In very simple terms, æternity is a new blockchain platform, but it is also a vision for the future. This vision is being realized by a global community of believers, convinced in the disruptive potential of scalable, public blockchain technology. It is a movement that aims to propose decentralized, trustless alternatives to the existing governance, economic and financial intermediaries. From a technological point of view, æternity is a public, open-source, blockchain-based distributed computing and digital-asset platform that builds upon decentralized cryptographic P2P technology. A second layer technology known as State Channels.