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Layer 2 blockchain · settles to Polkadot

Acurast ticker ACU

  • No public-data lookups yet
  • 4 reviewed developments
  • 40 cited sources

Summary

Acurast Mainnet is a parachain built with Substrate. Collators take turns producing blocks in six-second Aura slots and hand each block to Polkadot relay-chain validators, who re-execute it, keep it available and finalize it. A read of Acurast's public RPC on 2026-09-29 showed 17 session collators: 4 fixed (invulnerable) collators and 13 candidates admitted through council preselection. Phones running the Acurast Processor app register on chain, prove their hardware with key attestations, report benchmarks and heartbeats, and run developers' deployments off chain; they neither produce nor validate blocks. ACU staking (Staked Compute) backs compute commitments and is slashed for compute shortfalls, not for block-production faults. 79172728293035

Design

System
Layer 2 blockchainAcurast Mainnet runs as Polkadot parachain 3396 and opened to the public on 20 January 2026. Acurast's collators build its blocks, and Polkadot relay-chain validators check, keep available and finalize them, so it is recorded as a layer two that settles to Polkadot, not as an independent layer one; Acurast's own token page calls it a Substrate-based Polkadot parachain. The phones that run workloads (processors) use the chain but do not produce or validate blocks. Acurast Canary runs separately as Kusama parachain 2239 with its own token, cACU.
Settles to
PolkadotAcurast Mainnet is Polkadot parachain 3396 (chain spec relay chain: polkadot). Relay-chain validators check each Acurast block, spread erasure-coded pieces of it, and finalize it with the relay chain, so Acurast's validity and finality depend on Polkadot's validator set and its dispute slashing. Acurast's own collators order transactions and can stall the chain but cannot finalize an invalid block on their own.
Settlement family
Its own design
Scarce resource
Other
State model
Accounts
Finality
Economic finality
Who makes blocks
The collator set is a council-set list of fixed collators plus up to 20 candidates. A candidate must first be added to a preselection list controlled by the council, which the node guide says the Acurast team handles, then register a session key and a candidacy bond. On 2026-09-29 the 13 candidates' bonds ranged from about 0.016 to 11 ACU and 7 of the 20 candidate places were free, so bond size did not decide who produced blocks. Aura rotates authorship among the session's collators, sessions last six hours, and collators share 5% of yearly inflation.
Fork choice
No open weight-based chain selection. Collators build on the parachain blocks that the relay chain has included, and a block is final once the relay-chain block that includes it passes approval checking and is finalized by a GRANDPA vote of over two-thirds of relay validators. Unincluded blocks can be dropped. Liveness also depends on collators reaching relay-chain nodes: in November 2025, Canary block production stopped for about 40 minutes and finality for about 2 hours when those nodes crashed.

Qualifications

Tradeoffs

This view follows one way of thinking about design priorities, often called the blockchain trilemma. The design-priorities lesson sets out the counter-view. Read the design-priorities lesson.

Emphasizes
Security and Scalability Contested
Gives up
Open block production and open upgrade control. Collators join only after council preselection, fixed collators are set by the council or root, only council members can submit referenda on the single root governance track, and the council also appoints the Hyperdrive bridge oracles. Runtime upgrades 14 to 16 in 2026 were deployed before their source code was published.Acurast's consensus page says its nominated proof-of-stake design reaches security, scalability and decentralization, with a limited validator set serving scalability and an unlimited set of nominators serving security; reading that as all three corners at once is contested. The deployed runtime has no nomination step: council-preselected collators produce blocks, and block validity and finality rest on Polkadot's validators, which is where the security corner comes from. Acurast calls its phone network decentralized; that describes compute supply, not block production.
Full node at home
Unknown 71730Acurast publishes Docker images and a compose file for Mainnet and Canary nodes, with an archive database by default and the RPC port bound to the local machine, but states no CPU, memory or storage figures; it points to the node's own start-up benchmark warnings instead. A parachain node also follows the Polkadot relay chain, and the November 2025 Canary post-mortem shows collators depending on relay-chain nodes; that extra load was not sized. Running a node does not make someone a collator, which needs council preselection.
Throughput claims
No classified figure recorded

Scaling layers

No scaling layer recorded in this profile.

Capabilities

Capabilities of Acurast: how each one is provided, or its research status
CapabilityHow it is providedNotes and sources
Account abstractionStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Atomic swapsUnknownNot yet assessed under this row's current definition. The mainnet runtime has no smart-contract, exchange or hash-time-lock pallet; its multisig and proxy pallets are building blocks, and no mechanism for two parties to swap assets all-or-nothing was found. 27
Authenticated data publicationUnknownNot yet assessed under this row's current definition. A deployment records its script as an IPFS address (a content identifier) on chain, so processors fetch code they can check against it; this carries deployment code rather than data a publisher offers to readers, and retrieval depends on whoever hosts the file on IPFS. 34
Light clientsUnknownNot yet assessed under this row's current definition. Acurast's docs describe running a full archive node or using public RPC endpoints and document no light client; relay-chain finality proofs are building blocks, not a documented Acurast light client. 67
Native staking or delegationStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
On-chain governanceStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Parallel executionStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Payment or state channelsNone found Earlier definitionNo payment or state channel layer anchored to Acurast was found, and the mainnet runtime has no smart-contract pallet that could hold channel dispute logic. Its cross-chain message queues and the Hyperdrive IBC message pallet carry messages between chains, not payments between two parties. 27
Programmable spendingPartial (layer not stated) Earlier definitionBuilt-in multisig accounts, proxies (including time-delayed proxies and proxies limited to certain calls) and vesting schedules give spend conditions beyond one key, but the mainnet runtime has no smart-contract pallet, so users cannot write their own spend conditions. Deployment scripts run on phones, not in the chain. 2731
Protocol-verified messagingStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Reversible transfers or recoveryBuilt into the protocolLimited scopeTime-delayed proxies in the mainnet runtime (the proxy pallet): a proxy added with a delay must announce a call and wait before it runs, and the account owner, or a proxy of the cancel type, can reject the announcement during that wait, so a delayed transfer can be cancelled. Scope is limited: recovery without a lost key exists only for phone (processor) accounts, whose paired manager can move the account's balance elsewhere without the phone's key (the processor manager's recover-funds call); ordinary accounts have no recovery pallet, and a completed transfer is not reversed. 273136
RollupsNone found Earlier definitionNo rollup settling to Acurast was found, and the runtime has no pallet that verifies another chain's proofs. The nearest feature is off-chain compute: processors run deployments and report results to the chain. Acurast's May 2025 blog announced an exploratory plan to run Linera microchains on Acurast phones; those would be Linera infrastructure and would not settle to Acurast. 42227
Shielded transfersStructured assessment pendingNot yet assessed for any chain.
Signed partial offersUnknownNot yet assessed under this row's current definition. The mainnet runtime has no exchange or smart-contract pallet. 27
Reading these values
How this feature is provided
Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
Structured assessment pending
The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
Unknown
The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
Earlier definition
Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
Reading across rows
The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.

Definitions, schema version and review history

Ecosystem & custody

Ecosystem products for Acurast
Product typeStatusNotes and sources
Automated market makersNone foundThe mainnet runtime has no smart-contract, exchange or pool pallet, so no automated market maker runs on the Acurast chain. Applications on other chains that hold bridged ACU copies are not on the Acurast chain and were not reviewed; whether other parachains hold ACU over cross-chain messaging was not checked. 927 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Issuer-native stablecoinsNone foundNeither Circle's USDC address list nor Tether's supported-protocol list includes Acurast, and the mainnet runtime has no pallet for issuing or holding other fungible tokens. 273738 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Algorithmic stablecoinsNone foundNo algorithmic stablecoin can run on Acurast itself: the mainnet runtime has no smart-contract pallet and no token-issuance pallet besides ACU's own balances. 27 As of Sep 29, 2026.
BridgesFirst-partyAcurast Hyperdrive (Acurast Mainnet to Ethereum), LayerZero token copies on BNB Smart Chain, Base and Peaq (through Ethereum)Acurast's own Hyperdrive bridge moves native ACU to Ethereum, where a 12-decimal ERC-20 copy is backed by ACU locked on Acurast, through the Acurast Hub. From Ethereum, LayerZero token contracts carry ACU copies to BNB Smart Chain, Base and Peaq. The July 2026 containment switched off Hyperdrive's job-messaging path, not this token bridge, whose on-chain switch read enabled in an RPC read on 2026-09-29; transfers were not tested. Risk: Hyperdrive accepts messages signed by oracles that the Acurast council or root adds and removes, and the runtime needs at least three valid oracle signatures per message, so bridged ACU depends on that oracle set and on council control; how many oracles are registered and who runs them was not verified. Acurast's own post-mortem found a replay path in the related token-conversion flow in July 2026. Copies on BNB Smart Chain, Base and Peaq also depend on LayerZero messaging, which was not reviewed. A bridged token is only as sound as the bridge that minted it. 919252832 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Block explorersThinAcurast Bot block explorer (acurastbot.com)Acurast's networks page links the Acurast Bot explorer for Mainnet and Canary; Acurast's blog presents it as a community-built tool in development, and its operator was not identified. Its pages render in the browser only, so coverage was not reviewed. Listing is not a quality or completeness check, and explorer data is provider-indexed. 624 As of Sep 29, 2026.
Hardware walletsUnknownSee custody rows: Acurast's Ledger page says a Ledger device can derive an Acurast address and sign messages but cannot yet sign Acurast transactions, and Trezor's Acurast page lists only ACU token copies on Base, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Peaq, while its firmware has no Acurast signing. No hardware wallet that signs Acurast Mainnet transactions was found. 15163940 As of Sep 29, 2026.

Hardware-wallet custody

Hardware-wallet custody for Acurast
Device makerStatusWhat users can and cannot do
LedgerUnknownSame as native: UnknownCan: Derive an Acurast address and sign messages with a Ledger device, per Acurast's Ledger page
Cannot: Sign Acurast transactions such as transfers or staking with a Ledger device; Acurast's Ledger page says this is not yet supported and is being worked on
Cannot: Find Acurast in Ledger's published Ledger Wallet currency list (@ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0)Ledger's own Acurast coin page returned not found at review, and no Ledger statement either way was found, so the row stays unknown under the custody rule. Acurast's page warns users not to send funds to a Ledger-derived Acurast address until transaction signing is supported. 1639 As of Sep 29, 2026.
TrezorNone foundSame as native: NoCannot: Sign Acurast Mainnet transactions or control an Acurast account: Trezor's Acurast page lists only Base, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Peaq as networks, and Trezor's firmware support data has no Acurast entry
Cannot: Treat ACU token copies on those networks as custody on Acurast MainnetTrezor supports ACU only as token copies on Base, Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain and Peaq, which a Trezor can hold through Trezor Suite, MetaMask or Rabby; under the shared custody rule a token copy on another network does not count as custody on Acurast. Moving copies to Acurast Mainnet needs the Hyperdrive bridge and an account with a different signer. 91540 As of Sep 29, 2026.

Public data

iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Acurast yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.

Public-data lookups for Acurast
LookupStatusWhat it covers and its limits
Address or accountNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.
Tokens and assetsNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.
NFTsNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.
TransactionsNot available yetPublic-data lookups for this chain are not built yet.

A lookup covers one address or transaction from one provider. It is never a complete wallet, and an error or private value is reported as unknown, not zero. About public data · Connect your AI

Sourced developments

Developments: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.

Publication date · newest first

Topics your AI can explain

Your AI can explain these topics for Acurast through the connection, with sources.

Known gaps

What this profile's review did not establish:

Sources

Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.

All 40 sources were checked in the last 30 days.

  1. Protocol architecture overview (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  2. Consensus Layer (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  3. Execution Layer (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  4. End-to-End Deployment Execution (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  5. Instances (Devnet, Canary and Mainnet) (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  6. Networks (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  7. Node Setup (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  8. Governance (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  9. Acurast Token (ACU): chains and token contracts (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  10. Tokenomics (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  11. From Canary To Mainnet: Overview (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  12. Staking Mainnet vs. Canary (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  13. Slashing (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  14. Provide Compute, Earn Rewards (processor FAQ) (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  15. Trezor firmware coin support data (common/defs/support.json, main branch) (external site)Trezor (GitHub, trezor/trezor-firmware) · retrieved
  16. Ledger Hardware Wallet (coming soon) (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  17. Post Mortem 2025-11-04: Acurast Canary chain stalled (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  18. Post mortem: Acurast Compute, double claiming of staking rewards (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  19. Post mortem: Acurast Token Conversion, replay of conversion messages (external site)Acurast Docs · retrieved
  20. Acurast Mainnet & TGE Are Live (external site)Acurast blog · retrieved
  21. Acurast Security Protocol Upgrades (external site)Acurast blog · retrieved
  22. Thousands of Blockchains: Running Linera Microchains on Acurast's Edge Fleet (external site)Acurast blog · retrieved
  23. Staked Compute: How Your Stake Secures and Strengthens the Acurast Network (external site)Acurast blog · retrieved
  24. Explore Acurast's Community Tools (external site)Acurast blog · retrieved
  25. acurast-substrate releases (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  26. Acurast Mainnet chain spec (acurast-mainnet-parachain-3396-raw.json, tag acurast-v0.26.5) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  27. Mainnet runtime pallet list (runtime/acurast-mainnet/src/lib.rs, tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  28. Mainnet runtime constants: spec version 16, collator limits, session period (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  29. Common runtime constants: token units and six-second block time (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  30. Mainnet collator selection configuration (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  31. Mainnet proxy pallet configuration (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  32. Mainnet Hyperdrive messaging and token bridge configuration (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  33. Runtime transaction fee charger (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  34. Acurast pallet common types: deployment script as an IPFS address (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  35. Parachains' Protocol (ELVES) (external site)Polkadot Wiki · retrieved
  36. Mainnet processor manager configuration, including processor fund recovery (tag acurast-v0.26.7) (external site)Acurast (GitHub) · retrieved
  37. USDC contract addresses (external site)Circle · retrieved
  38. Supported protocols (external site)Tether · retrieved
  39. @ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0 currency list (external site)Ledger (npm package via jsDelivr) · retrieved
  40. Acurast wallet (external site)Trezor · retrieved

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Funding disclosure

Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding