Recently one of my good steemian friends @friendly-fenix wrote an article about ÆTERNITY MOONING (APRIL 2018 crypto-news)! and had asked @sorin.cristescu and I to help him out and see if we could shed some light onto why ÆTERNITY has recently mooned?
What is ÆTERNITY (AE)
ÆTERNITY is aiming to increase the scalability of smart contracts and decentralized apps (dapps).
The Problem of Scaling Smart Contracts
Ethereum is largely recognized for its technological advancement of smart contracts and decentralized applications. However, as the transaction volume grew, it became increasingly difficult to scale smart contracts on the blockchain since the traffic bogged down the network.
How State Channels make Smart Contracts More Efficient & Secure
ÆTERNITY is looking to fix the current problems of scalability by implementing smart contracts off-chain through state channels.
State channels are basically lines of communication between parties in a smart contract. Thus, they don’t interact with the blockchain directly unless there is a need to settle any financial transactions or adjudication of any disputes. This in turn, helps smart contracts to operate more efficiently since they don't need to interact with the network for every single computation. In addition, they also offer great privacy since only the parties involved directly in the contract can see the information, which can be a great bonus and solution for incorporating sensitive business information into smart contracts.
ÆTERNITY & the Decentralized Oracle Machine
One of the main problems with smart contracts and decentralized apps is the need for outside data sources. Oracles provide access to this data, which is hosted off the blockchain. Unfortunately, up to now, Oracles tended to be centralized data systems, which as you can imagine, posed a security risk as a vulnerable access point to all the information stored within the Oracle.
ÆTERNITY proposed a solution to this problem with decentralized oracles. This in essence makes any outside data immutable and unchangeable once it reaches the Aeternity’s blockchain.
ÆTERNITY Launches House of Blockchain in Liechtenstein
After doing some research it appears that the recent rise of ÆTERNITY came following the news of æternity Launching the “House of Blockchain” in Liechtenstein. The House of Blockchain is basically a co-working space that supports blockchain-based projects by developing decentralized applications. The first company to take advantage of the House of Blockchain appears to be a company called Chainium. Chainium is a blockchain based equity network that directly connects business owners looking to sell equity of their business in return for capital from investors.
Moreover, apart from the individual success of ÆTERNITY creating and launching the House of Blockchain, it appears that major part of the recent rise was also excitement around Liechtenstein itself. As @friendly-fenix stated in his article, "Lichtenstein is a small country and tax-haven in central Europe." In addition, Liechtenstein’s crown princes' own agenda appears to align perfectly with the House of Blockchain. As he was reported stating that his country was looking to create a legal framework for blockchain that's centered around innovation and light on regulation, which you can read more about in this article,Co-Working Space “House of Blockchain” Launches In Liechtenstein.
In Conclusion
While ÆTERNITY does offer some great solutions to the problems currently being faced by many in the cryptocurrency space, such as scalability and transaction speed. They are not the only ones looking to implement solutions to scaling smart contracts. In fact, I agree with @sorin.cristescu that many other cryptocurrencies including EOS, Nano and Steem are looking at their own solutions to these very same problems and the difference in each of their success will like be based on implementation and timing of execution much as is the same in life in general. Maybe even some pure dumb luck. Whatever the case may be though, ÆTERNITY will definitely be one to watch as it further develops.