ARK Migrator — Move ERC20 Tokens to Native Blockchains

By Tomadachi | Tomadachi | 30 Sep 2020

ARK - the project that aims to use a simple technology stack to enable almost anyone to create and deploy standalone blockchains for any use case - has announced the launch of the ARK Migrator, which is said "...to quickly and easily convert your ERC20 token into tokens for an ARK-based blockchain."

According to the project's recent blog post, the Migrator was launched in tandem with the Deployer which configures seed servers, relays and parameters "...to get your blockchain up and running in minutes."

Once a user has their blockchain up and running, The Migrator will "...simply and quickly convert ERC20 tokens to tokens..." for the newly established ARK-based blockchain.

Developers will be able to host the ARK Migrator on their own servers in order to aid in the token swap.

The promotional video describes the 3 easy steps to achieving the token swap:

1: Input your address information for the new stand-alone Blockchain and the amount you want to migrate. All of the ERC20 information will be auto-filled for you by MetaMask.
2: Review the transaction information to ensure it is correct and click “Accept”.
3: Once the transaction is accepted the conversion will be automatic and processed in the background.

Why Migrate?

ARK suggest that, in certain circumstances, there are a number of benefits in migrating from the public Ethereum blockchain to a sovereign one. The current high fees and sluggish processing times on Ethereum are mentioned but the project focuses on emphasising the positives of ARK rather than the negatives of ETH.

The key selling points for ARK being:

Autonomy
Decentralization
Low Fees
Staking
Custom Transactions

With these features ARK state they "...believe all projects should have autonomy and not be constrained to a single network. By being truly decentralized and having your own native blockchain, you decide your project’s future."

They go on to say, with "...ARK’s Blockchain Framework you can take advantage of staking for your community using ARK’s Delegated Proof-of-Stake governance. At the heart of all this is our belief in sovereignty. It is the basis of everything we do, and it is the reason we have developed these tools for everyone to freely use. So don’t just create a token — build your OWN blockchain."

Price Impact

News of the Migrator launch saw a modest rise in ARK's price which has since faded. Latest stats from CoinGecko have ARK at around $0.29 per token, up an impressive 73.9% in the last year, but still a long way off the all-time high of $10.22 achieved in January 2018.