Load has come a long way since its first release in December 2023. With its original mission to expose Arweave storage to the EVM ecosystem, Load has been adopted as an archive node (Avalanche, Metis, RSS3, Phala), a DA layer (Dymension), blob permanence (EigenDA, Blobscan), and dApp-layer storage (Mask, Permacast).
Today we start the run-up to mainnet by kicking off the $LOAD fair launch, detailing our tokenomics, and revealing a new AO-aligned roadmap towards EVM interoperability for the entire Arweave-AO stack.
TL;DR:
- The $LOAD fair launch is now open. Delegate assets locked in the Permaweb Index to participate
- Stake assets in the ao fair launch page here, and delegate to $LOAD here
- 60% of the initial $LOAD supply is allocated for the fair launch
- $LOAD has a hard cap of 10,000,000 tokens.
- $LOAD pays for network security, transaction fees, and ecosystem growth
- $LOAD’s fair launch curve follows the same emission schedule as Bitcoin and AO with a gradual curve off rather than a sharp halving event every 4 years
- Fair launch participation will be the main access whitelisting criteria for Load Network’s upcoming major network release: Fibernet.
- $LOAD pays for computation on both the EVM L1 and HyperBEAM devices built by the Decent Land Labs team. DLL’s HyperBEAM devices will be fully interoperable with the EVM L1.
What does the $LOAD token do?
$LOAD has three core roles:
- Network security: Load Network is an EVM‑compatible proof‑of‑stake chain. Validators must lock $LOAD as self‑stake; dishonest behaviour (double‑signing, downtime) can trigger slashing, putting that stake at risk.
- Gas fees: All smart‑contract execution and permanent Arweave settlement are paid in $LOAD. The gas model combines the familiar EVM fee market with an embedded cost for Arweave storage, so users see one fee covering both variables in the gas equation.
- Ecosystem growth: Instead of burning the EIP‑1559 base fee, Load captures it into a DAO treasury. $LOAD holders propose and vote on validator rewards, grants, liquidity programmes, and infrastructure subsidies. Because 60% of voting power goes to fair launch participants, funding decisions remain community‑led.
Fair‑Launch Distribution
$LOAD genesis supply is split into three buckets:
- Community (60%): the Load fair launch ensures broad community governance power from day one.
- Early contributors (20%): controlled by the team to cover audit expenses, marketing, BD, and core protocol R\&D
- Token sales (20%): reserved from previous strategic raises to fund core development so far.
Fair‑Launch Mechanics
- Participation starts with an initial reward rate that decreases by a factor of 0.999526 daily for a 0.0474% daily reduction. This smooth geometric decay mirrors Bitcoin’s long‑tail issuance without abrupt halving events.
- The programme runs indefinitely
DAO Treasury & Governance
- Funding sources – 100 % of EIP‑1559 base fees flow directly to the treasury smart contract.
- Voting power – 1 $LOAD = 1 vote. 60 % of the supply is allocated to fair launch participants, ensuring decentralised control.
- Treasury use cases – Validator rewards, retroactive public‑goods funding, grants.
- Safety valves – Treasury spend proposals require a 7‑day review window and optional multi‑sig veto by elected guardians.
Roadmap
End-to-end AO interoperability
Interface on-chain, compute anywhere. EVM ↔ AO interoperability lets Load Network tap directly into AO hyperparallel compute while giving AO instant access to the vast liquidity and tooling of the EVM world. Instead of crossing a custodial bridge or rewriting code, developers on both sides simply see new endpoints: Solidity contracts can call powerful agents running on AO, and AO processes can trigger regular EVM transactions as if they lived onchain all along.
For everyday users that means friction-free movement of value and data. ERC-20s, NFTs, and native tokens move between the two ecosystems without trusted intermediaries; rollups on Load can choose AO for cheaper, censorship-resistant data availability; and AO agents can plug into familiar DeFi apps like Uniswap, move assets, and tap into existing identity layers.
On the AO side, this means Load can use existing ecosystem projects, like Bazar marketplaces for trading, instead of building its own custom solutions. See the Decent Land Labs hb/acc manifesto for an example of this.
Full-stack EVM on HyperBEAM
Load’s HyperBEAM devices will bring the entire EVM stack—execution engine, consensus logic, JSON-RPC, state storage—into devices that can live inside a single HyperBEAM node. Instead of maintaining separate binaries or wrestling with bare-metal installs, a developer (or validator) launches one self-contained package and has a full Load Network node running alongside AO-Core compute in the same runtime. Towards this goal, we have already released an EVM runtime and EVM light client as HyperBEAM devices.
Because HyperBEAM is multithreaded by default, the Execution and Consensus layers automatically spread across available cores, squeezing more throughput out of the same hardware.
Most importantly, EVM contracts and AO agents now live under one roof. A HyperBEAM node can execute Solidity bytecode and WASM side-by-side, share state where needed, and expose a unified API to wallets and dApps. The result is a lighter operational footprint for validators, faster iteration for builders, and a path towards native interoperability.
Native hot-cache temporary storage
A HyperBEAM-powered hot cache layer will be used within the Consensus Layer (CL) of Load L1 within 2 domains: as DA storage for the blobs data in the CL, within the lifespan of the blob (e.g. 30 days). And two, in the v2 of Load blobspace, we can offer the possibility to extend the lifespan of blobs inside a temporary storage layer built on HyperBEAM.
This layer will be made generally available to solve the temporary storage problem on Arweave and AO, as well as being integrated natively in the Load Network stack.
FAQ How do I participate in the $LOAD fair launch?
Deposit stETH or DAI on the ao fair launch dashboard. Then head to the delegate page, find Load Network, and click “Add”. Use the percent buttons to allocate your staked assets to Load, and click “Confirm delegation preferences”.
If you already hold AR or have staked assets in the AO fair launch, you can easily delegate to Load Network at load.network/delegate.
Can I become a validator?
It will be possible to run a Load Network validator, and to delegate stake to others. A full guide is coming before mainnet.
Why capture fees instead of burning?
$LOAD has a maximum supply cap of 10,000,000, and no supply inflation. Validators are incentivized by network fees captured by the DAO, who then vote on validator rewards and Load ecosystem allocations.
Is Load comparable to an Ethereum L2?
Not quite, but Load is aligned with Arweave in a similar way to how Optimism is aligned with Ethereum. Load Network is a high throughput EVM L1, with native storage interface with Arweave, and compute with ao. Load Network, unlike centralized Ethereum L2s, is being built towards full decentralisation where anyone can join the network, run a validator and build blocks. As an EVM L1, Load main features are high storage capacity and high throughput DA.