Chrysalis Network Migration - Release Date

Over the last year we have been working to transition the IOTA protocol towards production readiness, taking the real-world needs and requests of our ecosystem into account. We have successfully removed some of the exotic aspects of the IOTA protocol and replaced them with industry standards. The first phase of Chrysalis deployed on the IOTA network in August 2020. We are now in the final phase of the biggest upgrade in IOTA’s history.

Today we are happy to announce the official start date of the Chrysalis network migration - Wednesday, April 21st 2021. As stated previously, the migration period that will allow users, exchanges and custodians to prepare their token migrations ahead of the network upgrade will begin 7 days prior to the network upgrade. The network upgrade itself will officially happen on Wednesday, April 28th, 2021.

The public Chrysalis testnet has now been running since December 2020, with components gradually added to the network until it was feature complete with the Chrysalis specifications. Developers and IOTA enthusiasts can already read up on the new developer documentation to get started with developing on Chrysalis. With the public beta release of Firefly next week we will make it possible for anyone to experience the future of IOTA ahead of the mainnet upgrade. (Hint: a couple of seconds for proof of work, below 10 second confirmation times and reusable addresses are absolutely amazing).

Please Note. The Beta version of Firefly will not allow you to migrate your tokens. That will only be possible from Wednesday, April 21st 2021.

While we fall a bit short of our estimated Q1 release, the sheer magnitude and careful execution required for the Chrysalis upgrade should not be underestimated nor should the upgrade be rushed. We have rebuilt the entire IOTA tech stack (node, libraries, wallet) from scratch, including a token transition from the old WOTS signature scheme to the new EdDSA signatures. So far we have successfully completed multiple audits from three independent firms, and our team is continuously peer-reviewing and optimizing wherever possible. All of this is to ensure that Chrysalis will be a smooth and secure transition into a new and exciting future with much higher performance, stability, reliability and security. A New Dawn, so to say.

While we are technically mostly ready to commence the network upgrade, one of the reasons for the change of the official launch date is to provide exchanges with more time to officially support the transition. Many exchanges have predefined update cycles that can neither be skipped, nor shortened nor changed at will. Obviously they have rather rigorous vetting and security processes that cannot and should not be changed on a whim. We will ensure that we better accommodate for these timeframes in future upgrades.

When it comes to the token migration, Firefly will guide you through the whole migration process painlessly (we will publish a step by step guide ahead of time). In the process, our new wallet will automatically create destination addresses in the Chrysalis network for your tokens. The heavy lifting of the migration is fully automated through the Firefly wallet and token holders (including Ledger wallets) are guided by a simple interface. In short, the migration of your tokens from the current IOTA network to the new Chrysalis network will be painless, easy and quick.  

With the network migration, close to the whole token supply will be transferred and many transactions will be made. The migration event is therefore a high value target for hackers and scammers. When you download the Firefly wallet, please make sure you only download the official one in order to safely transfer tokens to your new address(es). There is no officially recommended way for users to migrate their tokens other than Firefly. Naturally we keep an eye out for any potential fake wallets or unofficial migration instructions.

In order for you to absolutely ensure you download the official wallet, only download from our dedicated network migration status page https://chrysalis.iota.org or directly from https://iota.org. Don’t use e.g. Google search and don’t follow any links directly published on social media, even if they appear to have been published by the IOTA Foundation.

THE IOTA FOUNDATION WILL NEVER PUBLISH DIRECT DOWNLOAD LINKS FOR FIREFLY ON SOCIAL MEDIA

Please bear in mind that token holders are not required to migrate tokens ahead of the Chrysalis network update and have the option to migrate tokens after the network update for a prolonged period. As we get closer to the migration, we will publish more videos, tutorials and guides to provide you with the necessary information to successfully complete the upgrade to Chrysalis.

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