ATOR Distribution Protocol Rollout
The Anon Network has entered its live environment — this is the mainnet for the network, and any relays created within it are expected to persist going forward. However, this is certainly not the final state of the network — there are numerous substantial developments planned to roll out within it, including new versions of the relay client, the ATOR SDK and decentralized relay management.
Instead, this stage of the network allows you — our earliest supporters and most active Atornauts — to be part of the journey of growing a robust network and creating a vibrant privacy ecosystem.
Crucially, the distribution protocol will now begin to roll out again. As outlined in the AMA, this will take the form of a multi-month testnet period that sees some of our most sophisticated token incentive mechanisms come to fruition and be battle tested by our community.
Ready to get started? You can now learn to run a relay from our growing education series at educ.ator.io
Transitioning to the Live Environment
Existing Relays
For those of you that were running relays in our development or stage environment, you will have to transition over to the new Anon client, which is located in a different repo. As consensus weight is reset, you can generate new relay fingerprints by following the appropriate installation process in educ.ator.io (though, if you wish, you can transition them over). For any help, feel free to ask in Discord!
Hardware Update
For our Atornauts that collected relays at ETH Denver, there is a simple update process that will upgrade the Relay Control Panel and the version of Anon that runs on your relay, bringing your relay completely up to date with newly shipped devices. This can be done via USB with no technical knowledge needed! Await our X page for instructions on how to do this.
Note: Additional Information for Hardware Rollout Info
As our relays gear up for global fulfilment, some of you may begin receiving emails from hardware-orders@ator.io requesting additional information as required by different global shipping partners depending on the carrier and location, after which your units will be shipped and you will receive tracking information. With specially negotiated rates with UPS, FedEx and DHL, we’re excited for you to begin receiving your relays wherever you are! Please, as always, be wary of phishing links and note that we will never ask for additional on-chain transfers.
Distribution Protocol Rollout
As part of our new testnet period, all of the components to the protocol will be rolled out in stages, starting with v1 of the relay dashboard and the relay registration process. From there, your relay will begin accumulating testnet tokens on Smartweave, after which the reward-claim contract on Sepolia Testnet will be released for you to claim these tokens. These testnet tokens are a recognition of contribution and a proxy for future rewards for work done in growing our network!
To build on the progress made in last year’s testnet, there will be new, more sophisticated mechanisms, including the requirement for locked testnet ATOR to run a relay on non-ATOR-hardware, delegated lockups for other relay operators, the authentication process to register an ATOR Hardware relay to the protocol, and separate distribution rewards for ATOR hardware.
This phased rollout approach on the live Anon network allows every feature to be rigorously tested, and better heuristics to be developed in response to the topology of the network that forms. Running this within the live network allows us to build a robust, provably reliant network for when the distribution protocol goes live, and forms a rich testing ground for applications building on the first version of our SDK. In addition, it allows you — our earliest supporters — as well as all of the first 1000 ATOR hardware relays — to build up consensus weight and trust within the network.
We’re excited at the possibilities of what this network can be, and how large we can grow with the incredible community behind this movement. Ready to #relayup?
