Shardeum will distribute 3.3 million SHM among testnet participants

Shardeum, a layer-one autoscaling blockchain, has announced the first phase of the Atomium testnet. Launch is scheduled for June 26, 2024.

This initiative should increase community engagement by encouraging users to identify bugs, vulnerabilities and performance issues that the team will fix before the mainnet goes live, thereby improving its reliability.

Test participants will receive 0.65% of SHM emissions

At the initial stage, Shardeum invites community members to conduct numerous P2P transactions and thoroughly stress test the network. The more vulnerabilities that can be identified and corrected, the more secure the network will be under significant operational loads.

Participants in the Atomium test network will receive a reward for their contribution – the Shardeum team will distribute 0.65% of the total number of SHM tokens (about 3.3 million) to the community.

What you need to know about SHM airdrop

This is the second phase of the SHM airdrop, the native token of Shardeum Shard. In the first stage, tokens were received by early participants of the project.

Nischal Shetty, co-founder of Shardeum, emphasized the importance of community-driven development and the project’s readiness to enter the critical phase of network stress testing.

At the current stage, Shardeum has allocated 0.65% of the total SHM issuance to the community.

However, in an interview, Kelsey McGuire, Shardeum’s chief development officer, said that the company has additional rewards planned for mainnet participants. In total, the project has allocated 5% of tokens to three phases of the airdrop – early participants, test network participants and main network participants.

In addition, 51% is allocated to node rewards, making community participation central to the Shardeum ecosystem. Since node validation is available to everyone, the community actually has access to over 56% of the token supply.

Once the first phase is complete, Shardeum will analyze the results and improve the network’s capabilities in preparation for more intensive system tests in subsequent phases.

According to Crunchbase, the project has raised $23.6 million in funding from investors such as Amber Group, Blockchain Founders Fund and Alpha Capital.

Shardeum Finance. Source: Crunchbase

Shardeum personnel changes

Meanwhile, Greg Hemmer, the former head of the Shardeum ecosystem, announced his resignation days before the launch of the testnet. He did not indicate the reasons for his departure, but statedwho will continue to support the project as a member of the community.

Kelsey McGuire confirmed that Greg left of his own accord and the Shardeum team appreciates his efforts in helping bring the project to its current level.