Ark: the adventures of a blockchain made in France

The history of the cryptocurrency Ark shows a journey fraught with pitfalls. Ark was initially born of a rupture, with the resignation of the project Lisk of François-Xavier Thoorens who did not agree with the way that took Lisk. This act signed the birth of a new project, that of Ark, which will quickly be confronted with a disillusionment on the day of the ICO. Finally, it is with brillo that the cryptocurrency follows its course, with the creation in November 2017 of a legal structure in France: the Cooperative Society of Collective Interest (SCIC) ARK ECOSYSTEM.

September 2016: the emergence of the cryptocurrency Ark

The origins of Ark are inseparable from the Lisk project. At that time the Lisk community - another cryptocurrency based in Switzerland - is disappointed by the lack of vision of the founders and is looking for a new breath. In late August, the resignation of François-Xavier Thoorens - one of the developers of the heart of Blockchain Lisk - causes an electroshock. This frees the floor and triggers a general brainstorming. Thirty people open a Slack group to share ideas, organize reflection and imagine the future together.

A group of 9 people emerge - 5 American and 4 European - and self-organize to finally propose a new adventure: create a blockchain with a vision. Code name: ARK. This name was chosen with reference to Noah's Ark ... which will save us from the financial downfall. The Whitepaper is written in 9 hands. It focuses on simplicity, speed, energy saving and communication between different Blockchains.

To finance the development, an ICO - Initial Coin Offering - is set up. The team is ambitious. The floor to be reached to validate this fundraising is 2,000 bitcoins. At that time, all ICOs on the planet are success stories. It is not uncommon - while 1 bitcoin is exchanged for around 750 euros - that the 2000 bitcoins are obtained from the first seconds of fundraising. Imagine then in 5 weeks ...

December 2016: the failure of Ark's ICO

On December 7, 2016, the team that flew the ICO project Ark does not hide his disappointment. The soft cap of 2000 bitcoins has not been reached and fundraising can not be validated. Euphoria gives way to humility. In accordance with the commitments signed with the donors, they must be repaid. The team accuses the blow but refuses to give up.

The developments of the Ark blockchain progress and the test network works perfectly. Technically, deadlines can be met. The launch of the blockchain, scheduled for early 2017, is possible. As if to defy fate, she proposes a new agreement to donors. Those who want to be reimbursed make the request while those who believe in the Ark project and want to give it a chance can leave their donations. These new commitments maintain approximately € 800,000. The Ark token is then valued at 1 cent!

Undeniably, with the exception of these audacious donors, no one imagined that in a few months, Ark would become the biggest French cryptomonnaie. Less than a quarter after first listing, it is one of the top 30 crypto-values ​​on the planet. With a capitalization of around 300 million euros, Ark achieved one of the highest performances of all time. Ark is also a project that leads the race in innovation at all levels: technical, financial, legal, organization, etc ...

March 21, 2017: D-Day, official launch of Ark's decentralized network

Technically, everything is almost ready for the launch of the blockchain. The team has come together to complete the project. Obviously, it's very technical and many blockchain projects have broken their teeth at this delicate phase: providing code for community members, provisioning and configuring a hundred servers all over the world. The servers are attacked and the owners of tokens rush on their accounts. It is the race against the clock for Ark tokens to be quickly available on trading platforms. The day will be long.

It is a no-fault that is hailed as such by the Ark community. Regarding the Ark token, it is available a handful of hours after launch on a major trading platform cryptocurrency: Bittrex. He then breaks out at $ 0.03! This is three times its valuation at the price of the tok ark day of the ICO. Since then it has only gone up to now worth 3 dollars. It must be said that the team innovates all the time, on all fronts.

Ark is the first DPoS type cryptocurrency (the consensus algorithm, different from PoW bitcoin and much less energy consuming) to equip itself with a hardware wallet consisting of a secure USB key manufactured by the French company Ledger . Validation of blockchain transactions