what's AO?
AO is a decentralized supercomputer protocol that enables scalable, permanent computation by leveraging Arweave's immutable storage layer. It operates as a hyperparallel architecture, allowing developers to build and interconnect applications across a single, unified graph without traditional blockchain limitations like block times or gas fees. AO supports multiple virtual machines, including EVM, SVM, and WASM, enabling seamless execution of diverse smart contracts written in languages like Lua, which is lightweight and developer-friendly for rapid prototyping. At its core, AO introduces modular devices through AO-Core, permitting customization of execution environments for specialized tasks such as cryptographic operations, database integrations, or bespoke business logic. This extensibility fosters a permaweb ecosystem where data and processes are eternally accessible and composable. The protocol's fair-launch token model ensures community ownership, with tokens minted via bridging assets, holding AR, or contributing to the network, promoting sustainable growth without preferential allocations.
AO launched PermawebOS Seed incentives (AR tokens for app forks) and a blog explaining HyperBEAM.
Runs PermawebOS Seed Week 1 competition (35 AR prizes for top 2-4 app forks, deadline 2026-03-26) and Week 2 Sprint (35 AR to each of 4 winners, due 2026-04-03).
Launched a blog with the first post explaining HyperBEAM and trust-minimized Arweave gateways.
Will be featured in a livestream announcement on 2026-02-05 at 1pm ET discussing agent-native finance and stablecoin infrastructure developments.
Scheduled livestream on 2026-01-16 at 1pm ET featuring Wuzzy Search founder discussing censorship-resistant search built on AO processes.
New developer infrastructure launches including AOForm for process provisioning, Teal (a typed Lua dialect with compile-time safety), AO-Emulator for local testing and production reads, and an AO Starter Kit that bundles these tools with frontend boilerplate to streamline the development workflow.
Lunar becomes the official AO explorer, providing node health, network stats, wallet lookup, and GraphQL-enabled AOS terminal.
Botega launches as the first agent-powered DEX on AO with autonomous agents coordinating liquidity and execution, becoming one of the major DEXs alongside Permaswap. LiquidOps and Ventoswap build additional strategies and user experiences using Botega liquidity.
Released copycat@1.0, a high-speed data indexer, as Permaweb Index routed over 100,000 AO in yield to 160,000 users.
Mainnet operational with legacynet computation migrated to Hyperbeam; completed gateway stack migration to a mesh architecture. Deploys whitelist for legacynet processes February 18, 2026, with non-whitelisted processes ceasing traffic from Forward Research nodes after February 23, 2026.
Users can now vote for new digital characters to be added to the platform beyond the initial four personalities (Trump, Obama, Orwell, and Ayn Rand).
HTX Earn program goes live with 100% APY for $AO deposits.
A trading carnival goes live with $10,000 in prizes for top spot trading participants, exclusive airdrops for new users, and an additional $2,000 reward pool for SVIP members.
Public digital characters go live onchain featuring Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George Orwell, and Ayn Rand as interactive personalities with permanent and verifiable conversations on the AO + Arweave platform powered by Apus Network's decentralized GPU compute.
Staking infrastructure is coming with a decentralized scheduler network and node operators. New token distribution mechanisms are in development.
Token emission follows a continuous decay model with a fixed supply cap of 21 million tokens, providing gradual supply reduction without halving shocks.
$AO lists on HTX exchange with deposits now open and trading launching imminently.
stETH deposits on the platform offer ~11% APY, significantly higher than ETH native staking at ~3%.
Apus Network launches digital twins application on AO + Arweave, featuring AI chatbots with on-chain memory powered by decentralized GPU compute.
Multiple projects complete migration to HyperBEAM, resulting in significantly faster application performance across the ecosystem.
Deposits surpass $213 million with token distribution flowing to bridged assets including stETH, DAI, and USDS through permissionless on-chain distribution.
AO launches Mini Build Challenge offering $1,750 in prizes for dApp development using ao_devbot, with winners to be announced at Arweave Day Asia.
Major whale activity detected as a large holder unstakes 8,168 stETH from the protocol and moves $20.24 million worth of assets to Binance after making $12 million in farming profits.
Legacynet implements balance-weighted rate limits where higher $AO token holdings provide increased message pushing privileges, with some busy processes requiring token ownership for access.
Hyper-sos, a new AO process module on HyperBEAM, is being unveiled at Arweave Day Asia event.
Project leverages Arweave's permanent data layer for hyper-parallel compute capabilities, combining storage and computation.
Transaction processing capacity increases from 7 to 50+ per second, marking significant scalability improvement for decentralized applications.
Multi-signature support now available on Keystone 3 Pro hardware wallet, enhancing security features for asset holders.
New Discord activity rewards program launches with limited edition NFT collection (12,000 total supply across 3 tiers).
New spot listing on Bybit exchange launches tomorrow.
New spot listing on Ourbit Exchange with AO/USDT pair; deposits now open.
Upgraded mint and delegate pages for staking assets to mint AO or delegating to the Permaweb Index, with building tools also live.
RedStone DeFi integrates AI agent communication layer technology; founder actively developing new features.
Building decentralized compute network allowing stETH & DAI farming with up to 17% yield, no lockups, and fair token launch.
Payment features now live allowing value flow through network. First phase of payment system launched enabling transactions.
Up 2x since TGE (10 days ago). Fair launch with $140M market cap, $900M FDV, $475M TVL. Built on Arweave. Has $472M in stETH + DAI deposits post mainnet.
New L1 blockchain launched recently. Token distribution is 100% community-owned. Users can deposit stETH/DAI/AR to farm tokens. Ecosystem token farming starts March 14, 2025.
Mainnet launched with 21M max supply, no premine, no insider allocations. Pure Bitcoin style distribution model.
Launched Arweave's computing platform mainnet with 21M token max supply (36% to AR holders, 64% for economic growth), featuring AO Core with 60+ composable devices and PermawebOS. Arweave.net gateway became fully AO-Core native, enabling verifiable responses with cryptographic headers for trustless data verification and offset references for short URLs.
Launched mainnet with 100% fair launch, no pre-mine or insider allocations. AOS spawns default to mainnet. AO distribution for AR holders and AOCRED redemption planned.
AI agent coordination platform hitting mainnet February 8. Backed by Arrington Capital.