Akula shuts down because of competition from Paradigm

Rust-based, the Akula Ethereum client, is incredibly fast. Ethereum clients are pieces of software that enable nodes to interact with the blockchain and execute smart contracts. In 2021, Ethereum core engineer Artem Vorotnikov assembled a small team of programmers to build the initiative as an open-source user implementation.

Artem Vorotnikov releases statement

According to a statement released Wednesday, this development work is complete. Even though the project is no longer being actively managed by its creators, the open-source nature of its code ensures that it will always be accessible to users. In addition, the release noted that a competing node client had recently emerged from a team with more resources but did not specify which one.

After OpenEthereum’s demise, we saw the need for a new, high-performance Ethereum implementation in Rust. Thus we began work on the Akula project last year. From our extensive prior work on Erigon, we also possessed “knowledge.” 

It wasn’t easy to start because Artem had to write nearly all the essential building elements from scratch. The devp2p implementation, a fast RLP library, and bindings for the integrated database MDBX are just a few examples. Later, more developers contributed to the project, and now we have a state root calculator and a downloader for frames and headers, just like Erigon.

It is a fantastic accomplishment for a small group in a short time. It’s only natural that now that Akula has actual users, it would have support challenges. The fact that another Ethereum implementation exists in Rust, with almost the same scope as Akula and several identical building blocks, has recently come to our attention.

Akula to be released as open source

It’s shortly going to be released to the public as open source. After much deliberation, we’ve decided to cut off all technical, managerial, and financial aid to Akula. Once the other project is open source, we anticipate it will receive greater attention and funding, eventually catching up to Akula’s feature set and perhaps surpassing it before long. 

Due to the lack of hope that funds will continue to support Akula in the future (which is how it is currently supported), we cannot justify allocating limited resources to it. However, we also know that the organization behind the new endeavor has far more power and resources than we do.

Being open source and public, the Akula project cannot be “shut down” or “closed,” as anyone can create their version and keep working on it. However, project management and technology transfer are nearing their conclusion Artem Vorotnikov stated in a Twitter post.

Vorotnikov has stated that he plans to stop contributing to Ethereum temporarily. In addition, he had been helping out with the Go implementation of an Ethereum client called Erigon.