Every fortnight we take stock of the chain. This update takes a step back from the list of individual changes. It sets out what is fixed in the design, what is still open, and what has to happen before the first block.
The line-by-line record lives in our changelog and our tracker. This note is the summary that sits above them, so you can see the shape of the work without reading every entry.
The short version
ATON is a public blockchain for payments, and it is still being built. Nothing has launched. There is no coin to buy, no sale, and nothing is sold on our site.
Some parts of the design are settled. Two important parts are not. We would rather tell you that plainly than fill the gap with guesses.
What is settled
These are the parts of the design we treat as fixed.
- Mining. ATON uses one memory-hard proof of work. It is designed so that an ordinary graphics card can mine it.
- Block production. Blocks can be made at the same time. A GHOSTDAG-style rule puts them all in one agreed order, so the network shares one history.
- Supply. There is a hard cap of one billion ATON.
- Distribution. Coins are paid to miners through a long emission that slows into a small tail.
- Launch. The plan is a fair launch. There will be no premine and no sale.
Each of these shapes the others. Memory-hard work keeps mining open to people with common hardware. Accepting blocks made at the same time means honest work is not thrown away when two miners find a block close together. A fixed cap and a long emission mean the supply rules are known in advance, rather than changed later.
What is still open
Two things are not decided yet, and we want them on the record as open.
- The emission curve. We know its general shape: long, slowing into a small tail. The exact curve is not specified yet.
- The team allocation. This is the one planned exception to a launch with no premine. Its size and its vesting are not decided. Both will be published before the first block.
| Part of the design | Status |
|---|---|
| Memory-hard proof of work, graphics card mining | Settled |
| GHOSTDAG-style ordering of parallel blocks | Settled |
| Hard cap of one billion ATON | Settled |
| Long emission to miners with a small tail | Settled in shape |
| Exact emission curve | Open |
| Team allocation size and vesting | Open, published before the first block |
| No premine, no sale | Settled |
How to read our progress from here
The useful question is not how busy we look. It is whether open items become decided, and whether decisions are published before they matter.
Here is what to watch for.
- The emission curve moving from open to specified.
- The team allocation size and vesting being published, ahead of the first block rather than after it.
- The settled items staying settled. If a fixed part of the design changes, we should say so and say why.
If those three hold, you can judge the launch on what was written down in advance. That is the point of a fair launch.
What these updates will not contain
We keep these notes to the chain itself. You will not find a price here, or any view on what ATON is or predicted value. We take no orders, make no offers and give no financial advice.
We also will not put dates in an update unless we can stand behind them. When something is decided, it goes into the changelog and the tracker first, and into a note like this one after.
The honest limit
This is a summary, not the full record. It tells you where the design stands, not every change made along the way. For that detail, the changelog and the tracker remain the source.
We will keep the same structure next time: what is settled, what is open, and what moved in between.
