Network Types

Blocks in a line, each pointing at its predecessor. Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRPL, Cosmos, and every rollup are chains, whatever virtual machine they run.

EthereumBitcoinSolanaXRPLCosmos Hub

Directed acyclic graph ordering. Many transactions confirm in parallel with no single canonical block sequence. Hedera runs a hashgraph, IOTA has the Tangle, Nano uses a block lattice, Kaspa is a blockDAG.

HHederaIOTAKKaspaNNano

A validator subset registered with a parent network that runs its own blockchain(s) with an independent virtual machine, token, and fee market under the parent's security.

DFK ChainDSDexalot SubnetMPMetal Primary NetworkINICP NNSBSBittensor subnet 1XSXDC subnet

Networks whose product is verifiable data publication. Rollups post blobs here and rely on the DA layer to keep them retrievable.

CelestiaEEigenDAAAvail

Shared sequencing and off-chain execution layers that rollups plug into. They sit beside a chain rather than under it.

EEspressoAstria

Cross-network message passing with their own validators and relayers. They carry messages between chains without keeping user-visible state of their own.

LLayerZeroWormholeHHyperlane

Networks whose product is durable content addressed storage rather than general purpose transaction throughput. A chain and a storage layer can be the same network, Filecoin books data deals as chain transactions AND retrieves the payloads that back them.

FilecoinBGBNB GreenfieldAArweaveSSiaSStorj

The largest surface in the catalogue. Runs on Ethereum mainnet, every EVM rollup (Arbitrum, Base, Optimism, zkSync), BSC, Polygon, Avalanche C-Chain, and thousands of long-tail networks.

EthereumArbitrum OneBaseOP Mainnet

Parallelised BPF execution with an account model state. Runs on Solana mainnet-beta, devnet, testnet, and on Eclipse.

The Bitcoin Core style RPC (getblockchaininfo, getblock) speaking to unspent transaction output ledgers. Runs on Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Zcash, and their forks.

BitcoinLLitecoinBCBitcoin Cash

The Monero daemon RPC surface. Also covers Wownero and other privacy focused forks.

Monero

WebAssembly smart contracts on Cosmos SDK chains, ordered by Tendermint or CometBFT. Identified by string chain IDs. Runs on Cosmos Hub, Osmosis, Neutron, and Celestia.

Cosmos HubOsmosisNNeutron

A WebAssembly runtime under the Substrate framework where runtimes upgrade in band without a hard fork. Runs on Polkadot relay, Kusama, every parachain, and solo Substrate chains including Aleph Zero.

PolkadotKusamaAZAleph Zero

Resource oriented execution using the Move language, with Diem heritage. Powers Aptos and Sui.

A STARK friendly virtual machine with algebraic hash primitives. Powers Starknet mainnet and sepolia via a JSON-RPC superset of Ethereum style methods.

EVM compatible bytecode with a Tron account model and resource pricing. Runs on Tron mainnet, Shasta, and Nile testnets.

Tron mainnet

TEAL bytecode with atomic transaction groups. Uses the algod REST API rather than JSON-RPC.

Actor model WebAssembly execution, plus Filecoin EVM running on the same chain. Uses the Lotus JSON-RPC.

Filecoin mainnet

aBFT hashgraph consensus with a JSON-RPC relay compatibility layer for EVM tooling.

A statically typed stack based execution surface on a liquid proof of stake chain with on chain governance. Uses the Octez RPC.

Fungible, NFT, vault, and smart account standards across every EVM network.

The Solana Program Library. Token-2022 adds transfer hooks, confidential transfers, and interest.

Inscription and colored coin protocols layered over Bitcoin, indexed off chain, settled by the host.

CosmWasm token standards plus native IBC transferable denoms.

Move resource types. Aptos Fungible Asset, Sui Coin, and Sui Object standards.

Chain specific token standards across other networks.