Acala Early Adopter Program

Details

Acala is enabling each component of its new financial infrastructure in a phased approach. A blockchain platform can’t launch in a single-day event, so the Early Adopter program is meant to give the most advanced Acala users the opportunity to gain experience with Acala while the platform gets enabled. Since the platform is not completely enabled in the Early Adopter phase, users should anticipate some user experience difficulties (see disclaimers below). However, these difficulties will be resolved once all components are enabled and Acala fully launches.

• Users who try Acala (link to App here) as part of the Early Adopter program will be rewarded with an exclusive NFT if they meet certain criteria.
• For updates on the Early Adopter program go to https://acala.network/early-adopters. See the details below for how to qualify to receive the NFT.

What are the Early Adopter disclaimers I should be aware of?

Users in the Early Adopter program should be aware of the following disclaimers:

To bring DOT from Polkadot to Acala, a one-way DOT bridge is being enabled. Once DOT has been transferred to Acala, there will be no immediate way to transfer it back out. Users will only be able to exit with their liquidity back to Polkadot once Polkadot’s cross-chain messaging (XCM) functionality is completely enabled. Read below for more information on the timing for exporting assets.

• As a reminder, you must leave a minimum of 1 DOT in your Polkadot account for the required account minimum, called an Existential Deposit. Anything less than 1 DOT will be wiped from your account.
• Features are being enabled on Acala using a staggered approach. There may be certain features users are interested in utilizing that are not readily available.
• This is not a testnet environment. All tokens used to try the various primitives have real monetary value. If you make a mistake, Acala can not revert your actions.
• Bring your own gas will not be enabled at the start of the program. Users will need to have ACA to pay the gas fees on Acala.

How do I participate?

The Early Adopter program is a self-elected program making it open to anyone interested in gaining early experience with Acala. You can use Acala by going to the App. As a reminder, please make sure you are aware of the disclaimers involved in participating in the program.

How do I earn my NFT?

To earn the exclusive NFT, Early Adopters must meet ALL of the following criteria by March 28th at 11:59pm UTC:

• One on-chain recording of DOT transfer to Acala via the bridge
• One on-chain recording of aUSD minting
• Three on-chain recordings of Acala Swap operation: Operation includes Liquidity Provisioning or Swaps

When will I be able to transfer my DOT assets out of Acala?

Currently only ACA can be transferred to exchanges, and no assets can be transferred from the Acala parachain to the Polkadot Relay Chain.

The Acala team is actively working on solutions to transfer assets out of Acala. Timing estimates can be found on Acala launch roadmap.

How can I exit with my liquidity?

At the start of the Early Adopter program, users will only be able to transfer their DOT into Acala via a one-way bridge. Once enabled, there are 3 ways users will be able to exit Acala with their liquidity:

1. Once XCM is enabled by Polkadot, a two-way bridge will be opened. Users will then be able to transfer their DOT from their account on the Acala Parachain to their account on the Polkadot Relay Chain.
2. Certain Centralized Exchanges that support DOT transfers directly from the Acala chain.
3. Bridge to other ecosystems like Ethereum, Solana, Terra, etc. once they are opened.

Acala will announce when these exits are enabled. They are currently not available.

Why is the DOT bridge one way?

In order to transfer DOT back and forth from the Relay Chain to a Parachain, Cross Consensus Messaging (often referred to as “XCM”), must be enabled. The Parity team is still working on building out this technology. Until XCM is live, two-way DOT transfers cannot be completed.

In the meantime, the Acala engineering team has built a one-way bridge to allow users to transfer their DOT to Acala to start to utilize the aUSD stablecoin and DeFi ecosystem.

The asset import and export experience is a priority for Acala and the team is actively working on solutions to improve options available to users.

Do I need ACA to pay for gas fees?

Yes. All users will need ACA on Acala to pay for gas fees.

When will I get my NFT?

The NFT will be distributed at the end of the program. You can sign up for updates on your NFT qualification status here.

About Acala network

Acala is the decentralized finance network and liquidity hub of Polkadot. It’s a layer-1 smart contract platform that’s scalable, Ethereum-compatible, and optimized for DeFi with built-in liquidity and ready-made financial applications. With its trustless exchange, decentralized stablecoin (aUSD), DOT Liquid Staking (LDOT), and EVM+, Acala lets developers access the best of Ethereum and the full power of Substrate.

Links

• Twitter
• Telegram
• Discord
• Website