The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of Auroracoin – AUR

The history of Auroracoin $AUR is a particularly interesting one.  It was released in February 2014 by an unknown developer who went by the name of Baldur Friggjar Odinson, clearly, a username lifted from Norse mythology.

The developer claimed that the Aurora cryptocurrency would be the official Icelandic cryptocurrency and that it was perfect opportunity to wrest control of their financial well-being from the banks.

Remember, Iceland had witnessed one of the worst banking collapses ever seen in a country in 2008 and was still reeling from the deep-rooted corruption that had been revealed.

A country with 330,000 registered citizens living under strict economic regulations and unable to trade their currency with others outside of the country seemed to be the perfect opportunity to launch a cryptocurrency with geographical limits.

The fact that Bitcoin was not allowed to trade inside Iceland at the time made it all the more amenable for the rise of an altcoin like the Aurora cryptocurrency.

The Ambitious Plans and The Bust

When the developer Odisnson announced that 50% of all coins to be ever made of the cryptocurrency would be pre-mined and distributed to all the Iceland citizens that claimed it, there was widespread skepticism about the plan.

Odinson though followed up on the promise and released Auroracoins to almost 10% of the entire population (everyone who claimed the coins) over three stages. This was supposed to have taken care of the problem of reaching critical user mass and sparking a cryptocurrency economy.

A Huge Spike

What actually happened was that the cryptocurrency grew astronomically in value due to speculation and hype built around it, reaching close to $89 in valuation before crashing.  People had no avenue where they could legitimately use their coins as not enough businesses supported the currency.

The Crash

There was also no exchange where Aurora cryptocurrency could be exchanged for Krona and thus panic ensued, everyone tried to cash out at the same time and the currency crashed.

The Renaissance

Auroracoin is back now and has fixed many of the drawbacks that were holding the currency back in the first place. There is now a public face to the current lead developers which should instill trust in the people. Odinson never surfaced or was heard from as the currency crashed.

More Work Being Done

Auroracoin is now being launched after a lot of back end work has gone into making the currency secure and improving the confirmation time. It took several hours for the currency to confirm a transaction previously making it impossible for retailers to use on any scale.

A short #documentary done by #vice on #Auroracoin https://t.co/BxTiExJM2T #bitcoin #crypto #aur $AUR #cryptocurrency #iceland

— Pétur Árnason (@petur2) July 6, 2016

Importantly, though, Auroracoin has been given the clean chit from the Icelandic authorities and the first cryptocurrency exchange in the country has been established. The exchange (ISX) will allow users to exchange their currency for the Krona with ease and without resorting to any illegal channels.

How To Mine Auroracoin

Wallets and Exchanges

Transactions with Aurora currency can be kept anonymous and can be carried out with ease thanks to the newly developed wallets. Windows, OS X, Linux, Android and web based wallets are now available for the people to use.

Auroracoin is also available to be traded on Bittrex and Bter, although, it seems like the large majority of the trading volume rests with Bittrex.

written by: dhruvgupta