Arweave project implements mainnet, launches AO computing platform

Arweave has implemented mainnet and launched AO computing platform after a year of testnet testing. AO is described by its developers as a “hyperparallel computer” that offers a distributed computing environment with parallel processing capabilities.

In addition, AO is capable of supporting large capacity smart contracts, which can be equivalent to a conventional computer program. This enables AO to run Large Language Models (LLMs) directly on the blockchain, which has never been possible in the web3 space before. These smart contracts can also activate themselves, creating self-operating applications and an AI ecosystem.

This system is built on Arweave's data storage platform, ensuring that data is always immutable and accessible for a long time. According to Sam Williams, founder of Arweave, the platform's decentralized data layer helps maintain the integrity of on-chain calculations, while effectively supporting AO's general ledger expansion. In contrast, AO is also expected to increase demand for Arweave's hosting services as this ecosystem grows.

Along with the mainnet launch event, AO's native token, an asset completely separate from Arweave's AR token, is also officially transferable and tradable. AO's total supply is capped at 21 million tokens, similar to Bitcoin's model.

The AO development team has adopted a fair launch model to ensure fair distribution, in which 36% of the total supply will be gradually distributed to AR holders. The remainder, which accounts for 64%, is used as economic rewards to drive ecosystem growth, specifically encouraging users to bridge assets to AO, including rewards for depositing assets such as DAI and stETH to the platform.

Prior to the launch of the mainnet, over $700 million in assets were bridged to the AO testnet to mine AO tokens. Arweave has been implementing a public testnet for AO since February 2024, and by June 2024, the project had announced tokenomics and a reward mechanism.

Before the mainnet was operational, AO was recorded processing more than 1.5 billion messages, and attracted more than 100 integrated projects, including decentralized exchanges (DEXs), web3 games, and many other blockchain applications.

With the mainnet event, users can freely trade and transfer AO tokens in the marketplace. AO tokens play an important role in securing message forwarding systems across the network, by encouraging participants to authenticate data and maintain system stability.