Terra's new blockchain codenamed Phoenix-1 mainnet launched today at 6 am UTC and is now generating blocks, according to Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon. The new chain aims to revive the Terra ecosystem after its UST algorithmic stablecoin imploded a couple weeks ago. The collapse of Terra’s tokens wiped out some $40 billion in market value.
Following the fiasco, Terraform Labs, the core development firm behind Terra, proposed a new blockchain. It took only a few days after that proposal was approved for Kwon to deploy another chain, the one that's open for use today. Several applications have now migrated to the new chain, including Astroport, Prism, RandomEarth, Spectrum, Nebula, Terraswap, Edge Protocol and others.
Before today's launch, the governance voted to change the name of the original network to “Terra Classic,” whose tokens are now called LUNA Classic (LUNC), in order to position the newly launched Terra 2.0 as the main network. Unlike its predecessor, the new Terra chain exists without an algorithmic stablecoin and comes only with LUNA that have a fixed total supply of 1 billion tokens. These LUNA 2.0 tokens will trade separately from the original LUNA Classic tokens, whose supply amounts to more than 6.5 trillion.
The most noteworthy aspect of today's launch is the airdrop of new LUNA coins to Terra stakeholders on the Classic chain. They have been earmarked to receive 70% or (700 million) of the total LUNA 2.0 token supply. The amount of LUNA 2.0 airdrop each person gets varies depending on whether those tokens were held before or after UST’s depeg, according to an official announcement.
The airdrop is expected to be claimed shortly after launch, either through centralized exchanges or Terra's own website. Several central crypto exchanges including Binance, Huobi, Kraken, Bitfinex, Bitrue, Kucoin and Bybit said they are letting Terra supporters receive their allotted tokens from within their platforms. Still, not all of the airdropped tokens are claimable at launch; only 30% of the initial supply can be immediately claimed. The remaining 70% airdrop amount has been staked directly with validators to ensure network security and those will vest in as long as two years.
Besides 70% divided among the two investor categories, Terra’s community pool, an on-chain treasury fund, is set to receive 30% (300 million) of LUNA on the Terra 2.0 chain. The community pool is controlled by Terra governance to fund development activities. Of the total pool amount, 30 million are assigned for developers who have decided to remain and rebuild on the new Terra chain, according to earlier announcement.
