 transactions per second, with 8 second block times on its testnet. However, the newly launched mainnet will be hard coded for 5 TPS, to be scaled on demand.

ARK once again expresses its gratitude to the community and ARK TEC participants for making the initiative possible. It invites people to submit their queries, support requests, and suggestions on the official ARK Slack channel.

Learn more about ARK at – http://ark.io/
Access ARK whitepaper at – https://ark.io/whitepaper
ARK on Bitcoin Talk – https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1649695.0
ARK on GitHub – https://www.github.com/ArkEcosystem
Learn more about SmartBridge at – https://www.smithandcrown.com/ark-smartbridging-blockchains/

ARK Crew Interviews

Managing Director – http://thebitcoinpodcast.com/episode-102/
Managing Director and Lead Developer – https://youtu.be/VnES7nR-MEY
Managing Director and Board Member – https://soundcloud.com/errorbytrial/blockchain-dynamics-episode-42-12182016

Media Contact

Contact Name: Travis Walker
Contact Email: pr@ark.io
Location: France

ARK is the source of this content. Virtual currency is not legal tender, is not backed by the government, and accounts and value balances are not subject to consumer protections. This press release is for informational purposes only. The information does not constitute investment advice or an offer to invest.

Source: ARK.io

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