Harmony Cites AI Threats in Proposed Blockchain Shutdown
Harmony plans to shut down its blockchain on Sunday, citing threats from state actors and AI-enabled attackers as too severe. The network, launched in 2019 as a proof-of-stake, sharded layer-1 competitor to Ethereum, says it will sunset the mainnet and migrate the ONE token to Ethereum through a snapshot of balances at the final block. Replacement tokens would be airdropped to the same wallet addresses, covering wallets, staking, rewards, smart contracts, and exchanges. Users holding assets in smart contracts are told to exit before September 10, 2026. Validators and delegators may receive compensation from a $1.372 million pool and could take governance roles in Harmony’s new AI-video initiative, “The Remix Economy for AI Video.” The proposal follows earlier security problems, including an August exploit that created billions of unauthorized ONE tokens.
