Details about the Nxt 2.0 token distribution have been announced.
Those who have been following Nxt 1.0 know that the launch of Nxt 2.0 (Ardor) will be a big and important step forwards, not just for Nxt but for blockchain technology in general. With the amazing and broad set of truly disruptive, stable features already running on the Nxt 1.0 blockchain, the next leap forward will be the solving of the blockchain bloat problem inherent to all existing blockchains.
This can make Ardor the first globally scalable crypto platform, and in addition to this, Ardor will enable any individual, business and community to launch their own fully secured customised private ledgers. In short, a Nxt 2.0 Main Chain token (ARDR) will ‘forge’ (~ stake/~mine) all the childchain transactions and thereby secure them. The first and default Nxt 2.0 childchain (Ignis) to be launched with the genesis block will be a ledger which integrates all the functionality of Nxt 1.0.
Ardor’s prime innovation is to split the blockchain into a main chain that is used for consensus creation only, and multiple child chains that keep separate ledgers of transactions, each child chain using its own coin/token.
In the announcement Jean-Luc writes that:
The Nxt 1.0 branch will continue to run
Nxt 1.9 is going to be the last major release on the Nxt 1.0 branch.
Nxt 2.0 is not a fork of Nxt 1.0. NXT tokens will continue to exist.
Existing 1.0 users will be able to log in to Nxt 2.0 with their existing passphrases.
The Nxt core development team is committed to providing support for Nxt 1.x for at least one year after the Nxt 2.0 launch. Additional GUI functionality may or may not be added to the NRS Client.
The distribution of Nxt 2.0 tokens
The Core Developers recognise the tremendous contributions of the investors and holders of the original Nxt 1.0, without whom Nxt 2.0 would not be possible, and have decided to grant them exclusive rights to the new 2.0 tokens.
Ardor tokens
ALL Nxt 2.0 Main Chain tokens (ARDR) will be distributed among the holders of Nxt 1.0 tokens.
Nxt 1.9 will be announced shortly with a hard fork for the ARDR distribution without API changes.
The only way to get ARDR is by holding NXT in your account during the snapshot phase (which starts when Nxt 1.9 is released and will run for about 3 months).
Jean-Luc writes:
The Nxt Software will start taking periodic snapshots of all users’ NXT balances, at regular intervals (most likely once an hour), for a period of three months.
The NXT balances in each account will be averaged over this full three month period, and at the end all accounts will be automatically credited with a token representing their ARDR holdings, issued as an Asset on the Nxt asset exchange.
Riker explains:
Holding the ARDR token provides the ability to bundle many child chain transactions into a ChildChainBlock transaction on the main chain (i.e. become a bundler) and forge transactions on the main chain.
Ardor Mainnet is scheduled to launch in Q3 2017.
IGNIS; the Nxt childchain tokens
Introducing: Ignis.
As stated above, Nxt 1.x will continue to run; you will get to keep all your current NXT tokens.
The Nxt 1.x equivalent chain which will launch with the Ardor genesis, is a new Nxt ledger. Its transactional token has been dubbed Ignis. The Ignis token will be the only transactional token on the Ardor network when it launches, and until new child chains can be spawned.
Ignis tokens will be distributed ~ 50/50 to NXT holders/Nxt core development team.
The ~ 50% Ignis which are to be distributed to the core development team will be theirs to use for funding the continued development of the Nxt 2.0 platform.