Layer 1 blockchain
Chia ticker XCH
Summary
Proof of space and time. Farmers store pre-computed plot files on disks; at each signage point (about every 9.375 seconds) they check which plots pass a filter and whether any proof of space qualifies to make a block. Timelords run a verifiable delay function (VDF), a sequential computation that proves real time has passed, and infuse winning blocks into the chain. XCH is not staked for consensus and there is no stake slashing. Difficulty targets about 32 blocks per 600-second sub-slot (one every 18.75 seconds on average); transaction blocks average about one every 52 seconds. 12345678
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchain
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Other
- State model
- UTXO
- Finality
- Probabilistic
- Who makes blocks
- Farmers whose plots produce a qualifying proof of space for a signage point. Pools can smooth rewards, but under the pooling protocol the farmer still chooses block contents. Timelords do not earn direct rewards; only the fastest timelord's proofs are used at any moment.
- Fork choice
- Nodes follow the heaviest chain (highest accumulated weight), a Nakamoto-style rule. Confidence grows as a block is buried; there is no finality checkpoint. The published analysis assumes a fast honest timelord; an attacker with a significantly faster timelord could attempt a long-range attack with less than 42.7% of netspace.
Qualifications
- Staking · Not applicable. XCH is not staked for block production; farming weight comes from plotted space, not XCH holdings.
- Slashing · Not applicable. Consensus has no stake slashing. The published analysis notes this removes both a participant penalty and an attack deterrent.
- Block interval · Partial. Two numbers apply: about 18.75 seconds per block on average, but only transaction blocks (about every 52 seconds on average) carry transactions.
- Finality time · Partial. Finality is probabilistic with no checkpoint, but Chia's consensus analysis gives waiting bands: about 6 blocks (about 2 minutes after the first confirmation) to be confident of no reorganization, and about 32 blocks (about 10 minutes) to be nearly certain against a deliberate attack on block contents. Both assume colluding attackers hold under 42.7% of the space and have no much faster timelord.
- Settlement family · Partial. Recorded as other: Chia's node software is its own codebase, validating blocks under Chia's proof-of-space-and-time consensus and coin spends whose puzzles run in CLVM.
- Scarce resource · Partial. Recorded as other. Chia's term is proof of space and time: farmers commit plotted disk space, and timelords run a verifiable delay function that proves real time has passed. XCH is not staked for consensus.
- State model · Partial. Recorded as utxo, the broader value. Chia's term is the coin set model: a coin is identified by its parent, puzzle hash and amount, and spending consumes coins and creates new ones under the conditions its puzzle outputs. It is related to UTXO, with its own puzzle and condition semantics.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Decentralization and Security
- Gives up
- On-chain throughput. Transaction blocks arrive about every 52 seconds on average with bounded block cost, so validation stays feasible on small home machines. Higher-volume use has to move off-chain, and today the only off-chain option is the early-beta gaming channels; payment channels are a stated plan, not a product.Security also depends on an honest timelord being the fastest: Chia's analysis assumes at least one fast honest timelord and an attacker timelord that is not significantly faster. Today the fastest timelords are ASICs built for Chia Network (live on mainnet since Oct 2023), with some shared with selected operators; open-source timelord hardware is a stated goal, not yet available. Farming concentration and timelord infrastructure are separate questions not measured here.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 6910111213Published minimum is a 64-bit quad-core CPU with 4 GB RAM; a Raspberry Pi 4 works with the database on an SSD. Initial sync is much heavier than normal operation, and the database could grow up to about 170 GB a year if every block were full. Farming costs more: each standard (k32) plot is at least 108 GB. Plotting runs on a CPU (about 4 GB RAM plus about 512 GB of temp SSD that wears out, or 416 GB RAM to plot in memory) or faster on an Nvidia GPU with 8 GB+ VRAM and 128-256 GB RAM. The planned Proof of Space 2.0 hard fork will require replotting and a Raspberry Pi 5 (8 GB) to farm.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
- Chia Gaming (state channels for two-player games) · State channels, beta 25262728
Two players lock funds in a 2-of-2 channel coin on Chia and exchange signed moves off-chain. If one cheats or disappears, the other forces the game on-chain, where a referee puzzle checks moves and a timeout counted in blocks releases funds. A hub handles matchmaking and relay but is not needed for on-chain settlement. Early beta (0.4.0-beta.1, 22 Sep 2026): Chia says bugs are still likely, formats and APIs can change, and it is for development and testing; desktop installers are unsigned. - Chia payment channels and routing (stated plan) · Payment channels, research 29
Chia Network's June 2026 gaming post calls the gaming code a proof of concept and lists multi-hop payment routing over the same channel design, extended to cross-asset atomic swaps, as the path forward. No released payment channel software, specification or improvement proposal was found, so there is no trust model to assess yet and nothing a home user can run today.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Spend bundles: coin spends from several parties can be combined into one spend bundle that is valid in full or not at all, so same-chain swaps between XCH and other Chia assets are atomic. Scope is limited to the same chain: cross-chain swaps using hash time locks were not verified from a current primary source. Offers, which also settle through spend bundles, are assessed under signed partial offers and not counted here. 15 |
| Authenticated data publication | Core-team softwareFull scope | DataLayer, published by Chia Network Inc. in the reference client: an owner publishes key/value data whose root hash is recorded in an on-chain singleton; others subscribe, retrieve the data from the owner or mirrors and check it with proofs of inclusion against that root, and new roots are discoverable on chain. Block validity does not require the data, so the retrieval software's publisher sets the value. It is not a general file-storage replacement and does not prove the data is true. 23 |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Proof of weight: light wallets check a compact proof of the header chain's weight, which consensus produces, instead of downloading all blocks. Scope is limited: finding a wallet's coins still means asking full nodes, with a stated privacy tradeoff, and the docs say the bounds analysis was incomplete as of Dec 2021. 24 |
| 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 | Partial (layer not stated) Earlier definition | Chia Gaming runs two-party state channels for games and is in early beta (see the scaling options in this profile). Chia Network lists payment routing over channels as a next step, but no payment or trade channel software or specification was found. 272829 |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Every coin is locked by a puzzle, a CLVM program (usually written in Chialisp) that outputs the conditions for its spend. This is coin-level programmability. 1416 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Core-team softwareFull scope | Part (a): Clawback, CHIP-0044 Clawback v2 (a Final CHIP), is a user-space standard that Chia Network's reference wallet (1.8.2+) implements, so a sender can claw back XCH during a set window. Part (b): Chia Cloud Wallet, from Chia Network Inc., adds vaults with a recovery path set up in advance and a configurable recovery timelock that the owner can cancel. Both cited implementations are Chia Network's. DIDs support configured recovery identities; they are not counted, because no citation shows a recovered DID controlling funds (§1). 1819202122 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No source was cited for absence, so under the rule that absence needs a source this is unknown rather than not present. Earlier finding: no rollup or validium anchored to Chia was found in reviewed sources (absence not exhaustively verified). Chia's channel work is listed separately, not as a rollup. |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Core-team softwareFull scope | Offer files: the maker signs one side of a trade, what they give and what they want, and any taker who completes the file makes both sides settle in one spend bundle in the same block, or not at all. No escrow or exchange holds the maker's coins, and editing the file invalidates it. The maker cancels a shared offer by spending the reserved coins, or an unshared one by deleting it. Settlement runs through a settlement puzzle in user-space code, so the standard is assessed by its implementations: the cited one is Chia Network's reference wallet. 1517 |
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 | Unknown | The note says other live AMMs were not exhaustively checked, so under the rule that absence needs a source this is unknown rather than not present. Earlier finding: TibetSwap, described by XCH.today as the leading Chia AMM, shut down after an Aug 2026 white-hat liquidity rescue, and the operator reports funds returned to liquidity providers on 16 Sep 2026; no other live AMM was verified; the Forge AMM is a proposal under review, tested on testnet by its author; and offer venues such as dexie list signed offers and are not AMMs, so AMM depth on Chia is thin today. Risk: A critical bug in TibetSwap's v2 puzzles, reported on 24 Aug 2026, put all live pools at risk; the team swept liquidity into a vault the same day. 30313233 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | ThinBytecash (BYC) via Circuit | Circuit is a Chia collateralized-debt protocol issuing Bytecash (BYC), a dollar-pegged stablecoin backed by XCH. Its on-chain treasury (about $1,000 in BYC) was drained in Aug 2026 and the team planned a relaunch. Bridged wUSDC from warp.green is not native. Risk: Small, recently exploited protocol; current operating status not verified. 31 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | No source was cited for absence, so under the rule that absence needs a source this is unknown rather than not present. Earlier finding: no algorithmic stablecoin with material usage was found on Chia in reviewed sources (absence not exhaustively verified). |
| Bridges | Thinwarp.green (Chia to Ethereum and Base) | warp.green is a messaging protocol, in beta per its docs, with ERC-20 and CAT bridge apps between Chia, Ethereum and Base, secured by a 6-of-10 validator set drawn from Chia ecosystem teams. Risk: Trusted-validator bridge: any six of the ten validators signing together can approve a message. Its Chia-side ERC-20 bridge was exploited for about $93k on 23 Aug 2026 and paused; warp.green said on 24 Sep 2026 it sent USDC to restore backing (attributed, not independently verified). Relaunch status unverified. 31343536 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemSpacescan, XCHscan, Coinset | Three independent explorers verified; Chia docs link Spacescan for block pages. Count is not a quality score, and each shows its own indexer's view. 53738 |
| Hardware wallets | First-partyChia Signer app, Tangem | Chia Network's own path is Chia Signer, a phone app that keeps keys in the phone's secure hardware, or a passkey such as a YubiKey in Chia Cloud Wallet vaults. Tangem, an NFC-card hardware wallet, lists Chia as supported; which Chia features it covers was not verified. Trezor says it does not support Chia and no Ledger path was confirmed (see the custody rows), so dedicated hardware-wallet options are thin. 212240 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | UnknownSame as native: Unknown | No primary source was found for a native Chia Ledger app or for using Ledger through Chia Cloud Wallet. The Cloud Wallet key-type docs list phone app keys, recovery phrases, passkeys (for example a YubiKey), other vaults and a coming-soon recovery provider, with recovery timers the owner can cancel, but do not name Ledger. 2122 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Hold or sign XCH with Trezor's own software; Trezor states it does not currently support Chia.Trezor's coin page says it does not currently support Chia and names no third-party route. Whether a Trezor could act as a passkey signer in Chia Cloud Wallet was not verified. 39 |
Public data
Your AI can request these lookups through the connection. The website itself runs no lookups. Networks: mainnet, testnet11.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Available | one page of unspent coins at one xch1 (mainnet) or txch1 (Testnet11) address from Coinset |
| Tokens and assets | Available | bounded CAT balances or NFT launcher and current coin IDs at one address from Coinset |
| NFTs | Not available yet | ikb_lookup_nfts does not cover Chia; use ikb_lookup_address_assets kind=nft for launcher IDs and ikb_chia_get_nft_metadata (mainnet, MintGarden) for metadata references. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Not implemented in this build |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 26, 2026; next review was due Oct 6, 2026.
Publication date · newest first
-
Chia 2.7.4 released with security hardening and hard-fork readiness
Protocol/reference-client release: Chia 2.7.4 added security, node, wallet, mempool, DataLayer and GUI changes. It also shipped hard-fork-ready plot, harvester, cost and pooling code; the publisher says those rules activate only with the later hard fork, so this release is not evidence of consensus activation.
- Claim:Released
Sources: Chia Network Inc. — Chia 2.7.4 (external site) · Chia Network Inc. — chia-blockchain 2.7.4 release (external site)
-
Chia 2.7.3 released with wallet and GUI fixes
Protocol/reference-client release: Chia 2.7.3 added a read-only WalletConnect confirmation exception and fixed Plot NFT key assignment, Linux confirmation dialogs, log viewing and NFT offer confirmation. This client release is not evidence of a consensus-rule activation.
- Claim:Released
Sources: Chia Network Inc. — Chia 2.7.3 (external site) · Chia Network Inc. — chia-blockchain 2.7.3 release (external site)
-
Chia 2.7.2 released with security and pre-3.0 features
Protocol/reference-client release: Chia 2.7.2 continued security hardening and added Weight Proof v2, PlotNFT v2 drivers, Python 3.14 support and new RPCs. The publisher described some features as intended for use after the Chia 3.0 fork; this record does not claim they were activated.
- Claim:Released
Sources: Chia Network Inc. — Chia 2.7.2 (external site) · Chia Network Inc. — chia-blockchain 2.7.2 release (external site)
-
Chia Network announced BuyXCH personal spending limits
CNI product announcement, not a consensus change: Chia Network announced personal spending-limit updates for BuyXCH. This record does not establish current product availability, regional eligibility, pricing or transaction status.
- Claim:Announced
Source: Chia Network Inc. — BuyXCH Personal Limits (external site)
-
Chia Network announced the Permuto Volatility Cup
Ecosystem-project announcement, not a consensus change: Chia Network reported that Permuto launched its statistical-volatility perpetuals production platform on Chia. The announcement does not independently verify continued service availability, eligibility, market claims or project safety.
- Claim:Reported
Source: Chia Network Inc. — Welcome to the Permuto Volatility Cup (external site)
-
Chia 2.7.1 security release published
Protocol/reference-client release: Chia Network urged immediate installation of 2.7.1 as the next security-hardening release after 2.6.x and 2.7.0. The publisher reported no known mainnet exploitation at publication; this is an attributed statement, not independent incident verification.
- Claim:Released
Sources: Chia Network Inc. — Chia 2.7.1 is Out, Upgrade Now (external site) · Chia Network Inc. — chia-blockchain 2.7.1 release (external site)
-
Chia published a Proof of Space 2.0 community Q&A
Protocol roadmap communication, not activation: Chia described the proposed Proof of Space 2.0 design, CHIP-48 and CHIP-49, replotting and a transition plan. The described schedule and parameters are historical publisher statements; this record does not establish mainnet activation or final parameters.
- Claim:Announced
Source: Chia Network Inc. — Proof of Space 2.0: Community Q&A Summary (external site)
-
Chia 2.7.0 security and soft-fork client released
Protocol/reference-client release: Chia 2.7.0 shipped security hardening and soft-fork code that the publisher targeted for block 8,655,000 around April 29–30, 2026. A release and scheduled height do not prove observed activation; this record makes no activation claim.
- Claim:Released
Sources: Chia Network Inc. — Chia 2.7.0: Combatting the AI Siege (external site) · Chia Network Inc. — chia-blockchain 2.7.0 release (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Chia through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- Ledger: using a Ledger through Chia Cloud Wallet as an intermediary (not the same as native support) still has no primary source. Chia Network's September 2023 roadmap post said vaults would add a Ledger as an extra signing device and expected it in Q1 2024, but the Cloud Wallet key-type docs, product page and general-release post reviewed 2026-09-27 do not name Ledger, and Ledger's own wallet code has no Chia network, so the plan is not treated as shipped and status stays unknown.
- Trezor: Trezor's coin page says Chia is unsupported. Whether a Trezor could serve as a passkey signer in Chia Cloud Wallet was not verified.
- Hardware wallets through EIP-712 signing: a community design would let Ethereum hardware-wallet apps sign Chia spends (EIP-712 typed data, using the keccak256 operator Chia activated in 2025). No shipping wallet using it with Ledger or Trezor was verified.
- Tangem lists Chia as a supported network; which Chia features it covers (CATs, NFTs, Offers) was not verified.
- Spacescan's site blocked automated fetch, so it is sourced through Chia docs links to its block pages.
- Trade channels and general-purpose state channels beyond games were not found in any primary source. Payment channels appear only as a stated plan (multi-hop routing) in Chia Network's June 2026 gaming post; no code, specification or improvement proposal was found.
- Chia Gaming's timeout length per game was not checked; only the mechanism (a relative block-height timeout in the referee puzzle) was verified.
- No primary-source transactions-per-second figure was used, so this profile makes no throughput claim by design. Block cost limits were not summarized.
- Cross-chain atomic swaps using hash time locks on Chia were not verified from a current primary source. An independent open-source tool, chiaswap, describes trustless XCH to Bitcoin Lightning swaps using a puzzle that pays on a hash preimage or refunds after a timeout, but its maintenance status and mainnet use were not verified, so it is not shown live and the atomic swap entry is limited to same-chain spend bundles.
- No live AMM on Chia was verified after TibetSwap's shutdown; dexie swap features and other venues were not reviewed, and AMM liquidity depth was not measured.
- Circuit/BYC and warp.green current operating status after the Aug 2026 incidents is unverified; the warp.green restoration is an attributed X post that could not be fetched (HTTP 402).
- Proof of Space 2.0 (the 3.0 hard fork) is planned, not activated. Chia's FAQ (updated 3 Mar 2026) lists block 9,562,000, expected Nov 2026, then a 256-day replotting transition with the last old-format block around 10,741,648 (June or July 2027); reference-wallet and node users must upgrade to 3.0 first. The 2.7.4 post (10 Sep 2026) says the final height will be set in the 3.0 release, with activation several months after it, and 3.0 was not yet released on 27 Sep 2026, so the schedule may slip.
- Proof of Space 2.0 plotting costs: the FAQ estimates about 12 GB of GPU memory, or at most 16 GB of RAM on a CPU, for new-format plots; these are estimates, and the plotting figures in this profile describe today's format.
- Farming, timelord and netspace concentration are not measured in this profile.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Consensus Introduction (external site)
- Consensus analysis (external site)
- Chia Green Paper abstract (external site)
- Signage and Infusion Points (external site)
- Challenges (consensus chains) (external site)
- Block Validation (external site)
- Timelords (architecture) (external site)
- Pools (architecture) (external site)
- Installation: system requirements (external site)
- Coin set vs account model (external site)
- Plotting Hardware (external site)
- Proof of Space 2.0 FAQ (external site)
- Chia 2.7.4 (external site)
- Coin Set Intro (external site)
- Spend bundles (external site)
- CLVM vs EVM (external site)
- Chialisp: Offers (external site)
- Clawback User Guide (external site)
- CHIP-0044: Clawback Standard v2 (external site)
- Chialisp: DIDs (external site)
- Chia Cloud Wallet: tooltips and key types (external site)
- Chia Cloud Wallet FAQ (external site)
- DataLayer User Guide (external site)
- Light Clients (external site)
- chia-gaming on-chain referee puzzle (referee.clsp, commit a6170b7) (external site)
- chia-gaming releases (0.4.0-beta.1) (external site)
- Chia Gaming Developers Guide (external site)
- Chia Gaming Architecture (external site)
- Coin Set Gaming: Adaptable. Scalable. Peer-to-Peer. (external site)
- TibetSwap (external site)
- A Difficult Week for Chia DeFi: warp.green, TibetSwap, and Circuit (external site)
- CHIP-0062: The Forge: Weighted N-Asset AMM (pull request; CHIP status Review) (external site)
- dexie: Chia Offers (external site)
- warp.green documentation (external site)
- warp.green (external site)
- USDC sent to ERC-20 bridge contracts to restore backing (X post, 24 Sep 2026) (external site)
- XCHscan (external site)
- Coinset (external site)
- Chia wallet support (Trezor coin page) (external site)
- Chia (XCH): price, overview and secure storage (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