Aeternity is a blockchain platform designed to enable scalable, secure and decentralized applications and services. Aeternity was launched in 2017 following a successful initial coin offering (ICO) to address some of the scalability, security and efficiency issues faced by early blockchain systems such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Aeternity introduces several key innovations and features to achieve its goals:

1. **State Channels:** One of Aeternity’s core features, state channels allow off-chain transactions between parties. This means transactions can be processed without being recorded on the blockchain, significantly reducing network load, lowering transaction fees and improving scalability.

2. **Oracles:** Aeternity integrates oracles directly into its blockchain, and these services provide real-world data to smart contracts on the blockchain. This allows the creation of smart contracts that can interact with and respond to external events, opening up a wide range of applications, especially in areas such as insurance, finance and supply chain management.

3. **Consensus Mechanism:** Aeternity adopts a hybrid consensus mechanism of Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS). This approach aims to combine the security and robustness of PoW with the efficiency and scalability of PoS.

4. **Smart Contracts:** The platform supports smart contracts, enabling developers to create decentralized applications (dApps) that can automate complex processes and protocols without the need for intermediaries.

5. **Decentralized Applications (dApps):** Aeternity is designed to support high-bandwidth dApps, making it suitable for applications that require fast transactions and high throughput.

6. **Privacy:** Through state channels, transactions can be completed privately between the parties involved, providing a level of privacy not always available on other blockchain platforms.

Aeternity strives to provide a versatile platform for developers who want to build scalable dApps with real-world data integration and efficient transaction processing. Its focus on improving blockchain scalability, providing native oracle support, and promoting efficient and scalable dApps makes it an innovative player in the blockchain space.