Core Objectives and Principles

Core Chain is a decentralized, secure, and scalable blockchain network backed by Bitcoin’s PoW. This section covers these (and other) important properties of the Core network, and briefly touches on how each is maintained.

Bitcoin-aligned - Core Chain is designed to (a) unlock Bitcoin’s protection by enabling Bitcoin miners to delegate their security to an EVM-compatible smart contract platform and allowing holders of BTC to stake on Core Chain without giving up custody, and (b) subsidize Bitcoin mining by providing CORE token rewards to Bitcoin miners that require virtually no added expense or opportunity cost. While Bitcoin serves as the defender of a perfectly scarce, passive monetary asset, Core Chain is designed to be the decentralized rails upon which digital assets gain substantial utility.

Decentralized - Core Chain’s decentralization is facilitated through the three-part system by which validators are elected under Satoshi Plus consensus. First, Bitcoin miners can vote for validators by writing data into the coinbase transactions of newly-mined Bitcoin blocks (DPoW). Second, holders of BTC can stake on Core Chain without giving up custody. Finally, CORE token holders can vote for validators by delegating CORE tokens to them (DPoS). Because Bitcoin hash power and CORE tokens are highly distributed, both the DPoW and DPoS aspects of Satoshi Plus consensus work together to uphold Core Chain’s decentralization.

Secure - Core Chain’s security rests on several pillars. The first is the decentralization discussed above, which is achieved through a combination of DPoW and DPoS. The second is Core Chain’s security model. The network can thwart consensus attacks through its incentive structures, which feature rewards for participants that identify malicious nodes and mechanisms for punishing those nodes, and it incorporates checkpointing and similar safeguards for preventing other kinds of long-range attacks. There is a more detailed treatment of security below, including audits from several top-tier blockchain security firms.

Scalable - Core Chain is highly scalable, capable of eventually supporting a global user base of billions of participants, with high transaction throughput and low latency. This is due in part to the fact that DPoS is inherently more scalable than either standard PoS or PoW, and in part to the fact that the network can increase the rate at which blocks are mined by adding many more validators. What’s more, there will be additional scaling solutions developed on top of the network in the future.

Permissionless - Core Chain’s permissionlessness means anyone can participate in and build on Core Chain, without approval or authorization from any gatekeeping entity. The network’s decentralization, open-source software, and consensus model are designed to maintain this permissionlessness in perpetuity.

Community Governed - Core Chain’s governance is a blend of immutable and mutable components. The immutable aspects are those that must be kept in place, like the total supply of CORE. Nonetheless, other aspects of on-chain governance would benefit from adaptability. For those, the decentralized autonomous organization responsible for network development, Core DAO, is designed to become progressively more decentralized as on-chain participation grows. All CORE token holders will be able to vote on the adaptations of certain protocol parameters, but are naturally limited by certain immutable aspects of Core Chain’s design, described in further detail later.

Interoperable - Core Chain can interface with a wide variety of blockchain projects. Because it is EVM compatible all protocols on Core Chain can interact with one another, Ethereum-based protocols can be ported to Core Chain with relative ease, and cross-chain solutions allow communication across other blockchains.

Composable - For Core Chain, composability is achieved through support of the popular Solidity smart contract language. Solidity allows developers to create smart contracts that can call functions within other contracts, send CORE tokens to them, and even create new contract instances. This allows for the building of complex interlocking systems of contracts able to facilitate peer-to-peer borrowing and lending, open liquidity pools, trading platforms, live, accurate on-chain data, and much more.