What is AO (AO)

I. Project Introduction

1. What Is AO?

AO is a hyper-parallel computing network built on top of Arweave by the Arweave team. It consists of three major units — communication, scheduling, and computation — enabling decentralized, infinitely scalable computing power. AO can handle large-scale parallel tasks, store enormous volumes of data, and allows multiple open processes and free message passing. It functions as a decentralized computing infrastructure supporting on-chain operation of large AI models. The system called AOS is the decentralized operating system running on AO, akin to smart contracts, and is programmed via Lua.

2. How Does AO Work?

AO coordinates computation via an on-chain message-passing system and a decentralized scheduling mechanism:

Communication unit: responsible for message transmission.

Scheduling unit: assigns tasks and schedules computing processes.

Computation unit: executes parallel computing tasks.

The entire network is coordinated by the blockchain, enabling high-concurrency task execution and data storage. Users and processes interact through open messaging, without centralized memory bottlenecks.

3. Who Founded AO?

AO was developed and financially supported by the Arweave team. It was proposed and advanced by Arweave’s founder Sam Williams, and officially announced in February 2024.

4. AO Tokenomics

The token is named $AO, with a maximum supply of 21 million, used to secure messaging within its network.

Token allocation breakdown: 36% allocated to AR holders; 64% allocated to cross-chain participants (such as DAI, stETH bridges) and ecosystem incentives.

5. Timeline of Key Milestones

February 13, 2024: Founder Sam Williams unveiled the concept of AO.

February 27, 2024: AO testnet went live; over $700 million in assets bridged onto the testnet before mainnet launch.

February 8, 2025: AO mainnet was launched.

March 14, 2025: AO token was officially launched.​

II. Token Information

III. Related Links