A Comprehensive Technical Deep Dive into Pharos Network Architecture

Pharos Network is a high-performance, modular Layer 1 blockchain designed with a focus on scalability, interoperability, and security. It is built to support next-generation blockchain execution, consensus, and customization with its 50K TPS, 2 Gigagas throughput, and DP 5—the highest among EVM-compatible chains.
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Let’s take a comprehensive technical deep dive into Pharos Network’s architecture, covering its consensus mechanism, execution model, storage innovations, networking, pipeline efficiency, and modular SPN framework.

Pharos Network Architecture:

Pharos Network is built as a modular, customizable stack that separates concerns across execution, consensus, settlement, and data availability layers. Each layer is designed to increase performance while maintaining flexibility for future upgrades and optimization. Let’s take a look at each layer of Pharos Network Architecture.

• Network Layer
  
  • It uses an optimized P2P Gossip Protocol for low-latency messaging.
  • The Network Layer also supports cross-SPN communication channels.
• Consensus Layer
  
  • It implements an adaptive asynchronous BFT consensus protocol that is highly resilient and low-latency.
  • It also reduces transaction ordering bias and improves validator efficiency.
• Execution Layer
  
  • Pharos integrates Dual VM environment (EVM + WASM) with LLVM-based Execution Engine.
  • It also supports parallel transaction execution, optimistic execution, and SALI (Smart Access List Inferring).
• Settlement Layer
  
  • It implements a validator restaking mechanism for shared security.
  • It also ensures fast settlement of transactions across all execution environments.
• Data Availability & Storage Layer
  
  • It introduces Pharos Store, a high-performance multi-versioned blockchain storage model.
  • It also uses ADS Pushdown and Delta Encoding to minimize disk I/O.
• SPN (Special Processing Networks) Framework
  
  • SPNs enable custom blockchain execution layers with configurable consensus models.
  • SPNs operate semi-independently but share security and data with the main network.
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Now, let’s take a deep dive into these layers and key components of the Pharos Network Architecture separately.
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‍Network Layer

The networking layer underpins all communication in the system. It uses an optimized P2P gossip protocol to propagate blocks, transactions, and consensus messages efficiently. The system implements an adaptive bandwidth allocation management based on network load for efficient transaction and data propagation with high speeds even under stress. The layer also supports cross-SPN communication channels, ensuring low-latency interoperability across execution environments.
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Pharos Consensus

Pharos Network employs a consensus design that blends BFT fault tolerance with asynchronous execution and fast-path commit protocols to improve throughput, fairness, and transaction finality. Unlike classical BFT implementations that require fixed leader roles and round-based communication, Pharos allows multiple validator nodes to propose, validate, and commit transactions concurrently in parallel. This significantly reduces the bottleneck caused by leader election.

It also implements dynamic transaction ordering mechanism to ensure fairness, reduce block construction bias, and supports consistent global ordering even during high network churn. Additionally, the fast-path execution lets transactions with early quorum agreements bypass the full consensus pipeline, reducing average finality time and improving throughput. This design supports robust, low-latency operation in global, high-throughput environments.

• Key Features:
  
  • Asynchronous Execution
  • Dynamic Transaction Ordering
  • Fast-Path Execution
  • Leader Rotation & Voting Optimization‍

‍Pharos Execution

At the core of Pharos execution model is the Execution Engine that offers a dual VM environment (EVM + WASM) for maximum developer flexibility. It combines LLVM-based Intermediate Representation (IR) translation with speculative parallel processing. It also applies several performance optimizations such as opcode fusion, register promotion, and speculative execution. These optimizations allow contracts to be executed in parallel while maintaining deterministic results.

To increase execution efficiency, Pharos introduces Smart Access List Inferring (SALI), a method to statically or dynamically infer which state entries a contract will access. Using SALI, the execution engine can group transactions with disjoint state access patterns and execute them in parallel without fear of conflicts. It also preloads contract state objects for faster execution. 

Pharos also supports Ph-WASM, a specialized WASM runtime with deterministic, high-speed execution and native support for languages like Rust and Go. This makes it possible to build high-performance, portable dApps and AI models directly on-chain.

• Key Features:
  
  • Optimistic Execution & Transaction Grouping
  • Smart Access List Inferring (SALI)
  • Ph-WASM for Multi-Language Smart Contracts

Pharos Store

Pharos Store is a scalable, high-performance blockchain storage system designed to eliminate state bloat and inefficient I/O. This revolutionary data engine is built for authenticated, versioned state storage. It eliminates inefficiencies found in Merkle Patricia Trie-based systems by adopting a Delta-Encoded Multi-Version Merkle Tree (DMM-Tree) and a Log-Structured Versioned Page Store (LSVPS). It enables fast state retrieval and parallel Merklization and reduces storage overhead by 80% compared to Ethereum’s trie model.

By storing only modified state deltas and indexing them using version-based addressing, Pharos Store drastically reduces write amplification and achieves up to 15.8x improvement in I/O throughput. Its append-only model ensures safe concurrent writes and fast recovery after node crashes. The system also supports efficient proof generation for light clients and storage tiering for cold/hot data segregation.

• Key Features:
  
  • Delta-Encoded Multi-Version Merkle Tree (DMM-Tree)
  • Log-Structured Versioned Page Store (LSVPS)
  • Light SPN Asset Transfer Protocol

Pharos Pipelining

Pharos Pipelining is a multi-stage parallel execution engine that eliminates traditional bottlenecks caused by synchronous state execution and sequential block validation. It optimises CPU, Disk I/O, and networking by enabling Execution, Merklization, and state finalization run in concurrent pipelines, reducing idle time and improving resource utilization.

• Pipeline Stage:
  
  • Parallel Block Staging:
    
    • Processes execution, Merklization, and state updates concurrently.
  • Dynamic Resource Allocation:
    
    • Distributes CPU, I/O, and network resources based on real-time demand.
  • Flexible Finality Mechanism:
    
    • Implements ordering, transaction, and block finality at different layers.

Each pipeline stage can dynamically allocate resources based on throughput demand. Pharos introduces flexible finality layers, allowing dApps and clients to receive early confirmation of transaction ordering and execution results even before full block finality. This is especially critical for HFT, DeFi, and real-time use cases.
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With its adaptive scheduler and efficient resource orchestration, Pharos Pipelining can reach 200,000+ TPS using a 64-core pipeline execution framework and also achieve 30-50% lower latency than standard blockchain pipelining models.
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Pharos SPN

Pharos SPNs are application-specific execution environments that integrate tightly with the Pharos mainnet while operating with independent logic and configuration. Each SPN has its own execution engine, validator set, restaking incentives, and governance rules.

• SPN Architecture
  
  • SPN Manager:
    
    • Maintains lifecycle management, registry, and governance.
  • SPN Adapter:
    
    • Facilitates cross-SPN communication and message verification.
  • Restaking & Shared Validator Security:
    
    • Allows validators to restake assets into multiple SPNs.

SPNs are ideal for compute-intensive tasks like zkML proofs, secure multiparty computation (SMPC), AI model training, and DeFi derivatives. They support forced inclusion and escape hatches, ensuring censorship resistance and user autonomy.
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SPNs also interact via a Cross-SPN Interoperability Protocol, enabling atomic execution and data sharing across SPNs and the main chain. Validators can restake $stPHS into any SPN and receive corresponding $rstPHS tokens, which can be used for governance, delegation, and liquidity mining.

• Cross-SPN Interoperability
  
  • Cross-SPN Messaging Protocol:
    
    • Enables seamless execution across multiple blockchain layers.
  • Censorship Resistance & Escape Hatch:
    
    • Protects users from forced transaction exclusion.‍

Interoperability & Cross-Chain Communication

Pharos is built with native support for cross-chain applications, offering both intra-network (SPN-to-SPN) and inter-chain (external blockchain) communication protocols. The Cross-SPN Messaging Framework ensures trustless message relaying between SPNs, using proofs and consensus signatures to verify authenticity.

• Key Features:
  
  • Cross-Chain Message Passing
  • Cross-SPN Data Synchronization
  • Multi-VM Smart Contract Interaction

These capabilities enable use cases like cross-chain DeFi, RWA settlement, oracle networks, and AI model orchestration across different execution layers.

In conclusion, Pharos Network is redefining the Layer-1 blockchain infrastructure by integrating modularity, performance, parallelism, and composability at every level of its architecture. Its unique combination of adaptive consensus, parallel execution, multi-VM architecture, high-speed storage, and modular SPNs empowers developers to build scalable, censorship-resistant, and secure applications. With this, Pharos aims to seamlessly bridge TradFi and DeFi, and enable institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure that supports AI-driven dApps, private financial transactions, and scalable DeFi ecosystems.

Would you like a deep dive into Pharos Execution Engine, Pharos Store, Consensus, SPNs, Pipelining or any other layer or component of Pharos Network? Let us know!

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