Pharos Network is a high-performance, modular Layer 1 public chain with core advantages in scalability, interoperability and security. Pharos is committed to providing efficient execution, consensus and customization support for the next generation of blockchains, with a processing capacity of 50,000 transactions per second (50K TPS), a throughput of 2 Gigagas, and DP 5 level performance (the highest standard among current EVM-compatible chains).
This article will analyze the architectural design of Pharos Network in depth from the following dimensions: consensus mechanism, execution model, storage innovation, network layer optimization, pipeline efficiency, and modular SPN framework.
Pharos Network Architecture Analysis
Pharos Network adopts a modular and customizable layered architecture design, and achieves the dual goals of high performance and flexible upgrades by decoupling the execution layer, consensus layer, settlement layer, and data availability layer. Below we will analyze the core technology design layer by layer.
Network Layer
Adopt optimized P2P Gossip protocol to achieve low-latency message transmission
Built-in cross-SPN (Special Processing Network) communication channel
Consensus Layer
Based on the adaptive asynchronous BFT consensus protocol, it has both high fault tolerance and low latency characteristics
Transaction sorting optimization algorithm to reduce verification node load and improve efficiency
Execution Layer
Dual virtual machine support: EVM compatibility layer + WASM high-performance execution environment
Equipped with and supports LLVM-based execution engine, parallel transaction processing, optimistic execution, and SALI (Smart Access List Inference)
Settlement Layer
Verify the node cross-chain re-staking mechanism to achieve security sharing within the ecosystem
Sub-second transaction finality in a multi-execution environment
Data availability and storage tiers
Pharos Store: An efficient blockchain storage model supporting multi-version control
Use ADS push-down compression technology and Delta encoding, dynamic I/O optimization, and reduce disk read and write overhead
SPN (Special Processing Network) Framework
SPN allows developers to customize the blockchain execution layer and freely configure the consensus model
Semi-independent operation mode: Maintain independent scalability while enjoying the security and data of the main network
Next, we will explore in depth the key technology implementation and innovative design at each level.
Network Layer
The network layer is the basis of all communications in the system, and uses an optimized P2P Gossip protocol to efficiently propagate blocks, transactions, and consensus messages. The protocol has adaptive bandwidth allocation capabilities and can dynamically adjust resources according to real-time network load to ensure high-speed transactions and data transmission even in high-pressure environments. In addition, this layer also supports cross-SPN communication channels, providing low-latency interoperability support for different execution environments.
Pharos Consensus Mechanism
Pharos Network adopts an innovative consensus design that combines BFT fault tolerance mechanism with asynchronous execution and fast path submission protocol, improving system throughput, transaction fairness and final confirmation speed. Unlike traditional BFT implementations, Pharos does not require fixed leader roles and round-based communication, but allows multiple verification nodes to initiate, verify and submit transactions in parallel, effectively avoiding the performance bottleneck caused by a single leader.
The consensus mechanism also implements a dynamic transaction sorting function, which not only ensures the fairness of transactions and reduces deviations in the block creation process, but also maintains the consistency of the global transaction order when the network fluctuates greatly. It is particularly worth mentioning that the fast path execution mechanism allows transactions that meet certain conditions to bypass the full consensus process and directly enter the confirmation stage, thereby reducing the average confirmation time of transactions and improving the overall throughput of the system. This carefully designed consensus mechanism enables Pharos Network to support high-throughput, low-latency stable operation on a global scale.
Key Features:
Asynchronous execution architecture
Dynamic transaction sorting
Fast Path Execution
Optimized leader rotation and voting mechanism
Pharos Execution Layer
The core of the Pharos execution layer is an innovative execution engine that provides developers with great flexibility through a dual virtual machine environment (EVM + WASM). The execution engine combines LLVM-based intermediate representation (IR) conversion and speculative parallel processing technology, and adopts a number of performance optimization measures, including opcode fusion, register promotion, and speculative execution. These optimization technologies enable smart contracts to be executed in parallel while ensuring the determinism of the execution results.
To further improve execution efficiency, Pharos introduced Smart Access List Inference (SALI) technology. SALI can predict the state entries that the contract will access through static or dynamic analysis, enabling the execution engine to group transactions with disjoint state access patterns and execute them in parallel, thereby avoiding state access conflicts. In addition, this technology can also preload contract state objects to speed up execution.
Pharos also provides Ph-WASM, a WASM runtime environment designed specifically for blockchain. Ph-WASM not only supports deterministic high-speed execution, but also natively supports programming languages such as Rust and Go, allowing developers to build high-performance, portable dApps and AI models directly on the chain.
Key Features:
Support optimistic execution and transaction grouping
Smart Access List Inference (SALI) technology
Ph-WASM environment supporting multi-language smart contracts
Pharos Pipeline
Pharos pipeline adopts a multi-stage parallel execution architecture, which effectively solves the performance bottleneck caused by synchronous state execution and sequential block verification in traditional blockchain systems. By parallelizing key links such as execution, Merkleization and state confirmation, it improves the utilization efficiency of CPU, disk I/O and network resources.
Main processing stages:
Parallel block processing:
Dynamic resource scheduling:
Allocate CPU, I/O, and network resources based on real-time needs
Flexible confirmation mechanism:
Implementing ordering, transaction and block finalization at different layers
Concurrent processing of execution, Merkleization, and state updates
Each processing stage of the Pharos pipeline supports dynamic resource allocation based on real-time throughput requirements. The system innovatively designs a flexible final confirmation layer, allowing dApps and clients to obtain early confirmation of transaction ordering and execution results before the block is fully confirmed. This feature is especially important for application scenarios with high real-time requirements such as high-frequency trading and DeFi.
Through its intelligent adaptive scheduling algorithm and efficient resource coordination mechanism, the Pharos pipeline can achieve a throughput of more than 200,000 TPS under a 64-core execution framework, while reducing latency by 30%-50% compared to the standard blockchain pipeline model.
Pharos SPN Architecture
Pharos SPNs (Special Processing Networks) are execution environments tailored for specific applications. These environments are deeply integrated into the Pharos mainnet architecture while maintaining independent business logic and configuration systems. Each SPN has a complete and independent execution engine, verification node cluster, re-staking incentive mechanism and governance rule framework.
SPN Architecture
SPN Manager:
Maintain lifecycle management, node registry, and governance rule enforcement
SPN Adapter:
Facilitates cross-SPN communication and message authentication
Restaking and shared validator security:
Allows validators to re-stake assets into multiple SPNs
SPNs are well suited for computationally intensive tasks such as zero-knowledge machine learning proofs (zkML proofs), secure multi-party computations (SMPCs), AI model training, and DeFi derivatives. They support mandatory inclusion and emergency mechanisms to ensure that transactions cannot be censored while protecting user asset autonomy.
In terms of interoperability, SPN also interacts through the cross-SPN interoperability protocol, enabling atomic execution and data sharing across SPN and the main chain. Validators can re-stake $stPHRS into any SPN and receive corresponding $rstPHRS tokens, which can be used for governance, delegation, and liquidity mining.
Cross-SPN interoperability
Cross-SPN Messaging Protocol:
Censorship resistance and emergency response mechanisms:
Protecting users from forced transaction censorship
Achieve seamless collaborative execution between multiple blockchain layers
Interoperability and cross-chain communication
Pharos Network is designed to natively support cross-chain applications, providing two major communication protocols - intra-network (interaction between SPNs) and cross-chain communication (interconnection with external blockchains). The cross-SPN messaging framework ensures trustless message relay between SPNs, using proofs and consensus signatures to verify authenticity.
Key Features:
Cross-chain messaging
Cross-SPN Data Synchronization
Multi-VM Smart Contract Interaction
These features provide key support for application scenarios such as cross-chain DeFi, real-world asset (RWA) settlement, oracle networks, and AI model collaboration across execution environments.
Overall, Pharos Network redefines the Layer-1 blockchain infrastructure standard by integrating modular design, high-performance processing, parallel computing, and composability at every level of our architecture. The combination of a unique adaptive consensus mechanism, parallel execution engine, multi-virtual machine architecture, high-speed storage system, and modular SPN framework enables developers to build highly scalable, censorship-resistant, and secure applications.
Pharos Network is committed to seamlessly connecting traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), providing institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure support for AI-driven decentralized applications, private financial transactions, and a scalable DeFi ecosystem.
