Fiber Network
The Fiber Network is designed to provide fast, low-cost, and decentralized payments and peer-to-peer transactions for RGB++ assets through compatibility with Bitcoin's Lightning Network. Fiber uses off-chain payment channels to support any number of transactions to be conducted with only one on-chain settlement transaction required, improving speed and lowering fees.
Learn moreRGB++
RGB++ introduces enhanced functionality for creating and managing digital assets, such as fungible tokens (like stablecoins) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), directly on Bitcoin.
Learn moreOpen Transaction
CKB Open Transaction (OTX) allows users to create transactions that are open to change. Users send these open transactions to a network, where many autonomous agents provide services for assembling CKB transactions from open transactions.
Learn moreCKB Ecosystem
CKB X Bitcoin Architecture
Bitcoin Layer 2
CKB is increasingly recognized as a complementary Layer 2 solution for Bitcoin. By integrating with Bitcoin, CKB enhances Bitcoin's ecosystem by enabling smart contracts and decentralized applications that leverage Bitcoin's security and liquidity.
CKB provides a unique value proposition by offering developers a platform to build applications that can interact with Bitcoin's blockchain while benefiting from CKB's programmability. This is made possible through cutting edge technologies such as RGB++ and the Fiber Network.
Cell Model
Nervos CKB employs a unique "cell-based" model which generalizes Bitcoin's UTXO model allowing for enhanced programmability while maintaining the security and simplicity of the UTXO system.
Each cell can be thought of as a container or a unit of storage that holds data and value. These cells can represent anything from simple tokens to complex smart contracts or even pieces of dApps.
It is drastically different from account-based blockchain architectures such as Solana or Ethereum and natively provides developers sought-after functionality such as parallelism, intents and account abstraction.
Proof of Work
CKB implements "NC-Max" which builds on Bitcoin's Nakamoto Consensus by improving block propagation efficiency and reducing orphan rates.
It allows for throughput of the blockchain to seamlessly scale with network bandwidth improvements, leading to better performance and security without sacrificing decentralization.
Like Bitcoin, Proof of Work is integral to CKB and ensures the network's decentralization, resilience and censorship-resistance. CKB implements the eaglesong proof of work algorithm and is secured by ASIC's.
Learn more about mining CKB here and about NC-Max here.
CKB VM & RISC-V
CKB VM is inspired by Bitcoin's simplicity and security but offers developers power beyond that of other blockchain virtual machines such as Ethereum's EVM or Solana's SVM.
CKB VM is built on the RISC-V instruction set architecture, a simple, open hardware standard typically used in physical processors, with broad support, maximum efficiency and auditability.
RISC-V allows developers to write smart contracts in many different languages, such as C, Rust or Lua. It supports reference implementations of cryptography, which can be deployed permissionlessly. This has been used to implement support for different chains' wallets as well as Passkeys and quantum-resistant cryptography.
CKB-VM operates in a stateless and fully deterministic manner. The execution of a smart contract is described completely in a transaction. There are no surpises, and there are never fees charged for failed transactions.