AURORA Aurora

Overview of Aurora

Aurora is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) created by the team at the NEAR Protocol. It provides a turn-key solution for developers to operate their apps on an Ethereum-compatible, high-throughput, scalable, and future-safe platform with low transaction costs.

Key Features and Use Cases

• Ethereum Compatibility: Aurora is fully compatible with Ethereum, allowing developers to deploy their applications without needing to rewrite them.
• High Throughput and Scalability: It runs on the NEAR Protocol, one of the highest performance third-generation L1 protocols, ensuring fast and economical transactions.
• Low Transaction Costs: Transaction fees in Aurora are paid in the base currency, ETH, providing a great user experience and opening up ecosystem sustainability possibilities.
• Trustless Bridging: The Aurora Bridge, part of the NEAR Rainbow Bridge, is the only fully trustless asset bridge in the Ethereum industry, facilitating the seamless transfer of ETH and ERC-20 tokens between Ethereum and Aurora.
• DeFi and Interoperability: Aurora integrates with other blockchain technologies, such as Bitcoin, to unlock new DeFi use cases and enhance web3 interoperability.
• Development Ecosystem: It supports a wide range of projects and applications, including gaming, AI simulations, and decentralized finance tools, making it a versatile platform for developers.

Projects and Applications

Aurora hosts various projects, including:

• EggoQuest: A Telegram-based gaming realm with real rewards in a Play2Earn format.
• CompareNodes: Provides independent and transparent performance monitoring and benchmarking for web3 infrastructure.
• TPRO.Network: Offers decentralized AI economic simulations and analysis.
• Allstake (NEAR): The first omnichain meshed restaking protocol for cross-chain restaking and trustless security.
• DEXTools: A gateway to DeFi with real-time charts, history, and token information.
• Secret Network: Enables decentralized confidential computing for web3 applications.
• Stargate: A fully composable liquidity transport protocol for omnichain DeFi.
• Age of Mars: An AAA-standard gaming ecosystem with seamless blockchain integrations.
• WhiteBIT: A European crypto exchange with over 4M users.
• StealthEX: An instant custody-free cryptocurrency exchange.
• SwapSpace: Offers swift and secure token exchanges and serves as a reliable bridge between different chains.
• Gas.Zip: The fastest one-stop gas refuel bridge for over 150+ chains.
• Noves: Translates raw blockchain data into meaningful information.
• Wigwam: A feature-rich crypto wallet for the web3 ecosystem.
• Cypher Wallet: A multichain non-custodial crypto wallet.
• Brave Browser: A fast, private, and secure web browser.
• Changelly: Exchanges cryptocurrency in a fast and secure way.
• Walletika: A decentralized crypto wallet.
• LayerZero: An omnichain interoperability protocol for lightweight and trustless cross-chain messaging.
• Dega: A web3 game developer ecosystem.

Pros of Aurora

• Efficient Consensus Protocol: Aurora uses the Delegated Proof-of-Stake Algorithm combined with the Byzantine Fault Tolerance Protocol, making it efficient and democratic.
• Speedy Transactions: Transactions on Aurora are processed within seconds due to its efficient consensus protocols.
• Improved Execution of Smart Contracts: Aurora facilitates faster and more efficient execution of smart contracts, making it a valuable asset in the crypto world.
• Low Transaction Fees: Aurora has among the lowest transaction fees, especially for sending USDT from one wallet to another.
• Scalability: Aurora's second layer, built on the Proof of Stake protocol, allows it to scale and process a greater volume of cryptocurrency transactions.
• Security: The two-tiered BFT and DPoS ensure secure communication within the network.

Cons of Aurora

• Low Adoption: Aurora has not seen a high rate of adoption yet, making it less established in the market.
• Lack of Popularity: Its relatively new status in the crypto market has left it underutilized and not as popular as other cryptocurrencies.
• Limited Information: There is limited information about several Aurora projects due to inadequate communication.
• Slow Development: The number of remaining implementations is large for the ecosystem, which could slow down developments.
• Low Awareness: Many newcomers are still in the dark about Aurora, indicating a need for improved advertising.

Founders of Aurora

Aurora was co-founded by Arto Bendiken and others. Key details about Arto Bendiken include:

• Background: Arto Bendiken is a cypherpunk, autodidact, and serial entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience in programming and software engineering.
• Early Involvement: He has been involved in the digital currency space since the early days of e-gold, long before Bitcoin.
• Role at Aurora: Arto serves as the CTO of Aurora, managing the technological advancement of the protocol to ensure it delivers highly scalable and reliable software for developers and businesses to build on.

Investors in Aurora

• Private Round: The private round raised $12M at a price of $0.1333 per token, with a valuation of $133M. Key investors include those who participated in this round, though specific names are not provided in the available sources.

• Public Rounds: Public rounds include Public 1 Round, which raised $350K at $1 per token, and Public 2 Round, which raised $5.76M at $8.7 per token. These rounds were open to public investors and do not specify individual investor names.

• Grants and Partnerships: Aurora has provided grants to various projects and partners, including RedStone, Fileverse, SaaSGo (Encentive), PureFi, Blaize, Transak, C14, OutDID, Devs N3AR Me, LI.FI, Gymnasia, B4B.WORLD, Taikai, OpenOcean, Curve, UnoFarm, Polaris Finance, WePiggy, Top Crypto Coins & NFT Creator, and Aurigami. These partnerships indicate a diverse ecosystem but do not directly list investors in Aurora itself.

• General Information: For detailed information on Aurora's funding and partnerships, it's recommended to visit the official Aurora website and explore the resources provided there.

Halal Status of Aurora

• Halal Status: Yes
• Reason: According to the Practical Islamic Finance report, Aurora has been classified as "Comfortable" from a halal perspective, indicating that it is considered halal for investment.