What is the Aurora chain?

Running on the NEAR Protocol, Aurora takes advantage of the protocol's unique features including sharding and reduced gas costs. By leveraging these advanced tools, developers are able to scale their businesses without sacrificing economic efficiency.

The core components of Aurora include a NEAR Protocol interface and Rainbow Bridge which makes it easy for developers to harness Ethereum smart contracts directly from the NEAR Network.

This provides users with an Ethereum layer-2 experience for blockchain applications and helps eliminate gas prices that restrict user participation in DeFi and NFT ecosystems. With its launch on mainnet, more developers can now benefit from faster transactions times at a fraction of the cost compared to Ethereum networks.

Aurora chain architecture

Aurora is a smart contract implemented on the NEAR blockchain and is designed to take advantage of all the current and future benefits of this platform.

The primary benefit of the Aurora architecture is its simplification of early-stage maintenance, upgrade, and governance processes for better response times in case of security vulnerabilities or other emergencies.

Aurora plans to maximize its utility through the use of SputnikDAO version 2— a customizable DAO framework on NEAR that enables comprehensive ecosystem governance mechanisms like no other.

Overall, Aurora's architecture is comprised of a range of efficient tools and protocols such as Random House Signing (RHS), Cross-Chain Transfer Bridge (CCTB) and Lockdrop programs which allow users to invest their token into any project under the umbrella with just one transaction.

Each application using the Aurora network will be assigned a unique ERC721 NFT that bestows voting rights assigning wallets on chain authority as well as allowing developers to create a permissioned permissionless dynamic gatekeeper module.

Aurora chain pros

1. Fast Transaction Speeds: Aurora's high throughput technology is designed to support transactions of up to 1,000 per second.
2. Enhanced Security: An advanced security protocol protect users' data from malicious actors.
3. Low Transaction Costs: Transactions fees within the Aurora network are considerably lower than those of other networks, offering cost savings to customers.
4. Scalability: The aim of the Aurora chain is to offer infinitely scalable transaction capacity and speeds by upgrading hardware components every few months.
5. User-Friendly Platform:RThe entire platform provides a user-friendly interface for users with varying levels of technical knowledge or experience in cryptocurrencies or blockchain networks.

Aurora chain cons

1. The Aurora Chain (AOA) has a relatively low trading volume and liquidity, making it difficult to convert into fiat currency quickly and easily.
2. Scalability issues can be encountered when the network is utilized by large numbers of users as the platform does not have enough processing power to handle them at once.
3. Transactions on the blockchain are not guaranteed to be secure, as the platform still has yet to implement an effective security system.
4. The lack of real-world applications associated with AOA makes it difficult for investors to realize returns on their investments in a timely manner.
5. Due to its low market capitalization, Aurora Chain's value can be easily manipulated by large investors, leading to drastic price fluctuations over short periods of time.

Aurora chain features

1. Resource Scheduler: Creates a resource-abstraction layer for distributed workloads and schedules resources based on user requirements.
2. Distributed Ledger Platform: Open-source, permissioned distributed ledger platform with mapping to real-world identities, used for oracles and other components such as asset transaction histories.
3. Interoperability Protocol: Reliable communication mechanism between heterogeneous networks using both UDP and TCP protocols in the gateway nodes.
4. Encoding Network: Supports multiple data encoding strategies hashed semi-redundantly along the path of blockchain communications increasing privacy while reducing costs of data exchange and storage.
5. Bitcoin Mining/Consensus algorithms: An algorithm that uses hashing functions like SHA256, Scrypt or Equihash with varying levels of difficulty for miners in order to complete transactions on the network securely and efficiently over time.
6. Turing Incomplete Smart Contracts: A set of rules configured by users that are coded in a programming language like Solidity, enabling users to execute digital contracts governed by the conditions agreed upon by both the ends involved in it mutually which are completely tamper proof and immutable at any point of time even if one party fails to uphold its agreement due to malicious intent or incompetence .

Aurora chain fees

The Aurora Chain on the NEAR Protocol contains several fees, depending on the type of transaction.

All transactions require a .50 NEAR fee to be used as payment for miners processing power and as an incentive to stay secure.

Additionally, there is also a small amount of fees paid for storage, which varies proportionately with the data size.

Surface calls to contract accounts have associated fees that depend on the gas price used inside them. To make sure the smart contracts function properly, there needs to be money in the contract wallet for paying those fees.

Does Aurora have it's own token? 

Yes, Aurora has it's own token which is, unsurprisingly, called Aurora.  

What is the Aurora token? 

Launched on Nov 18 2021, 1 billion Aurora tokens were allocated from this launch, with 48% used for future projects by AuroraDAO, 20% allocated for community incentivization, and 32% attributed towards DEX offerings (IDOs), dApps integrations and other partnerships.

As of October 2022 only 7% of AURORA tokens were in circulation, leading to speculation over how many will be released in total.

The DAO remains wary of inflationary practices that devalue their token but also need to ensure adequate liquidity in the market place. This figure will likely remain subject to change as AuroraDAO work towards a balanced decentralized autonomous organization model whilst maintaining economic value.