Dear Community,
We are pleased to introduce Alephium, the first scalable blockchain platform to natively support cross-shard transactions. Our goal is to scale blockchain to handle tens of thousands of transactions per second in an open, secure and permission-less network.
Alephium’s core algorithm is called BlockFlow. It combines sharding technology with DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) and utilizes a scalable UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output) model to improve cross-shard transaction performance. By breaking down smart contracts into token protocols and data protocols, Alephium allows developers to build dApps that support high concurrency scenarios while maintaining the Turing-complete functionalities of smart contracts.
Alephium provides native cross-shard transaction support, delivering an experience similar to single-chain platforms. Our BlockFlow algorithm has the same minimal network assumptions as Bitcoin — an open and asynchronous network. As a permissionless and decentralized platform, everyone can contribute to Alephium’s consensus and safety.
Our platform is built for developers. Token protocols and data protocols are naturally scalable across shards. The token protocol offers programmability and automation support which developers can utilize to build simple yet high-performance dApps. Smart contracts are supported for select shards called intra-group shards, and dApps can benefit from cross-shard transactions without sacrificing standard smart contract features. As such, Alephium is the first practical platform to support efficient cross-shard dApps.
Alephium’s unique technology provides fantastic performance. In late 2018, we achieved a peak throughput of over 10,000 TPS during tests of our Alpha version with consumer-grade AWS instances. Our BlockFlow algorithm and original use of sharing and DAG technology allow us to push the boundaries of blockchain performance and scalability. We invite you to read our whitepaper and follow our social channels for updates on the Alephium project!
Sincerely,
The Alephium Team