In the past year, the cryptocurrency industry has weathered a series of storms. Following the crash of Terra in May last year, prominent institutions such as cryptocurrency exchange FTX, hedge fund Alameda Research, and lending platform BlockFi have toppled like dominoes. By March this year, cryptocurrency-friendly banks Silvergate, Silicon Valley Bank, and Signature also collapsed, further contributing to the ongoing downturn in the crypto sector.
These series of bankruptcies have served as a wake-up call for the crypto market and its investors, strengthening the consensus on the need for decentralization of crypto assets and decision-making. This shift is expected to lead to a resurgence in Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs).
In terms of regulatory policies, DAOs have recently experienced significant breakthroughs. In March this year, Utah officially passed the DAO Act, recognizing the legal status of DAOs. This development means that DAOs as an organizational form have obtained independent legal entity status within the United States.
Both market trends and policy advancements suggest that DAOs will become the next focal point for growth. However, the development of DAOs is still primarily limited to inner-circle players in crypto industry. The challenge lies in how to enable more Web 2 users to join DAOs, and actively participate in their governance, development, and operation. AirDAO aims to address this issue.
AirDAO is a Decentralized Autonomous Organization that manages the Ambrosus Blockchain (AMB-Net) and its suite of dApps. As the first DAO focused on the L1 blockchain ecosystem, AirDAO is dedicated to creating an integrated set of Web3 products and services aimed at lowering barriers to entry for users and facilitating widespread participation in decentralized governance. In September 2022, AirDAO secured a $2 million investment from DWF Labs, a digital asset market maker and Web3 investment firm. Additionally, in March this year, AirDAO received a total investment commitment of $25 million from digital asset investment company GEM Digital Limited.
AirDAO's Ecosystem: Exploring Its Key Components
The AirDAO project comprises seven main components: the Ambrosus blockchain network and its native token AMB, a dashboard, a cross-chain bridge, a pledge platform, the FirepotSwap decentralized exchange, and a blockchain browser. Let's delve into the roles these components play within the AirDAO application ecosystem.
Ambrosus (AMB-NET) is a decentralized Layer 1 blockchain. Its mainnet was launched in 2019 and has been running stably since its inception, with no downtime.
AMB-NET supports the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), enabling interoperability with applications built on Ethereum or other EVM-compatible blockchains. This compatibility allows developers to easily migrate DApp applications to the AirDAO network without concerns about on-chain congestion or high gas fees.
AMB is the native token of the Ambrosus Network and can be used for transfers on the AMB-Net chain and gas fees for smart contract interactions. Additionally, AMB token holders can participate in AirDAO ecosystem governance, such as voting on proposals, with each AMB representing a vote. AMB holders can also pledge their tokens to AirDAO's verification or data storage nodes to complete transaction verification, execution, and provide data storage services, earning income in return.
As of May 19, 2023, the total token supply of AMB is 6,347,152,804, with 21,731 total holding users.
FirepotSwap is the first decentralized cryptocurrency exchange and DeFi platform on AirDAO, developed by Firepot Finance and launched in September 2022.
FirepotSwap offers token swapping, liquidity provisioning, and liquidity mining functions. As part of AirDAO's multi-chain strategy, it enables opportunities for AMB on other chains to provide additional revenue for liquidity providers.
The AirDAO cross-chain bridge allows users to transfer cryptographic tokens between AirDAO's AMB-NET blockchain, the Ethereum network, and the Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Users can also bridge cryptocurrencies to AMBs through these networks, supplying liquidity. By establishing AMB liquidity pairs on decentralized exchanges such as SushiSwap and PancakeSwap, AirDAO users can participate in the multi-chain DeFi ecosystem.
The cross-chain bridge plays a crucial role in the development of AMB-Net's ecosystem. It permits mainstream assets to enter the AMB-Net ecosystem through cross-chain transactions, increasing on-chain value and enhancing the overall worth of AMB-Net.
AirDAO introduced the Staking pledge platform in November 2021, enabling node operators to run AMB-Net nodes by staking AMB tokens and receiving corresponding staking rewards.
Using a staking-as-a-service model, the platform offers an alternative to self-hosted nodes by operating nodes through smart delegation and automated contracts. Once sufficient AMB tokens are staked, the smart contract automatically configures and launches a new validator. The staking and unstaking processes are automated, with staking rewards distributed every six hours.
(6) Explorer
The blockchain explorer allows users to view the balance of all wrapped or native tokens in the AMB-NET address and access detailed information on historical transactions, nodes, token contracts, and blocks. Furthermore, the AirDAO Explorer can track wrapped tokens from Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain.
(7) Dashboard
The AirDAO Dashboard is an integrated panel on the website featuring a series of cards describing various available products. It serves as the primary hub connecting all ecosystem products and their subdomains, enabling users to access the entire range of products and dApps through a unified interface.
In addition to the seven key components, AirDAO plans to introduce stablecoins, DAO tools, and a dApp market in the future. Stablecoins will enhance the multi-chain capabilities of the ecosystem; DAO tools will streamline and improve DAO applications' efficiency, and the dApp market will make it easier for users to discover and download decentralized applications built on AMB-NET.
AirDAO's Tokenomics
AirDAO employs several burning mechanisms to achieve a deflationary model, including destroying a portion of validator rewards income, accelerating transaction speed fees, contract call fees, burning during governance, and fees for sub-DAO startups within the ecosystem. These measures help maintain AMB value stability.
AirDAO began upgrading its token economic model in March. Since then, it has initiated the verification node upgrade and implemented a network entry and exit delay of 250,000 block epochs (approximately 15 days). The second phase, set to begin in June 2023, will include elastic block rewards and a new fee structure. The third phase is expected to be implemented in mid-October 2023, users will be able to lock their AMB and get votes in the form of veAMB tokens, which will be used to participate in AirDAO governance.
The token economic upgrade also introduces new use cases for AMB, such as AirBonds. Within the AirDAO ecosystem, users who stake AMB on verification nodes provide assets to the network and receive AMB block rewards. After the upgrade, a portion of the rewards will be distributed as AirBonds (BOND tokens), with the amount determined by the node's age. This system will incentivize node stability and reliability, enhancing network security. AirDAO will develop an AirBond marketplace to facilitate BOND token transactions. Additionally, users can bond AMB or specific liquidity tokens to obtain assets issued by AirDAO collaboration projects.
AirDAO's Journey to Community Autonomy
Governance is crucial for the evolution of AirDAO as a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).
In May, AirDAO announced its transition to decentralized leadership and community autonomy. Traditional centralized leadership roles, such as "director" and "CEO," will be eliminated, and the DAO blockchain will no longer be managed, controlled, or developed by any individual or company. This change will achieve true decentralization and community governance.
AirDAO will be governed by a committee elected through on-chain voting by community members. The committee will comprise nine members, with five seats reserved for long-term community members without operational responsibilities—such as node operators, stakeholders, AMB investors, and blockchain developers. The remaining four seats will be allocated to members with operational responsibilities, including Blockchain Development and Product Strategy, Community Lead for External Communications, Marketing and AirDAO Academy, Operations Lead for HR, Project Management, Organization and Coordination, and Treasurer for Exchange Relationship Management, Contracts, and Legal matters.
During the transition to community governance, Lang Mei, AirDAO's current director, will oversee the process and retire upon the committee's successful takeover. The committee is expected to assume full control of AirDAO's finances, human resources, operational decisions, and roadmap by May 31st.
AirDAO committee proposal voting is currently underway on Snapshot. All stakers and node owners using AirDAO Staking can participate in voting without unstaking or retiring their nodes.
The essence of blockchain is "trustlessness," and decentralization is the key to achieving trustlessness. The rise of DAOs is an inevitable trend in blockchain development, and AirDAO's transition to community autonomy is a critical step toward trustlessness. By realizing thorough decentralization and decentralized governance, we can truly embody the principle of "In trustless we trust."
However, investing in any cryptocurrency project, including AirDAO, carries inherent risks. Therefore, investors should conduct thorough research before making any investment decisions.
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