Ark (ARK) is the native token of the blockchain-based Ark platform. The platform itself provides the instruments that enable users to develop and customize other blockchains. The blockchains can be managed through the TypeScript programming language. Moreover, these blockchains can be connected to each other via the functionality of Ark. The Ark framework can be used to execute peer-to-peer operations, manage the data on a distributed ledger, access API solutions, etc. The Generic Transaction Interface can be used to customize the types of transactions and entire blockchains. Unlike Solidity, TypeScript is much easier for the general public which makes Ark more user-friendly.
The network relies on a custom type of delegated proof of stake consensus algorithm. The system is maintained by 51 forging delegate slots. The Ark block time is 8 seconds. Users vote for delegates through staking (1 ARK equals 1 vote). The special thing about voting on the Ark network is that the coins used for voting are not locked in the wallet and can be used for transactions without delay.
Basic Facts
The project was launched in 2016 by a huge international team consisting of almost 30 members. The same year Ark deployed an ICO campaign and raised $800,000. The next year, in March, the network became publicly available and the ARK coin had hit the market.
Currently, the leading positions in Ark are occupied by François Thoorens (President, earlier he was one of the principal developers of another blockchain project, Lisk), Rok Černec (Vice-President), Matthew Cox (Chief Strategy Officer), and Brian Faust (Chief Technology Officer).
Currently, Ark is supported by Binance — not only the ARK token can be traded on the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange but also it can be staked by the exchange users. Another significant partner is VISA that lets over 40 million merchants use ARK as payment around the world.
The ARK token is available on over 30 exchanges including Binance, UpBit, Bilaxy, OKEx, Bittrex, and other big exchanges. The list keeps on growing. Apparently, despite being off the top 100 list by market capitalization, ARK is going to stay for long. The active development will cement its achievements. It's quite probable that the coin will rise in market cap in the future.
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The token can be bought in the Swipe app in the European Economic Area and in some places outside this territory. One of the latest implementations is Unikname Connect, a protocol needed for social authentication built using the ARK blockchain development stack.
Main Features
Mass adoption of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies is one of the Ark's key purposes. Ensuring anonymity and maximum decentralization are the other two focuses of the company. One of the first accomplished projects made by the Ark dev team is Smart Bridge — the technology that creates a channel for the interaction of products built of incompatible blockchains. There are many blockchains with dapps and currencies built on top of them. Ark provides a universal space for all these things to communicate with each other despite the huge differences in architecture. Communication can be established in quite an easy way via coding that is not too complex. One of the simplest examples of implementation of Smart Bridge is converting the currency based on one blockchain to the currency rooting in the other. The user may send some ARK coins to the ETH wallet and receive the money in ETH as it will be converted through the Smart Bridge. To maximally widen the potential amount of users, the Ark dev team made it possible to use multiple coding languages including C++, Elixir, Rust, Symfony, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, .NET, Laravel, PHP, RPC, Wolfram, Ruby, and Swift. The number of available programming languages will keep on rising.
Ark provides a feature called Push Button Deployable Blockchains. It's a free tool for developing other blockchain projects. What's especially good, is that these new blockchains automatically become integrated into the Smart Bridge ecosystem. In general, the feature is similar to Ethereum's functionality but it's less pricey and complex.
In general, Ark functionality can potentially be used in a wide array of situations. For instance, it can become a handy payment means. Cryptocurrency itself doesn't know any state borders but what makes Ark stand out is that it won't depend too much on the blockchain borders as it can convert cryptocurrencies through Smart Bridge. Moreover, there's a potential of converting ARK to fiat money, as well. Another direction of future work is creating the Ark Virtual Machine.
Consensus Algorithm
In terms of the consensus algorithm, Ark uses the Delegated Proof of Stake. The validation power is delegated to the 51 elective persons running nodes. The votes are cast through ARK tokens staking — 1 ARK per vote. The more tokens are staked, the more significant the vote is. The delegate can be "unvoted". This action costs 1 ARK, just like a "positive" vote. The delegates are incentivized to work for the benefit of the community via rewards. Each block they produce drives a reward in ARK tokens (2 ARK per block). We have already mentioned that the block time of Ark is 8 seconds, it is considered that delegates earn 200 ARK per day. However, there are also some costs for becoming a delegate candidate. Registering a delegate name costs 25 ARK.
Past Performance
Before we start to talk about where the Ark tokens price is going, let's check out how the price of this coin was behaving in the past. It is safe to say that the ARK coin follows most of the overall cryptocurrency market trends although we can't deny that the milestones in the project's development are usually pushing the price up.
The ARK coin became available for trading on March 22, 2017, in times of huge optimism towards ICOs and cryptocurrencies. Moreover, in the following months, the prices of many cryptocurrencies were skyrocketing. No wonder, ARK has been growing for most of 2017. In the beginning, the price was slightly above 30 cents but almost doubled in less than a week. On April 6 it peaked at $0.08 but then declined a little. A week after the price reached $0.1 for the first time. This growth reflected the rise of the BTC price. The same month, ARK doubled its price again, reaching $0.2. But the really huge spike occurred in early June when the price had grown x4 times in the course of 10 days: from 25 cents to one dollar. The reason for such a powerful price surge was the release of the Java library that made Ark much more accessible for many people around the world.
However, the quick spike ended in a quick drop back to roughly $0.7. In the next several weeks, the price was volatile. It was as low as $0.35 on July 11 and as high as $0.9 on June 23. In general, July wasn't too good for the ARK price, neither was it a good time for the BTC price — although we can call it a buying opportunity. The change came in August when both cryptocurrencies began to grow again. That month, ARK has grown from $0.49 to $2.35. The next landmark in the development of Ark was the release of a new desktop wallet in September. The wallet was working very smoothly and ARK became compatible with Ledger, a popular hardware wallet. It resulted in serious price growth. Most of September, the price was above $3, reaching $4 at the peak points. In October, ARK was trading at around $3 and began to get more expensive in November. In early December, it firmly crossed the $4 mark and continued to grow together with the rest of the crypto market that was going through the historically biggest rally. On December 21, the price of the ARK token reached $9.11 but quickly dropped to around $7. On January 9, the ARK price reached its all-time high at $10.91.
For the rest of the winter, the price was going down gradually. On March 1, the ARK price was $3.6. No wonder that most of 2018 and 2019 weren't too brilliant for ARK as the entire cryptocurrency market was quite depressive those years. In March and April, the price was fluctuating between $2 and $3. In the first half of May, it was more volatile, reaching $4 a couple of times but then it was declining again. On June 10, the price dropped below $2 and was slightly above $1.5 for several days, decreasing further closer to the end of the month. Most of July it was above $1 but in early August it dropped below this level. In August, the price was moving from around 70 cents to $1 and back. In September, the price became more stable at the $0.63 - $0.77 level. November was a little bit better with the price crossing the $0.8 mark but soon it dropped again. Most of the winter, it was below $0.4 reflecting a respective downfall of BTC. The spring was much better for ARK with the price rising above $0.6 while the summer turned out to be harsh. By September, the price was a little bit above 20 cents. In early October, it dropped even further. The next winter didn't bring a recovery in the first months and only in February the ARK price risen above $0.25 reaching $0.3 at some points.
After the March 12 downfall, ARK dropped to 9 cents, and then (just like the rest of the crypto market) it began to rise gradually. In June the ARK price was at the 25 cents level while in July it already was 30 - 38 cents. By August, the price reached $0.59 and then declined. For several months it was hovering around 35 - 40 cents. In the first months of 2021, the entire crypto market began to grow rapidly. The ARK price followed this trend. In January 2021, it was around 40 cents but in March it peaked at the $3.2 mark. In the fall of 2021, the price was around $2. By the beginning of the winter 2022, the price began to decline. Soon, it dropped below $1.
Price Prediction
Without a doubt, ARK is going to rise and develop making its way to much higher positions in the cryptocurrency charts. As we have already mentioned, there are two main factors that make the AKR price moving: the achievement of the main landmarks in the project development and the BTC price trends changes.
Ark seems to have a good prospects. Experts agree that the coin will keep on growing in the near future. By the end of 2022, ARK can reach a $1.3 mark. One year later, the price can touch a $2 mark. In 2024, the crypto market will probably be on the rise due to the Bitcoin mining reward 50% decrease. By the end of the year, ARK will definitely cross the $3 mark. By 2026, experts expect the price to get around $4.45. By the end of 2030, the ARK price can gain up to $26.8.