The Substrate
The Nodus network is the layer everything else sits on: routing, peer discovery, distributed storage and encrypted transport. Messaging, identity and payments call these services directly — no smart contracts required.
Post-quantum
Development network
DNA Chain
DNA Chain is a post-quantum chain that works like an operating system — the network, transport, storage and consensus substrate that DNA applications run on.
Built from the ground up in pure C with post-quantum cryptography at its core: ML-DSA-87 signatures, SHA3-512 consensus hashing, UTXO accounting, and BFT finality. Not a fork of an existing chain — an independent foundation designed for privacy infrastructure.
Architecture
A Post-Quantum Chain That Works Like an Operating System
Most blockchains are a place to run applications: you deploy a smart contract and it executes on the chain. DNA is built the other way around — like an operating system. The network provides the services, applications run beside the chain rather than inside it, and the chain is the part that settles what must be agreed on.
Embedded Consensus
The chain is embedded in the substrate as its settlement layer. Where distributed storage is enough, applications use storage; where an operation needs agreement that survives a dishonest participant, it goes through BFT witness consensus. The core carries no application logic of its own.
Future Chains
Every chain is identified by its genesis hash — a chain ID committing to its entire definition, and the format reserves a parent-chain field for a chain that descends from another. That field is recorded, not yet acted on: one chain runs today.
Cryptography
Post-Quantum by Design
Most blockchains rely on elliptic-curve cryptography that a sufficiently powerful quantum computer could break. DNA Chain uses NIST-standardized post-quantum algorithms at the highest security level — Category 5 — for every signature, every key exchange, and every hash. This is the full stack, and what each piece does.
Signatures — ML-DSA-87
Every transaction, every consensus vote, and every network record is signed with ML-DSA-87 (Dilithium5), NIST Category 5. Public keys are 2,592 bytes and signatures 4,627 bytes — the chain is engineered for post-quantum sizes from day one, not retrofitted around small curve keys.
Key Exchange — ML-KEM-1024
Connections and messages across the substrate are keyed with ML-KEM-1024 (Kyber1024) encapsulation, also Category 5, with 1,568-byte public keys. Once keys are established, AES-256-GCM carries the traffic — authenticated encryption end to end.
Hashing — SHA3-512
Transaction hashes, block hashes, state roots, nullifiers, and the 512-bit DHT keyspace all use SHA3-512 (FIPS 202) — 64-byte digests everywhere consensus touches. One hash function for the whole consensus surface, no mix-and-match.
Zero-Knowledge — STARKs
Proofs are built over the 64-bit Goldilocks field with Poseidon2 as the proof-internal hash and FRI low-degree commitments. Transparent by construction: security rests on hash functions alone — no trusted setup, no elliptic curves. In active development.
Key Derivation — BIP39
Identities and wallets derive deterministically from a BIP39 recovery phrase. One seed restores your identity, your keys, and your funds — nothing to back up except the words.
No Classical Fallback
Classical curves (secp256k1, Ed25519) exist only in the multi-chain wallet, for talking to external chains like Ethereum or Solana. DNA Chain's own consensus contains no classical-curve cryptography to attack — there is no weakest link to break.
BFT Witness Consensus
Blocks are produced by a committee of witness nodes running Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus. Every block requires a supermajority of committee signatures, so no single operator — not even the founding team — can rewrite history alone.
- Stake-weighted committee — membership derived entirely from on-chain state
- 2f+1 quorum — consensus proceeds only with a Byzantine supermajority
- 5-second blocks — fast finality without probabilistic confirmation
- On-chain governance — consensus parameters change by committee vote, not by silent upgrade
Engineering
Under the Hood
Not a fork, not a framework — an independent chain written in pure C, running on its own substrate.
5-Second Blocks
Blocks are produced every 5 seconds by the witness committee. Committee membership re-ranks every 720 blocks — roughly once an hour — from on-chain stake.
Four-Phase BFT
Propose → Prevote → Precommit → Commit. A block is final when a 2f+1 supermajority of the 7-seat committee signs it — deterministic finality, not probabilistic confirmation.
Merkle State Root
Every block commits a SHA3-512 state root over the UTXO, validator, delegation, reward and config subtrees. If any node's state diverges, the mismatch is caught at the very next block.
Determinism as a Gate
Consensus code ships only after a 7-node harness reproduces bit-identical state roots on every block, every run. Non-determinism is treated as a chain-split bug, not a flaky test.
On-Chain Governance
Consensus parameters change through committee-voted configuration transactions recorded on-chain — auditable by everyone, with enforced grace periods. No silent binary upgrades.
Native Tokens
Tokens are issued natively at the protocol level and settle with the same BFT guarantees as the base asset — no smart-contract layer required.
Roadmap
Ledger V2
The next ledger design for DNA Chain — in development now, arriving with a network reset. If the substrate is the operating system, domains are its modules: a domain is a self-contained area of the ledger — payments, or validator governance — each with its own rules, its own state and its own resource budget. Not a web address.
One transaction, many operations
A transaction becomes an envelope carrying ordered operations across the chain's domains. One fee, one signature, one atomic outcome.
State that grows without hard forks
The state root becomes three-level: each domain commits its own root, and those roll up into one global root. New kinds of state are added by registering a domain — not by forking the chain. New domains are added through on-chain governance, not deployed by anyone who wants one.
Blocks that commit their whole header
A block's identity covers its height, epoch, parent, state root and validator set — not just the transactions inside it.
Certificates bound to their validator set
Every finality certificate names the validator set that issued it, so a signature is only ever valid under the set that produced it.
Shielded transfers as chain state
Private transfers become first-class: a note-commitment tree and a nullifier accumulator committed in every block, backed by the same STARK proof system as the rest of the chain.
Metered execution
Each domain's resource pricing is committed on-chain as part of its ruleset, so two validators running the same rules cannot price the same transaction differently.
Not an upgrade: Ledger V2 starts as a new chain rather than an upgrade
of the current one, so the development network restarts when it lands. Development-network
coins have no real-world value.
Zero-Knowledge, Post-Quantum
Privacy features on most chains rely on elliptic-curve proof systems that a quantum computer could eventually break. DNA Chain's zero-knowledge layer is built on STARKs: transparent proofs whose security rests on hash functions — the same post-quantum foundation as the rest of the chain.
- No trusted setup — no ceremony, no toxic waste, nothing to leak
- Hash-based security — no elliptic curves anywhere in the proof system
- Pure C implementation — the same zero-dependency discipline as the chain itself
In active development — the network resets as these features land.
Status
Development Network
DNA Chain runs today as a development network — not open for public use. Blocks are produced, validated and served in real time; watch it happen in the block explorer.
Status: DNA Chain is a development network used to build and test the
system. It is not open for public use and may be reset during development. A public test
network will be announced when it is ready. The CPUNK token lives on Cellframe (CF20)
— DNA Chain is a separate network.
Follow the build
DNA Chain is being built in the open. Watch the network, read the code, and join the conversation.