Harmony developers have proposed ending the blockchain’s operations and transferring its ONE token to Ethereum, saying the network has become increasingly difficult and expensive to protect from sophisticated attacks.

The team cited the growing threat posed by state-backed groups and AI-powered attackers. After surviving multiple security incidents and other challenges since launching its mainnet in 2019, Harmony said it now believes permanently closing the network is the most practical option.

The proposal is currently non-binding, so its terms could still change. Harmony has also not confirmed whether the plan will be put to a formal community vote under its existing governance structure, where elected validators submit proposals and voting influence is tied to staked tokens.

Harmony’s Fall From Ethereum Challenger

Harmony once attracted major attention as a fast and inexpensive blockchain designed to challenge Ethereum and newer networks such as Solana.

The project reached its peak during the 2021 crypto boom. ONE climbed to about $0.38 in October 2021, while deposits on the network surpassed $1 billion by January 2022. DeFi Kingdoms alone represented around $747 million of that total.

The project’s fortunes changed after a series of major security incidents.

In June 2022, Harmony’s Horizon bridge was drained of almost $100 million. The FBI later attributed the attack to North Korean hacking groups Lazarus Group and APT38.

The exploit severely damaged Harmony’s reputation and sent ONE into a prolonged decline. The token eventually lost as much as 99% from its peak.

The network suffered another exploit on Aug. 11 when an attacker took advantage of a flaw in the system used to verify transactions between Harmony’s shards, or parallel sections of the blockchain.

The attacker generated more than 3 trillion unauthorized ONE through six transactions.

Harmony subsequently rolled the blockchain back to a point before the attack. The move permanently removed more than 109,000 transactions from the network’s history and sparked controversy among users and developers.

ONE Could Become an Ethereum Token

Under the proposed transition, Harmony would first record ONE balances in a final snapshot before issuing equivalent ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum.

The snapshot would cover ONE held in personal wallets, staking positions, validator rewards and centralized exchanges. Harmony says users would not need to manually claim the replacement tokens.

The project plans to publish the Ethereum contract, snapshot calculations and airdrop scripts for public inspection.

The proposal would also give ONE emissions a new purpose.

ONE was originally distributed in part as compensation for validators securing the Harmony blockchain. If the network is shut down, future emissions would instead support an initiative Harmony calls the “Remix Economy for AI Video.”

Harmony describes the project as a subscription-based platform where creators can upload prompts and other reusable assets. Those materials could then be used by people and AI agents to create new video content.

Validators can begin shutting down their nodes from 7 a.m. Pacific time on Sept. 10.

Harmony has allocated $1.372 million for validators that participate in the transition. The amount equals the network’s total validator rewards generated during the year before the August exploit.

To receive compensation, validators would need to shut down their nodes on schedule, sign an agreement, maintain their stake and participate in governance of the new AI-focused project.

ONE was trading around $0.00073 on Monday, down nearly 4% over the previous 24 hours.