Written by: TechFlow TechFlow
When it comes to what are the hottest on-chain projects this year, ATOR Protocol definitely has a place. From US$0.02094 in March this year to a new high of US$2.13, the increase reached more than 100 times.
Nowadays, it seems that the glory is gone, and $Ator has recently encountered a waterloo. Within four days, the drop reached 60%, nearly halving those who were chasing the highs.
What exactly is ATOR Protocol? What's happening behind the dramatic price changes? Let's take a look.
ATOR Introduction to Protocol ($Ator) and the whole story of the event
ATOR Protocol helps the service efficiency and privacy protection capabilities of these privacy networks by providing incentives for operators that provide relay nodes for privacy networks.
The privacy network described here mainly refers to the Tor Project , which is the onion routing network. The Onion Network can be simply understood as a browser used for anonymous communication on the Internet, hiding the user's IP address and preventing tracking by intermediate and destination routers.
Too few nodes is a major shortcoming of the onion network. Especially in the face of user needs, insufficient nodes make the network unstable. ATOR The relay node incentives provided by Protocol just alleviate the urgent needs of the onion network.
At first glance, The Onion Network is ATOR Provide living space, ATOR This brought more nodes to the onion network. This mutually beneficial and win-win situation lasted until November 20, and then came to an abrupt end.
On November 20, the Tor Project published a blog post stating that they believe that some operators are associated with high-risk, for-profit schemes through cryptocurrency incentives, operated by third parties, through protocols that are not endorsed or approved by the Tor Project. , these relay nodes cause harm to the Tor network. And incentives of this cryptocurrency nature may attract individuals with malicious intent, putting users at risk and undermining the volunteer-driven spirit that sustains the Tor community.
As a result, the Onion Network deleted nearly a thousand relay nodes, which directly affected the business of ATOR Protocol and also caused dissatisfaction among major ATOR users. Perhaps the currency holders themselves are node operators, and the deletion of nodes undoubtedly affected them. income.
Under this situation, users began to publish some Fud information in the ATOR community, and the price of the Ator token nearly halved on the 20th alone.
Set up your own business and become a competitor of Onion Network
Ator did not sit still. Nearly 7 hours after the Tor Project blog was posted, Ator also made their " counterattack statement ":
Ator announced their future plans, deciding to break away from the limitations of the Tor Project and build their own decentralized point-to-point routing network using the Tor Project as a competitor. The network aims to provide a range of services such as private messaging, streaming, file transfers and a decentralized marketplace secured by the $ATOR token.
Ator believes that it took Tor 20 years to build 6,500 relays on the network, and it only took them 8 months since fair launch to have more than 2,000 testnet relays. At this rate, even After independence, they are also confident that they will exceed the number of Tor relays within a few months.
The technology has also been improved. Over the past few months, they have continued to improve research and development, and are now able to build a novel cross-chain, scalable protocol, and industry-standard hardware. Also doubled the size of their engineering team to quickly iterate on this novel protocol.
Ator also believes that in addition to Tor not doing anything to encourage relay node operators, they also rely heavily on government funding. A network that prioritizes privacy actually needs to rely on government relief to survive, which makes people doubt its spirit. Contradictory to stated mission. This view resonated with the crypto community, turning short-term negatives into long-term benefits for Ator, and community confidence rebounded.
The crypto community will not let down the builders who build for cryptocurrencies, and Ator stands on one side of cryptocurrencies.
It is not difficult to see from Ator's market performance that the article has given HODL confidence in the community. This storm not only made more people pay attention to the project, but also made everyone realize that Ator is no longer a vassal of the Onion Network, accelerating its roadmap. realization.
At present, the price of $Ator is gradually recovering, rebounding nearly 50% from the lowest point of this decline.
In 2024, ATOR is also preparing to release new hardware facilities related to its own network operation and launch the ATOR mainnet. A series of protocols are on the way to seek their own development.
Perhaps as ATOR said on its social media, "The future is decentralized and no one can hinder this movement." The same is true for Internet privacy. If you are squeezed out by the Onion Network, you might as well start a new movement on your own.
Let us wait and see how its market performance will be in the future.
