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+In early 2015, Mihai Alisie (co-founder of Ethereum) had the idea for AKASHA. AKASHA is a social network that differs from other known social networks mainly in its decentralization. The absence of a central server meant that censorship was ruled out by the design alone. This is realized by the two technologies Ethereum and the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS). The technology stack is completed by Electron, React, Redux and NodeJS, so that the primary programming language is JavaScript. In addition to Mihai Alisie, 12 other employees now work at AKASHA. Furthermore, the founders of Ethereum (Vitalik Buterin) and IPFS (Juan Benet) advise the project.
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+Alisie sees AKASHA as \enquote{the missing puzzle piece that will enable us to tackle two of the most important challenges we face today as a modern information-based society: freedom of expression and creative perpetuity}. The central goal is therefore to prevent censorship and to obtain information over a long period of time.
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+
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+\textit{<<Describe what AKASHA can do>>}
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+After the idea had been validated by a proof of concept, the above-mentioned technology stack was defined and development began at the beginning of 2016. The first goal was to develop a client based on Electron for Windows, Linux and MacOS. In January 2017, the first functional alpha version was completed and tested with a closed circle of users. Over time, additional functions were added, bugs fixed and performance optimized. With the launch of the beta version in November 2017, a web version of AKASHA\footnote{https://beta.akasha.world/} was introduced. In the beta phase the developers wanted to set the application and IPFS and the Ethereum blockchain behind under a stress test to see if the technology can cope with heavy load.
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+With the announcement of the beta, the team behind AKASHA also released plans for their own AETH token. This token should have the special feature that it can take different states. The state transition from one state to the other is only possible as shown in Figure \ref{fig:akasha-aeth-transitions}. The developers describe the states as follows:
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+\begin{itemize}
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+ \item \textbf{AETH} is a transferable, ERC 20 compatible token, living on the Rinkeby test network
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+ \item \textbf{Mana} is non-transferable and is obtained by locking AETH for X time at Y ratio (Manafied AETH). The Mana amount regenerates every day for as long as AETH remains locked, in a \enquote{Manafied} state.
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+ \item \textbf{Essence} is non-transferable and is obtained through positive contributions. It can be burned to mint new AETH into existence. When people use their Mana to vote on artifacts, the authors can collect the burned Mana as Essence.
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+ \item \textbf{Karma} is not a state, but rather a score tracking user contributions. For every unit of Essence collected, the user receives also Karma. Karma is used for defining milestones, thresholds and unlocking functionality within the dapp.
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+\end{itemize}
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+\begin{figure}[h]
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+ \includegraphics[width=1.0\textwidth]{aeth-flow}
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+ \label{fig:akasha-aeth-transitions}
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+ \caption{AETH flow}
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+\end{figure}
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+After a long period of silence, the entire project was converted in January 2019, almost three years after the start. The domain was changed from akasha.world to akasha.org and the focus shifted from a social network to an umbrella organization that unites several projects. In the AKASHA blog Alisie writes about a metamorphosis and compares the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly. The alpha and beta phases are said to have corresponded to the caterpillar phase, the second half of 2018 to the chrysalis stage and now the butterfly is supposed to unfold with all its beauty. However, it is left open how the new orientation will look like and how the social network will continue. On the website you will find a software section as well as a hardware section. However, there is no content available yet. The public launch of the social network in version 1.0 was actually planned for the fourth quarter of 2018. With this launch, the change from the Rinkeby test network to the Ethereum main network should also be completed. It is currently not known when the public launch will take place.
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Carsten Porth
