Harmony Cites AI Threats in Proposed Blockchain Shutdown

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Harmony, once a prominent competitor to Ethereum, has proposed shutting down its blockchain on Sunday, saying threats from AI agents and state actors had become too great.

The announcement comes as the <a href="https://xpertsstudio.com/bitget-wallet-launches-assetback-rewards-in-bitcoin-and-tokenized-assets-cryptocurrency-market-news/” title=”Bitget Wallet Launches Assetback Rewards In Bitcoin And Tokenized Assets | Cryptocurrency Market News”>cryptocurrency industry attempts to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks enabled by frontier AI models, including Anthropic’s Claude Mythos and OpenAI’s GPT-6 Astra.

“The threats posed by state actors and AI agents are too great,” the Harmony Team wrote on X. “Since our mainnet launch in 2019, our community has been resilient through attacks and changes—but it is time to fully sunset the Harmony network.”

To mitigate the threat, Harmony is proposing to move Harmony’s ONE token to Ethereum and use newly issued tokens to fund the ecosystem’s new “The Remix Economy for AI Video” initiative. Validators, who verify network transactions, could take governance roles or join the AI-video business.

Launched in 2019,Harmony is a layer-1 blockchain that uses proof-of-stake, where validators commit tokens to help secure the network, and sharding, which divides transactions into smaller groups that work in parallel. The design aims to address the “blockchain trilemma” by increasing capacity without compromising security or concentrating control.

Moving ONE to Ethereum

According to Harmony, the migration would record ONE balances at the network’s final block—a process called a snapshot—to determine each holder’s allocation of replacement tokens on Ethereum. It would cover wallets, staked tokens, validator rewards, smart contracts, and centralized exchanges.

Replacement tokens would be airdropped to the same wallet addresses on Ethereum, with delegated stakes and unclaimed rewards going to individual governor vaults. Exchange listings would also move to the new token.

Although the proposal says holders would not need to submit a claim, users with assets in smart contracts face a separate deadline.

“Multisig safes, liquidity pools, and onchain apps cannot be migrated; users are urged to exit all smart contracts before September 10, 2026,” the Harmony Team wrote.

Harmony also proposes paying eligible validators and their delegators from a $1.372 million pool in four quarterly installments, provided validators retain their stakes, sign an agreement, and serve as governors.

“The ONE token’s total supply and emission rate will remain unchanged. Tokens issued through emissions will now be allocated to our new mission, “The Remix Economy for AI Video”, subject to governor feedback,” the team wrote.

Source: finance.yahoo.com