About Aurora (AURORA)

An ERC-20, AURORA is the governance token of Aurora, an Ethereum-scaling project ("layer-2") that runs on the layer-1 Near Protocol which is known for facilitating dApps. AURORA is the Aurora project’s native token used for governance.

AURORA token use cases also include its role in a community-run treasury to fund new projects, per AuroraDAO decisions. Future uses, depending on these votes, could eventually include using AURORA as a means of paying rewards, and for staking, and for paying transfer fees, among other potential uses. For now, the base fee token of Aurora is ETH.

Aurora describes itself as part Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), part Ethereum bridge, a two-pronged scalability soluition that was created by the Near team.

The EVM, per Cointelegraph, is a blockchain-based computer engine at the core of Ethereum’s operating system. It's responsible for transaction execution, smart contract deployment and other operating functionalities, in addition to enabling developers to build dApps on its blockchain.

Developers use Aurora to operate their apps on an Ethereum-compatible platform in scalable, inexpensive and speedy – purportedly 2-3 second finalization – fashion.

"Aurora is the most advanced EVM on the market," the platform said of the Aurora Engine, which is implemented as a smart contract on Near.

The team points to Aurora Engine's set of cutting edge dev tools working in tandem with the flip side of the Aurora project, the Aurora Bridge, which connects to Ethereum by way of the Near Rainbow Bridge.

"Aurora provides the Ethereum 1.0 development experience, with layer-2-like speed and scalability," the project's white paper said. "If you are an Ethereum developer, getting started on Aurora is easy."

When was AURORA created and how much was it worth?

Aurora’s team spun off from NEAR, Inc. as a separate entity in July 2021, per a Medium post.

The founder of Aurora Labs, Alex Shevchenko, led Ethereum-related initiatives at NEAR.

Aurora Labs’ Michael Birch is the team’s lead developer. He worked for RChain and Casper before joined Near in its early stages.

Aurora in 2021 closed its first private round of funding by raising a total of $12 million from the likes of Pantera Capital, Electric Capital and Dragonfly Capital/

More than 100 investors took part in Aurora’s funding round, which was split between the ecosystem and venture capital buckets, a Medium post said.

In early January of 2022, AURORA reached above $35, an all-time high. As of early January of 2023, AURORA was $0.16. 

How is the price of AURORA determined?

Market sentiment would seem to have played a part in AURORA reaching a record high not long after it launched. It was that shiny new thing and the onset of crypto winter had not yet set in as of early January of 2022. Long-term dynamics should be considered, however.

One billion Aurora governance tokens were created at Genesis, October 7, 2021.

Some 9% of all tokens went to Aurora Labs’ private round investors.

The unlocking schedule: two unlocks of 3.25 million AURORA took place in May and August of 2022; 3.5 million AURORA unlocked in November 2022. Eight unlocks of 10 million AURORA will happen every third month starting from February 2023. All the tokens will be unlocked at the end of the project's 36th month, according to the project.

This means there could be some selling pressure in the near-term period, but which likely would abate in the long run.

Why does AURORA have value?

Near is considered a viable challenger to Ethereum in terms of facilitating what could be a massive market for DeFi and NFTs. The more projects that run on Aurora, a small but important EVM segment of Near, the more the potential for growth and AURORA price appreciation. 

Is AURORA secure?

It runs on Near which uses a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus to validating transactions. According to an Aurora blog post, for validators to take part in securing Near, they must stake a certain amount of NEAR tokens as collateral. Once staked, these tokens are then used to ensure the validator acts honestly. If the validator tries to cheat or change the blockchain record, the network burns part of the stake as punishment.

There is a minimum threshold for how much NEAR must be staked; and the extent to which validators can invite delegators (token holders who want to secure the network without running validation hardware).

What are the main benefits of AURORA?

• Aurora says it provides Ethereum compatibility along with Near Protocol scalability and affordable transactions. In other words, it offers users and developers "the classic Ethereum experience," said digital experts Socialyy. Except with higher throughput and lower fees.
• Aurora leverages the shared team DNA and continually evolving technology of Near.
• Recently, per Coin98.net, Trisolaris, the first automated market maker (AMM) built on Aurora, was released. The AMM specifically and Aurora, in general, allows users to swap between any ERC20 tokens, provide liquidity for any ERC20 tokens and earn fees for providing liquidity. 

What do critics say about AURORA?

Near Protocol's Aurora experienced the largest decline in user activity relative to other EVM-chains as of July, at the start of the crypto winter, according to Messari research.