We would like to provide an update on our plans to assist in the migration of the ARK token to an ERC20 token on Polygon. After careful consideration and feedback from the community, as well as monitoring both the interest and sentiment in reaction to the migration beta, we have decided not to move forward with support for the migration.
While the beta testing period was a success and the process worked as intended, we received very little interest from the community and the overall sentiment leaned highly in favor of staying a unique and decentralized autonomous network.
ARK is unique in that among its many competitors, it has always remained at its core a truly decentralized network focused on the principles of blockchain with which it was founded. In order to make any change to the network or how it functions, it not only requires buy-in from the users but also the validators who run the network.
This is and always will be a strength of the network and serves to make it resilient to unwanted changes.
We believe that the migration does not have enough user confidence and/or support to be worth the time, effort, and costs associated with the process. As such, we will be terminating our plans to support a migration to Polygon.
The team at the ARK SCIC remains dedicated to our original purpose and passion which is to make blockchain easier for everyone. We will continue towards that goal by focusing our energy on where we believe we can make the biggest difference.
ARK has been an amazing journey but the time for Layer 1’s is quickly coming to an end. The ARK Core technology stack, while noble in its efforts, failed to garner the kind of momentum necessary to justify ongoing development at a large scale. While many of our efforts will branch out and reach across the digital divide to other networks such as Polygon, we will continue to provide support for the open-source technology we have built in the form of ARK Core, ARKScan, ARKVault, and ARKLauncher. We will not, however, make any promises as to what the future will hold in regard to new development. As a company, we must always look to put our effort towards our purpose and where we believe we can make the most difference.
Moving forward I am placing our Chief of Product, Matthew Cox, fully in charge of the ARK Product Suite. This includes ARK Core, ARKVault, ARKScan, and ARKLauncher. He will oversee our continued support of these tools as we enter this new phase of development. I have no doubt he will do an excellent job overseeing their maintenance moving forward.
It’s important to us to assure everyone that our decision not to support the migration to Polygon was based on the desires of the community. In addition, while we were able to successfully build and test the migration bridge, the public testing reaffirmed to us that the community would rather remain on ARK as a decentralized autonomous blockchain. We believe it is our duty to uphold the principles of the project and honor the will of the community. As such, the plans to support a migration of the ARK Token to Polygon are officially terminated.
