The blockchain project Harmony is taking a radical strategic turn after seven years of operation. Faced with a mounting list of technical vulnerabilities, the leadership team has submitted a proposal to permanently shut down its layer-1 mainnet. This major restructuring involves migrating the native ONE token to the Ethereum ecosystem. The project aims to abandon its current infrastructure to pivot toward a booming sector: the development of an AI-powered video creation platform dubbed "Remix Economy."
This decision comes against a backdrop of weakened security, marked by several critical incidents. The team points to growing threats from both state-sponsored actors and malicious automated agents. User trust was severely tested by the 2022 Horizon bridge hack, which resulted in a $100 million loss, as well as a recent exploit that allowed for the illegitimate creation of over 3 trillion tokens. In light of these risks, a deadline has been set for September 10, requiring users to withdraw their funds from smart contracts before the validator nodes go offline.
The transition imposes strict logistical constraints. While tokens will be redistributed on the Ethereum network while maintaining their emission economics, decentralized applications and liquidity pools will not be migrated automatically and must be drained manually by their owners. To support this change, Harmony is planning a $1.372 million fund to compensate validators and their delegators through quarterly payments, provided they participate in the governance of the new system.
The stakes of this transition are considerable. Shifting to an AI-generated content platform relies on a largely theoretical model, where creation, remixing, and automated moderation will need to prove their technical viability. This gamble carries real financial risks, as historical precedents of blockchain shutdowns have often led to high volatility and a sharp depreciation of the assets involved. The future of the ONE token will therefore depend on the team's ability to convert its existing audience to this new model while stabilizing its value on the Ethereum network.