Layer 1 blockchain
Aleo ticker ALEO
Summary
Proof of stake with AleoBFT, a committee protocol built from the Narwhal and Bullshark designs. Each committee validator adds one certified batch per round to a shared graph of batches. Every even round has a leader, and the leader's batch (the anchor) is committed once enough validators in the next round link to it. That commit orders everything the anchor reaches into a block. Voting power follows bonded ALEO. Users run programs off-chain and submit zero-knowledge proofs; validators check the proofs and run any public on-chain step. A separate group, provers, solves a proof-based puzzle each epoch for most of the coinbase reward, but provers neither order transactions nor vote. 1235171921
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainPermissionless proof-of-stake layer 1 with its own blocks, validator committee and native asset. It is not anchored to another chain. What sets it apart is that programs run on the user's side and the network checks a zero-knowledge proof of each run. The package hint is kept.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Mixed
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- Committee validators. The docs cap the committee at the top 200 by total stake, and each member needs at least 10 million ALEO bonded (self-bond of at least 100 ALEO plus delegations). Provable's public API listed 26 members on 27 September 2026. Each even round a leader is picked by a deterministic rule that all validators can compute. Provers do not propose blocks: validators include their puzzle solutions, and since ARC-46 provers must also stake ALEO.
- Fork choice
- There is no longest-chain rule. Each batch must reference batches from enough validators in the previous round, and an anchor commits when enough validators in the next round link to it. Safety assumes that faulty validators hold less than a third of stake-weighted voting power. On that assumption the docs describe committed blocks as final, with no possible fork. The v4.10.0 node release notes warn that validators and clients that miss a scheduled consensus upgrade risk forking.
Qualifications
- Block interval · Applies. Blocks averaged about 3.2 seconds over the 100,000 blocks before 27 September 2026, from Provable's public API (provider data). Hyperlane's chain registry estimates 3 seconds. One docs page converts the 360-block unbonding wait to about 2.5 hours at 25-second blocks, but 25 seconds is the target anchor time of the prover puzzle; at the observed rate 360 blocks is closer to 20 minutes.
- Committee concentration · Applies. Provable's API listed 26 committee members holding about 1.11 billion bonded ALEO on 27 September 2026. The four largest held more than a third of that stake and the eight largest more than two-thirds. This is a single snapshot and says nothing about who controls each validator.
- Slashing · Unknown. No slashing or other stake penalty for validator misbehaviour was found in the reviewed docs or node release notes. Absence was not exhaustively verified. Finality therefore rests on the honest-supermajority assumption rather than on a documented penalty.
- Privacy scope · Partial. Privacy is chosen per function and per transfer. Private records hide owner and amount, but public transfers, public mappings, fees paid publicly, and program and function names are visible on-chain.
- Prover puzzle · Applies. Provers compete on a zero-knowledge puzzle for two-thirds of the coinbase reward, which looks like mining but does not decide block order. It is recorded here so the scarce resource is not misread as work.
- Settlement family · Partial. Aleo runs its own node software (snarkOS) and AleoBFT consensus, and programs run on the user's side while the network checks a zero-knowledge proof of each run, so its settlement family is recorded as other.
- State model · Partial. Programs keep private state in encrypted records and public state in on-chain mappings; neither alone describes the ledger, so the model is recorded as mixed.
- Finality · Partial. AleoBFT commits a leader's anchor batch once enough validators in the next round link to it, and the docs describe committed blocks as final, assuming faulty validators hold less than a third of stake-weighted voting power; this is recorded as other.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Security and Scalability
- Gives up
- Decentralization of operation. Consensus runs in a stake-gated committee of at most 200; 26 were listed at review, and the four largest held more than a third of committee stake. Even a non-voting client node needs server hardware (24 cores, 128 GiB of memory, 2 TB of fast storage). Proof generation falls on users or on hired proving services, and some wallets, including the Shield wallet the docs recommend, hand record scanning to a hosted service.Privacy is a separate goal that the triangle does not measure. The scalability case is that validators check small proofs instead of re-running every program. That does not remove the cost of making proofs; it moves it to the user's device or to a delegated prover. Provable's proving service decrypts requests only inside a trusted hardware enclave; without one, a delegated prover sees the private inputs. The committee figures come from one reading of Provable's public API.
- Full node at home
- Data-center class 467The docs list minimums for a client node, which relays transactions and serves data but does not vote: 24 cores, 128 GiB RAM, a 2 TB NVMe drive and 250 Mbps symmetric bandwidth. A validator needs 64 cores, 256 GiB RAM, 4 TB NVMe and 500 Mbps. Faster first sync is offered by downloading ledger snapshots from a cloud storage bucket. How far a node re-checks a downloaded snapshot was not reviewed.
- Throughput claims
- Lab benchmark: 50 tx/s 618Controlled benchmark; not observed network behavior.Load testing tied to the February 2025 expansion of the mainnet validator set from 16 to 25 (block 4,900,000)Not stated in the announcement; validators in the docs need at least 64 cores, 256 GiB RAM and 4 TB NVMe.The Foundation described this as an approximate improvement after load testing, not a measured mainnet rate over a stated window. The transaction mix used in testing was not stated; proof-heavy program calls and simple transfers cost validators different amounts of work. It ignores the time users or proving services spend generating proofs before a transaction reaches the network. It ignores propagation limits and state growth, and the committee size and node software have changed since February 2025.
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; the transaction docs tie every execution step in a transaction to one signer, so two users cannot co-sign a single swap, and a swap needs a program such as an exchange or escrow. No hash-locked, time-locked swap program or cross-chain atomic swap tooling was found in reviewed sources. 810 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Not present | None: the node docs describe only validator, prover and client modes, and even the client mode needs server hardware; no light-client protocol was found. Client nodes serve blocks, transactions and mapping values over a REST interface that apps query, and some wallets, such as Shield, hand record discovery to a scanning service; trusting a server is not light verification. Proofs make each transaction cheap to check, but that is not the same as verifying the chain without a full node. 4711 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment, state or application channel network anchored to Aleo was found in reviewed sources. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Programs, written in Leo or Aleo instructions, define records, mappings and functions. The private part runs off-chain and is proved; an optional public step runs on-chain after the proof checks out. Programs can call each other, up to 32 transitions per transaction. A program can be upgraded only if it was deployed with a constructor; programs deployed without one stay fixed. This is its own zero-knowledge virtual machine. 58922 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; no sender-reclaim window or pre-arranged recovery path was found for ALEO. Programs can check block height in their public on-chain step, a building block with which one could be built, but none was reviewed. The documented stablecoin programs give the issuer freeze-list, pause and burner roles, and the burner role can burn from a named public balance; that is an issuer control over holders, not a recovery feature for them. 814 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup or validium settling to Aleo was found in reviewed sources. Aleo's own off-chain execution with on-chain proof checks is part of the base layer, not a separate rollup. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
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.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | ThinShield Swap (early access), AlphaSwap | Shield Swap, built by Provable, opened early access on 1 September 2026, with a public launch expected in the fourth quarter of 2026. Its site calls it a concentrated-liquidity AMM settling on Aleo: tokens, amounts, prices and timing stay public, while the link between a trade and the trader is kept confidential. AlphaSwap's site presents it as a swap-and-pool exchange that needs tokens wrapped first. Liquidity, audits and AlphaSwap's mainnet state were not verified. 13303132 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | First-partyUSDCx (through Circle xReserve), USAD (Paxos Labs) | The docs list two stablecoins live on mainnet. USDCx is an Aleo token backed 1:1 by USDC held in Circle-deployed xReserve contracts on Ethereum, with Arc added in September 2026. It is not Circle-issued USDC: Circle's xReserve docs describe such tokens as deployed by the chain's own team, and Circle's native USDC list does not include Aleo. USAD is issued by Paxos Labs and backed 1:1 by USDG held in an Ethereum vault. Tether's supported list does not include Aleo. 14242526272829 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | No algorithmic or hybrid stablecoin on Aleo was reviewed. |
| Bridges | Established in the ecosystemUSDCx bridge (Circle xReserve), USAD vault bridge, Hyperlane, Verulink | Aleo's docs list four routes. USDCx mints on Aleo against Circle-attested deposits on Ethereum or Arc and burns back to those two. USAD moves against a USDG vault on Ethereum. Hyperlane, deployed for Aleo by Abacus Works, lists routes for ALEO (Ethereum, Solana, Base, HyperEVM), USAD (Ethereum), USDT (Ethereum, Solana, BNB Smart Chain, HyperEVM), ETH and wrapped BTC (Ethereum, HyperEVM) and SOL (Solana, HyperEVM). Verulink, from Venture23, lists ALEO to BNB Smart Chain only, USDC and ETH to Ethereum, Base and Arbitrum, and USDT to Ethereum. Risk: Each route trusts parties outside Aleo consensus. USDCx relies on Circle's attester key and xReserve contracts, and a malformed recipient on burn releases funds to the wrong address with no recovery. Verulink relies on five attestors and address screening, per a 2025 post. Hyperlane's security settings for Aleo routes were not reviewed. Admin operations of the USDCx, USAD and Hyperlane programs are gated by an on-chain multisig whose signers were not reviewed. Privacy ends when funds leave Aleo. 13151623293334 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemProvable Explorer, Aleo Info Explorer | Provable Explorer is run by Provable and shows blocks, transactions, validators and programs. Aleo Info Explorer shows blocks and prover rankings, and its operator is not named on the site. Encrypted records show only as ciphertext on any explorer. Explorer data is indexed by the provider and is not independent validation. Aleoscan could not be reviewed because it refused automated access. 233536 |
| Hardware wallets | Established in the ecosystemLedger (Ledger Wallet desktop) | See the custody rows. Ledger supports ALEO natively in the desktop Ledger Wallet app, for both public and private sends. Trezor lists ALEO only as a token on BNB Smart Chain. 3740 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Native supportSame as native: Yes | Can: Install the Aleo app from My Ledger and add an Aleo account in Ledger Wallet desktop 4.2.0 or later Can: Send from a public balance or from a private record, confirming each transaction on the device screen Can: Let the desktop app show the private balance by approving a view-key request that cannot move funds Can: Use the app on Nano S Plus, Nano X, Flex, Stax and Nano Gen5, per Ledger's app repository Cannot: Use Aleo in the Ledger Wallet mobile app, per Ledger's May 2026 post Cannot: Hold USDCx or USAD through Ledger yet; Aleo's May 2026 post lists private stablecoin support as next on the roadmapKeys stay on the device, but approving the view-key request lets the desktop app decrypt the account's private records. Staking from Ledger Wallet was not described in the reviewed posts. 12373839 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Manage native Aleo accounts or private records with a Trezor device Cannot: Treat the BNB Smart Chain ALEO token that Trezor lists as custody of ALEO on Aleo itselfTrezor's ALEO page names BNB Smart Chain as the only supported network. Third-party Trezor signing paths for Aleo were not found. 40 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Aleo yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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USDCx on Aleo began accepting deposits from Arc
Aleo announced that its USDCx bridge was integrated at the launch of Arc mainnet, so USDC deposited on Arc through Circle xReserve can mint USDCx on Aleo. Ethereum remains supported, and the bridge docs list Ethereum and Arc as the only burn destinations.
- Implementation:integration described as live at Arc mainnet launch
- Release:announced 2026-09-16
- Activation:Circle's xReserve page lists Arc as a mainnet source chain; deposit volumes not observed
Sources: Aleo — Arc mainnet is live: USDCx on Aleo supports xReserve on Arc deposits from day one (external site) · Circle — xReserve supported blockchains and domains (external site) · Aleo documentation — Aleo USDCx Bridge: Integrator Manual (V2) (external site)
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snarkOS v4.10.0 scheduled the V20 consensus upgrade and encrypted validator links
The v4.10.0 mainnet release scheduled consensus version 20 for mainnet height 22,175,000, estimated for 22 September 2026. V20 tightens how deployed programs are type-checked and bounds the size of declared data types. It also starts a switch to an encrypted, mutually authenticated handshake between validators, with the old handshake refused from version 21.
- Implementation:released in snarkOS v4.10.0, followed by v4.10.1
- Release:mainnet release published 2026-09-15
- Activation:Provable's API shows block 22,175,000 produced on 22 September 2026 and the chain past it by 27 September 2026; that the new rules took effect was not separately confirmed
Sources: ProvableHQ/snarkOS maintainers — snarkOS v4.10.0 release notes (external site) · Provable — Aleo mainnet latest block (Provable Explorer API) (external site) · Provable — Aleo mainnet block 22,175,000 (Provable Explorer API) (external site) · ProvableHQ/snarkOS maintainers — ProvableHQ/snarkOS releases (external site)
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Provable opened early access to Shield Swap on Aleo
Provable opened early access to Shield Swap, an exchange on Aleo that keeps trader identities and portfolios confidential while pool reserves, prices, trade sizes and fees stay public. It listed USDCx, wrapped Bitcoin, ETH, SOL and ALEO, and Provable expects a public launch in the fourth quarter of 2026.
- Implementation:early access open
- Release:public launch expected in Q4 2026
- Activation:early access at review
Sources: Aleo — Provable opens early access to Shield Swap on Aleo (external site) · Shield — Shield Swap (external site)
-
Aleo Stack v4.7.0 brought consensus version 15 and view-only program functions
Provable announced Aleo Stack v4.7.0, which carries consensus version 15 and requires validators and client nodes to upgrade before its activation height. Programs can now be deployed with view-only functions that read on-chain state. Node operators can stream finalize events, such as mapping updates and staking rewards, to outside services through a plugin framework, and the Aleo SDK caches proving material to speed up proving on the user's side. The snarkOS v4.7.0 mainnet release was published on GitHub on 28 May 2026.
- Implementation:shipped across snarkOS, snarkVM, Leo and the Aleo SDK per the post
- Release:mainnet release v4.7.0 published on GitHub 2026-05-28, followed by point releases up to v4.7.5 on 2026-06-23
- Activation:V15 mainnet height not confirmed here. Inference: later releases scheduled versions up to V20, so V15 is most likely active
Sources: Provable — Announcing Aleo Stack v4.7.0 (external site) · ProvableHQ/snarkOS maintainers — snarkOS v4.7.0 release (external site) · ProvableHQ/snarkOS maintainers — ProvableHQ/snarkOS releases (external site)
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Ledger Wallet added native Aleo support with private sends
Aleo announced, and Ledger confirmed on 18 May 2026, that Ledger Wallet desktop supports ALEO natively. Users install the Aleo app on the device, approve sharing a view key so the app can show the private balance, and send from either a public balance or a private record with confirmation on the device.
- Implementation:available in Ledger Wallet desktop 4.2.0 or later
- Release:announced by Aleo 2026-05-13 and by Ledger 2026-05-18
- Activation:available at announcement per Ledger; not tested in this review
Sources: Aleo — Aleo + Ledger: Shielded transactions, hardware-secured keys (external site) · Ledger — New in Ledger Wallet: Secure Private Transactions with Aleo (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Aleo through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No slashing or other stake penalty for validators was found; absence was not exhaustively verified.
- How the leader is picked each even round (for example whether it is weighted by stake) was not reviewed in the specification.
- Committee size and stake concentration come from one reading of Provable's public API; who controls each validator was not researched.
- The docs convert the 360-block unbonding wait at 25-second blocks, while observed blocks average about 3.2 seconds, so the real wall-clock wait should be checked.
- No rollup, validium, sidechain or channel network anchored to Aleo was found; web search was unavailable, so the search was limited to official docs, blogs and linked sites.
- No light-client protocol was found; how much a node re-checks a downloaded ledger snapshot was not reviewed.
- The security of the enclave-based delegated proving and record-scanning services was not independently reviewed.
- The date USDCx went live on mainnet was not confirmed; the December 2025 announcement covered testnet.
- USAD redemption terms and the Paxos Labs vault design were not reviewed beyond Aleo's page.
- Hyperlane's security settings for Aleo routes and the identities of Verulink's five attestors were not reviewed.
- AMM liquidity, audits and AlphaSwap's mainnet state were not verified; Shield Swap is in early access.
- Aleoscan refused automated access and was not reviewed.
- Algorithmic stablecoins and atomic-swap programs on Aleo were not reviewed.
- Ledger staking support for ALEO was not described in the reviewed posts.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Consensus (external site)
- Validators (external site)
- Provers (external site)
- Clients (external site)
- Architecture (external site)
- Run a Node: Validator (external site)
- Run a Node: Client (external site)
- Programs (external site)
- Transactions (external site)
- Transitions (external site)
- Record Scanning (external site)
- Wallets (external site)
- Getting Tokens: Crosschain (external site)
- Private Stablecoins (external site)
- Aleo USDCx Bridge: Integrator Manual (V2) (external site)
- Multisig (external site)
- AleoBFT: Explore Aleo's consensus layer (external site)
- Expanding the Aleo validator set: A step toward greater decentralization (external site)
- Aleo mainnet latest committee (Provable Explorer API) (external site)
- Aleo mainnet latest block (Provable Explorer API) (external site)
- snarkOS v4.10.0 release notes (external site)
- Leo guides: Upgradability (external site)
- Hyperlane registry: Aleo chain metadata (external site)
- xReserve overview (external site)
- xReserve supported blockchains and domains (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- USDCx on Aleo (external site)
- USAD (external site)
- Provable opens early access to Shield Swap on Aleo (external site)
- Shield Swap (external site)
- AlphaSwap (external site)
- Verulink (external site)
- Verulink x Predicate: Faster, safer cross-chain transfers (external site)
- Aleo Explorer by Provable (external site)
- Aleo Info Explorer (external site)
- New in Ledger Wallet: Secure Private Transactions with Aleo (external site)
- app-aleo: Aleo application for Ledger devices (external site)
- Aleo + Ledger: Shielded transactions, hardware-secured keys (external site)
- ALEO wallet (external site)
Report an error
Found something wrong or out of date? Reporting is free, and every chain goes through the same process. Published corrections appear in the public log.
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