ARK is a platform centered around cryptocurrency and blockchain technology that enables anyone to build their own personalized and interoperable blockchain. By utilizing custom transactions, logic, and multiple programming languages, ARK seeks to diminish the industry's reliance on Smart Contracts. Founded in the middle of 2016, ARK hosted a Token Exchange Campaign (TEC) later that year, successfully raising $800,000 in bitcoin and various other cryptocurrencies. Through prudent financial management, the team has maintained a strong financial foundation from the outset. The ARK Public Network officially launched on March 21, 2017, introducing the native ARK cryptocurrency. Shortly after, the ARK ECOSYSTEM SCIC business entity, commonly known as 'ARK.io', was established, aligning with the team’s branding and website.
The ARK Ecosystem features an open-source blockchain tech stack written in TypeScript. Serving as a practical showcase of ARK’s technology, ARK's public network allows node operators to act as delegates. Additionally, independent blockchains run on ARK technology with their own operators, and business entities build ARK-powered products and help maintain the codebase. The ecosystem also includes an enterprise division promoting adoption and a community of users, developers, and service providers.
The ARK Public Network supports unique transaction types such as multi-payment, multisignature, various registration transactions, and IPFS hash transactions. ARK's Launcher product offers a graphical interface for crafting customizable interoperable blockchains. This plug-and-play method empowers developers to leverage ARK’s consensus model, tech stack, product suite, and custom transactions.
What Is ARK Trying To Solve?
ARK is focused on overcoming the complexities associated with blockchain technology and developing solutions suited for diverse uses. The ARK Core Framework is tailored to facilitate easier access for developers. It comprises the ARK Core, which serves as the foundation of an ARK-based network, managing peer-to-peer activities, ledger database, API access, tailored business logic, and more. Within this framework lies the Generic Transaction Interface (GTI), enabling developers to create custom transaction types for bespoke blockchains that cater to their specific needs. This approach is akin to developing a decentralized application in Solidity, but without the need to master a new, intricate language, as GTI operates in TypeScript. Furthermore, decentralized ARK-based applications and related crypto assets function on a sovereign interoperable blockchain, tackling scalability issues.
How Do You Mine Or Stake ARK?
ARK isn't mined but is instead forged by elected delegates who maintain the network. It utilizes a unique delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) blockchain featuring 51 forging delegate slots, with block times of eight seconds. Each block forged results in 2 ARK being awarded to the delegate responsible for validation. Delegates are chosen by ARK token holders, with voting power fixed at 1 ARK equating to 1 vote, preventing users from voting for multiple delegates with one wallet. This system addresses traditional DPoS centralization and power group challenges. Prospective forging delegates can run ARK Core instances and campaign for votes from token holders.
Users aiming to promote their delegate into the top 51 slots can carry out a special vote transaction via ARK Desktop or ARK Mobile wallets, assigning vote weight to their chosen delegate. ARK used in voting is not frozen and can be freely moved in or out of the voting address. Each delegate uniquely manages its staking rewards system—independent of the ARK team, which does not operate the ARK public network.
Where Can You Buy ARK?
ARK is available for purchase on any cryptocurrency exchange that lists it. To find the most recent exchanges and trading pairs, you can visit the ARK website or explore the market pairs section. The ARK Desktop Wallet also offers exchange plugins for download. ARK can be stored on exchanges, within ARK-specific wallets, multi-asset crypto wallets, crypto debit card wallets, or ledger hardware wallets.
