labs@atheron:~/work/aton-chain$ cat aton-chain.md
The ATON chain
Written down before it was built.
A public chain for payments. We wrote the consensus and the protocol down in full first, then started the node to that specification. The public site is checked against the same document by a test, so the site cannot claim something the specification does not settle.
// what it does
- Orders blocks as a block-DAG, by a GHOSTDAG-style rule: blocks may be made in parallel, and nodes holding the same blocks reach the same order.
- Caps the supply at one billion units, with no premine and no sale.
- Issues units by mining, with one memory-hard proof of work, so ordinary graphics cards stay competitive.
- Publishes a site and a roadmap, with the build status read live from our own tracker.
// how we built it
- Specification first: consensus, blocks, transactions and issuance written down before the node.
- Every claim on the site is checked against the specification by a test, so the two cannot drift apart.
- What is not settled yet, such as the hash function, is written down as not settled rather than guessed.
- The block-DAG on the home page is drawn in the browser from the ordering rule itself, not from a picture.
// the size of it
- specification
- Consensus, protocol, issuance and the open questions, in one document
- hard cap
- One billion units, never more
- launch
- No premine and no sale; a team allocation disclosed before the first block
- sites
- aton-chain.com, with aton-chain.org pointing at it
// stack
- Specification first
- Rust
- Next.js
- TypeScript
- Canvas
// where it stands
The public site is live. The specification is being written: the shape of the supply, the consensus and the proof of work is settled, and their numbers are not. The node, the block explorer and the client libraries are not started, and nothing about them is offered yet.
// a comparable build
- Build
- ≈ US$108,000 to US$165,000, within 26 weeksCAD 153,200 to 234,300
- Hosting
- ≈ US$344 a monthCAD 490 a month
- Support
- ≈ US$2,500 a monthCAD 3,565 a month
Prices in your currency are estimates from today's Bank of Canada rate. All invoicing is in CAD or USD.
the effort in it
- Development
- 387 to 592 h
- Blockchain engineer
- 110 to 169 h
- DevOps engineer
- 104 to 159 h
- Project manager
- 75 to 114 h
- Software architect
- 65 to 100 h
- In all
- 1197 to 1831 h
what this price covers
A public chain taken the whole way: the specification, the node, a block explorer and a public site. At Atheron the first and the last are done.
An estimate for a build like this one, worked out from our rate card as you read it. It is not a quote. Yours changes with your scope, and we write a real one after a call.
Open this in the estimator →// the rest
The other projects.
// start
Want one built like this?
The same team, the same tests, the same care. Tell us what you need, or price it yourself first.