Aurora chain
EVM created by the team at the NEAR Protocol
The Aurora chain is an EVM chain that leverages the shared team DNA and continually evolving technology of the NEAR Protocol (the NEAR protocol token NEAR is top 50 market cap at the time of this writing).
Why should you care?
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Anyway, back to Aurora chain.
What is Aurora?
Aurora is an Ethereum compatible blockchain and ecosystem that runs on the NEAR Protocol; a layer-1 blockchain which is fast (2-3 second transaction finalization), scalable, and carbon neutral. Aurora was launched on May 12, 2021.
ETH is Used for gas/transactions.
AURORA is the native token used for staking and governance
Speed and low transaction costs are the key selling point of Aurora chain.
Team and backing
Alex Shevchenko is the CEO of Aurora Labs; he holds a PhD in Applied Physics and Mathematics. Aurora Labs is the entity that employs the team actively maintaining the Aurora protocol, under direction of the AuroraDAO.
Aurora is backed by VCs such as Pantera Capital, Electric Capital, Dragonfly Capital.
Technology
Aurora is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (SputnikVM) implemented as a smart contract on NEAR Protocol. The features of the NEAR Protocol, such as delegated Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism and dynamic resharding (Nightshade), allow unprecedented transaction speeds and scalability in a fully Ethereum-compatible environment.
Aurora puts a cap on gas fees (~$0.02) to ensure they do not infinitely increase like Ethereum.
Aurora expands on NEAR’s ecosystem with EVM-based applications; allowing applications running in Aurora to easily interact with other apps in NEAR.
Besides the EVM, Aurora developed the Rainbow Bridge which allows users to transfer assets between Ethereum, NEAR, and Aurora.
Aurora+ and Aurora Cloud are 2 important factors to propel Aurora’s growth.
Aurora+
Aurora+ provides an easy-to-use web interface to connect an email address with an EVM wallet. The wallet gets 50 free transactions a month on Aurora chain; it is also mentioned on the page that additional subscription plans may be launched to cater for users who require more transactions per month. Using Aurora+, users can also easily stake AURORA to receive additional AURORA tokens, and tokens from partner projects in the Aurora ecosystem. Aurora+ was launched on May 17, 2022.
With Aurora+, you don’t even need any ETH in wallet to get started. The 50 free transactions work with any project on the Aurora ecosystem.
Aurora Cloud
Aurora Cloud is a turnkey blockchain solution for businesses transitioning to web3. To expand further on the one-liner, businesses can get in touch with the Aurora Cloud team for consultancy and support to launch projects on dedicated blockchains, called Aurora Silos, that leverages the technology of Aurora chain. Aurora Silos features include custom token & fee mechanics, access control, tremendous transaction throughput, and more.
Aurora Cloud customers also get access to Aurora Pass, a mobile crypto wallet capable of interacting with any Web2 application that has integrated with the public Aurora network, or an Aurora Silo. Aurora Pass allow users to sign in using familiar Web2 authorization technologies like Face ID and Touch ID, avoiding the friction of today’s Web3 wallets.
Aurora Cloud also comes with Borealis Business, a transaction processing and accounting engine which makes it simple for the business by providing a platform to keep track of transactions, user roles and billing. Transaction fees are covered on the backend so end users are able to easily adopt the technology without even knowing anything about blockchain transaction fees.
Aurora Cloud was launched on March 2, 2023.
Metrics
Twitter 118.9K
Discord 14.2K
Telegram 13.4K
Dapps 259+ (around 30% tagged as coming soon)
15 exchanges
48 DeFi protocols (tracked in DefiLlama)
Around 5 NFT platforms (some don’t work anymore). The best one in terms of user experience is Endemic
5 games
4 oracles (ChainLink coming soon)
NFT
10~ collections
Aurora DeFi TVL $26M~ tracked in DefiLlama
YouTube
Alex Shevchenko has been running live streams to update the community on Aurora and ecosystem updates since June 2021. Amazing commitment!
Blog
The blog is also very regularly updated with a interesting mix of content, from technology updates, platform updates, ecosystem updates, to team member introductions.
Aurora Ecosystem Projects
The 5 ecosystem projects I would highlight are
Bastion https://app.bastionprotocol.com
Highest TVL on the Aurora chain
The stablecoin pool for cUSDT.e cUSDC is offering 22.32% APY
The reward token for APY is the Bastion native token BSTN
Aurora Plus https://aurora.plus/r/76d10c3d
Buy Aurora with credit card
Stake, unstake. 27% APR (21.18% Aurora, 4.19% Aurigami, 0.07% Trisolaris, 1.49% Bastion)
Swap tokens
Bridge from Ethereum/NEAR
Check your remaining free transactions
Add Aurora ecosystem dapps to favourites, for easy access
Trisolaris https://www.trisolaris.io/#/farm
Around 20 farming opportunities
USDT-USDC at 10% APR
nUSD-USDC/USDT at 21% APR
The reward token for APR is the Trisolaris native token TRI
Aurigami https://www.aurigami.finance/
Platform for borrowing and lending
USDC 9.81% supply APY (5% USDC, 4.81% PLY)
USDC 4.12% borrow APY (9.03% USDC, -4.9% PLY)
PLY / WNEAR pool at 54.17% APR (PLY)
PLY is the Aurigami native token
Endemic https://endemic.app/
NFT marketplace with a nice and simple user experience
What’s Interesting for Investors?
Aurora has Aurora+ to encourage user adoption, providing an easy interface with free transactions to experience the Aurora ecosystem.
Aurora has Aurora Cloud in place for enterprise adoption.
There’s also a Community Grants Program for community members who are passionate about Aurora to help foster engagement and spread awareness about Aurora and ecosystem projects.
What’s Interesting for Developers?
Aurora has a dedicated portal for developers to learn all about the technology and how to build on Aurora chain. https://dev.aurora.dev/
There isn’t a grants program but there is a partner program that help projects access funding, dedicated technical support, marketing & community outreach, and more. https://aurora.dev/partner
Resources
Website https://aurora.dev/
Twitter https://twitter.com/auroraisnear
Discord https://discord.aurora.dev/
Telegram https://t.me/auroraisnear
Aurora YouTube https://www.youtube.com/c/auroraisnear
DefiLlama https://defillama.com/chain/Aurora
Aurora Plus https://aurora.plus/r/76d10c3d (if you sign up with my link and stake 100 AURORA, we’ll both get 10 AURORA)
Final Thoughts on Aurora chain
During the time spent on exploring the ecosystem and community channels, I noticed one game getting traction in the Telegram group, Aurora 2048. What was interesting about this was that people were sharing their game score and posting screenshots, and there would be an automated reply that the user could claim 0.5 Aurora from the Aurora tip bot. I tried this myself and claimed 0.5 Aurora after playing the game and sharing my score. Using the free transactions from Aurora Plus, I was able to claim the tokens easily and then stake them back in Aurora Plus.
The DeFi opportunities at Aurora are growing. The NFT space at Aurora is very quiet. Gaming and DAO seem to be very good use-cases with free transactions and very low cost transactions.
Aurora Plus and Aurora Cloud are key factors for the success of Aurora chain.
Everything I see coming from the Aurora team provides for good user experience.
In summary, I think there is good potential for Aurora and I’ll be following their updates closely.