OKEx announces the launch of OKExChain mainnet in January

OKExChain will be the world’s first open-source, trading-focused chain

OKEx announced this morning that after multiple iterative updates, the OKExChain mainnet is now officially launching in 2021.

The technology and purpose of OKExChain has evolved with changing industry demands and advancing technologies during the three years it has been in development. Maximum transactions per second was the initial focus of the high performance public chain, before it shifted to a general application chain focused on usability. Now, in its final iteration, it is a robust and efficient specialised trading chain.

OKEx has spent these years of development trying to build a borderless ecosystem for exchanging value which is truly decentralised. OKExChain is the world’s first open-source, trading-focused chain, and will launch to the public in January.

The launching process will comprise four stages. Firstly, the genesis stage – when OKExChain’s native token will be initially minted and distributed – will take place from 4:00 pm UTC on 31 December 2020 to 4:00 pm UTC on 14 January 2021.

Secondly, the OKExChain mainnet’s stability testing stage will ensure the reliability and safety of OKExChain following the mainnet launch by conducting a final test of the entire network in coordination with the community. It is uncertain how long this stage will take.

The third stage, in which the transaction function will be implemented following the validators’ proposal, will commence once the system passes the stability testing stage. Users will then be able to withdraw their tokens and deposit them onto OKExChain.

Finally, the fourth stage will see the main network officially launched in full. After the validators’ proposal, the smart contract virtual machine will be enabled meaning OKExChain will then be compatible with all other projects on the Ethereum blockchain.

OKEx CEO Jay Hao said of the launch on Twitter this morning: “Today we’re unveiling #OKExChain: the world’s first trading chain: a decentralized, borderless, blockchain technology-based ecosystem for exchanging value. Appreciate the amazing job our team has done for the past 3 years in building one of the best products in the industry.”

The initial minting of OKExChain’s native token (OKT) will create 10 million tokens and it will have a theoretical upper supply limit of 72.2 million. At first, the block reward will be 1 OKT and it will follow the same halving model as Bitcoin, being halved every three years.

After the official launch of the mainnet, OKT holders can become OKExChain validators to earn transaction fees and block rewards. OKT will be distributed proportionally to holders of the current OKEx token OKB, who can stake it now via OKEx Jumpstart.