What You Need to Know About the Upcoming Chrysalis Migration
Recently, we shared more information on Chrysalis, the largest upgrade in the IOTA network’s history. This post will provide you with additional information surrounding the upgrade process.
With Chrysalis we make a clear cut from the current IOTA protocol and start anew with a much better, and more mature network. The new network will support many new use cases and create a foundation for IOTA’s upcoming Coordicide.
This means that everyone will need to migrate their tokens from the current network to the new one. What follows is an explanation of that migration process.
Migrating to Chrysalis
The migration process to Chrysalis phase 2 consists of two phases:
- Before Chrysalis launch - Funds migrated during the week before Chrysalis launch will be available on the new network straight away after launch.
- After Chrysalis launch - A continuous migration will allow users to transfer their funds to the new network anytime after Chrysalis launch.
Ultimately there is no practical difference between these two options and you can choose to migrate when you want. It is however recommended that exchanges migrate ahead of the network launch to avoid any interruptions to their service.
Token holders will continue to be able to migrate their tokens at least until Coordicide. You should not feel pressured into migrating ahead of Chrysalis launch, but we recommend getting it done when you have some time available.
Firefly will guide you through the migration process
The migration process is simple. Whether before or after Chrysalis, all you will need to do is enter your IOTA seed into the new Firefly wallet, and it will take care of everything else.
Migration steps in Firefly
- You enter your seed in Firefly.
- Firefly creates a new seed and generates an EdDSA address for the new network.
- Firefly sends your funds to a predetermined migration address on the old network.
- Your funds become available on the network, in the EdDSA address Firefly created for you. If you migrate before Chrysalis launch, your funds become available at Chrysalis launch. If you migrate after Chrysalis launch, your funds will become available shortly after you migrate.
The process will be the same for Ledger Nano users. You simply connect your device and Firefly guides you through the process.
Firefly will initially only be available on Mac, Linux and Windows.
That is all it takes to migrate your funds from the old IOTA network to the new IOTA network. It really is that simple.
We will publish documentation and FAQs to explain the technical details, as well as instructions on how you can transfer tokens programmatically.
We are working with major exchanges to ensure that funds on exchange wallets are migrated to the updated Chrysalis network automatically.
This post gives an overview of the migration process. We will be publishing more information on the technical aspects of the migration in a follow-up post, together with an FAQ on our documentation site. Stay tuned!
The technical details of the migration
Before Chrysalis
Seven days before we launch Chrysalis the following happens:
- Hornet release - we will release a new version of our node software “Hornet”. This version of Hornet supports migration transactions. This means that people can migrate their funds in advance with this Hornet version.
- Firefly release - together with the update, we release a public version of the Firefly wallet. Firefly will serve as the main way for users to migrate funds from the legacy to the updated Chrysalis network.
- Migration documentation - we will publish guides and migration how-tos for token holders and developers.
At Chrysalis release
Seven days after the migration period begins, we launch Chrysalis:
- Coordinator on the legacy network stops - milestones will stop being issued.
- New network snapshot - We will take a ledger state snapshot of the legacy network. This snapshot will be shared with the community along with instructions on how to validate it (just like we did with global snapshots in the past). Once validated, it will serve as a basis for the genesis ledger state on the new Chrysalis network. This means that the Chrysalis network will start with balances on the addresses migrated ahead of launch.
- Chrysalis Hornet and Bee release - The Chrysalis versions of our node software in Go and Rust will be made available for use on the new network.
- Chrysalis libraries and other products released - The Chrysalis versions of our client libraries and products will be available for use on the new network.
After Chrysalis release
Both the legacy Mainnet and the new Chrysalis network will be operational. Users can freely migrate funds from the old network at any time and funds will become available on the new network almost immediately. Funds will be allocated to EdDSA addresses on the new network through milestones based on the migration information from the legacy network. Normal token transfers will no longer be possible on the old network, only migrations. The total supply of tokens will be the same on the old and new networks.
As always, we welcome everyone to stop by on Discord for a discussion with the devs!
Visit www.iota.org for more information.
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