What is Aleo?
Aleo is the first decentralized, open-source platform to enable both private and programmable applications. Aleo is designed to be a private-by-default, open-source blockchain, which will be important factors for the blockchain to become more popular.
In the next few years, network services will become very popular, and it will be crucial for users to control their personal information. The fact that users have to exchange their personal data for free services will be outdated and Aleo aims to change this by using privacy-preserving technologies. The most prominent among them is ZK (Zero-knowledge) encryption.
Highlights of Aleo
Aleo uses ZK technology, which can provide users with more choices and reduce the risk of data breaches. Outstanding advantages of ZK technology include:
Improve web security: Instead of using passwords, users can encrypt and log in on devices without entering passwords.
Suitable for web services: When using web services, service providers can access user’s personal data and sell them to 3rd parties. This is a serious problem and has not been fully resolved so far. ZK technology helps users interact with network services without revealing information as well as freely using data.
Aleo is a separate blockchain, so it also uses its own programming language called Leo. Inspired by Ethereum’s Solidity, Leo is designed to write private apps that run smoothly on the web and ensure user’s data is not stolen.
In addition, Leo has many similarities with Javascript and Typescript, which makes it easy for developers to approach Leo. Aleo team also released Aleo Package Manager (PM), which is similar to Cosmos SDK, so developers can easily build dapps on Aleo.
Aleo uses the Proof of Succinct Work (PoSW) consensus mechanism, which is a variant of Bitcoin’s SHA-based difficulty adjusting algorithm, with the key difference being that the underlying computation is not an arbitrary hash function but rather a proof of knowledge. Thus, Aleo also has a similar mining mechanism with BTC.
Fees on the Aleo network are also precalculable. Users will know how many Aleo credits are needed to run a regular dapp. On Aleo, there is no concept of “gas” which is what makes programs unpredictably expensive to run on Ethereum.
ALEO Tokens
ALEO is the native token of the Aleo blockchain. This token has following uses:
- Represents value and growth of ecosystem
- Used to pay transaction fees on the network
- Uses for activities in dapps on Aleo
- Reward miners
- Enable access to a key computational resource of the next generation: zero-knowledge compute.
Developers, investors, and partners
Development team
Aleo was founded in 2019 by original members Howard Wu, Michael Beller, Collin Chin and Raymond Chu. They are all engineers, cryptographic researchers, partners of many large enterprises in the world such as Google, Amazon, etc. and a number of universities such as NYU, Cornell University, University of California.
Investors
The idea of using ZK technology has received a lot of attention from investors. The project has successfully raised 228 million USD with two fundraising rounds.
Series A:
Announced date: August 20, 2021
Money raised: 28 million USD
Investors: 16z, Placeholder VC, Galaxy Digital, Variant Fund, Polychain Capital, Slow Ventures, Dekrypt Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and more.
Leading investor: a16z
Series B:
Announced date: February 7, 2022
Money raised: 200 million USD
Investors: Tiger Global, Sea Capital, Samsung Next, Slow Ventures and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), etc.
Leading investors: Kora Management LP and SoftBank Vision Fund 2
Partners
Aleo tends to collaborate with projects that use its technology. The first project announced a partnership with Aleo is Forte, a blockchain gaming platform.
Roadmap & Updates
Since its launch, Aleo introduced several programs to develop community.
Aleo Ambassador Program: Reward those who are passionate about Aleo and want to support the project by driving adoption, raising awareness, and strengthening the community.
Aleo Feature Bounties: Encourage outside contributions to Leo.
Community Grants Program: Reward and encourage projects using ZK technology and building Dapps on Aleo. Aleo has committed $1M in total funding from its treasury for this program.
Incentivized Testnet: Encourage users to participate as network operators.
ZPrize Competition: A competition related to research and development of ZK technology. Beside $2 million of cash prizes, during this competition, participants will have the opportunity to meet and collaborate with leaders in the industry, including the Ethereum Foundation, ZCash Foundation, Mina, Aztec.
In the near future, Aleo will deploy Testnet 3 and can move to the mainnet in Q1 2023.
ALEO Token
Token Name: Aleo Token
Ticker: ALEO
Blockchain: Aleo Blockchain
Token Contract: No
Token Type: Utility Token
Total Supply: Updating
Circulating Supply: 0
ALEO is expected to be distributed proportionally as follows:
At the beginning:
Early Backers: 57%
Team: 20%
Public: 15%
Grants: 8%
After 5 years:
Early Backers: 33%
Team: 11%
Public: 55%
Grants: 1%
ALEO token sale
ALEO is not open for sale.
How to earn and own ALEO Token
Users can own ALEO tokens by participating in operations, network security, mining, and joining in programs organized by the Aleo team.
Official channels:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AleoHQ
Discord: https://aleo.org/discord
GitHub: https://github.com/AleoHQ
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/AleoHQ
Community wiki: https://aleo.org/community/wiki