Moonbeam has officially become the first fully operational parachain on Polkadot, with community members that had contributed to the crowd loan effort now eligible to claim their Moonbeam token rewards and stake them on the network.
Moonbeam has a host of activities lined up over the next few weeks, with several projects set to go live, including Chainlink and The Graph.
A Phased Launch
Moonbeam’s launch process was carried out over three weeks and was initiated on December 17th, after it had won Polkadot’s second parachain auction back in November. First, block production and decentralization were implemented, and once these were verified to be running without any glitches, the team initiated the final phase of the launch process. During this phase, the superuser key was removed, and EVM and balance transfers were activated, with the number of collators increased to 48.
With the activation of balance transfers, users will be able to start staking, claim crowd loan rewards, and participate in on-chain governance. Moonbeam is expected to bring a significant uptick in activity on Polkadot.
Contributors To Begin Claiming Tokens
Moonbeam community members who had contributed during the crowd loan back in November are now eligible to claim their Moonbeam governance token rewards. Contributors will only be able to claim 30% of their allocated GLMR tokens. In addition to this, they are also eligible to claim up to three weeks worth of vested emissions, which have accumulated since the beginning of the launch process. The remaining 70% of the tokens are currently vesting over the parachain lease period of 96 weeks.
The token holders can also delegate their tokens to a collator and become eligible for staking rewards. The staking rewards distribution is based on the number of tokens contributed, along with the amount bonded to the collator. With the launch, the GLMR token had also seen a significant jump in value, although the price had dropped to around $8 at the time of writing.
A Few Details About Moonbeam
An Ethereum-compatible smart contract platform, Moonbeam is built on Polkadot’s parachain slots and is secured by the main Polkadot chain. It will also enjoy interoperability with all subsequent parachains whenever they go live. Moonbeam’s compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine enables developers to easily and seamlessly port applications from Ethereum without making any significant changes to the underlying code.
Because of the interoperability, key infrastructure from the Ethereum blockchain will also be launching on Moonbeam, including Chainlink oracles, The Graph, and other multichain bridges.
Moonbeam’s Companion Network
Before its launch on Polkadot, Moonbeam had launched its companion network, Moonriver, on Kusama, which is Polkadot’s canary network. Moonriver is also an Ethereum Virtual Machine compatible network and currently hosts 30 applications, including the likes of decentralized exchange Sushi and yield optimizer Beefy Finance.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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