Layer 1 blockchain
Nervos CKB ticker CKB
Summary
Proof of work with the Eaglesong hash function under NC-Max, a variant of Nakamoto consensus. Transactions are confirmed in two steps: a short transaction id is first proposed in a block, and the full transaction may only be committed 2 to 10 blocks later, so blocks can propagate before every node has every transaction. Difficulty is reset each epoch (about four hours) to hold the orphan (uncle) rate near 2.5%, so the block interval floats, currently within a documented 8 to 48 second range. State lives in cells, a generalized form of unspent outputs, guarded by lock and type scripts that run on CKB-VM, a RISC-V virtual machine. 12456161830
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainNervos CKB (Common Knowledge Base) is the proof-of-work base layer of the Nervos Network, running its own consensus since mainnet launch on 16 November 2019. Layers built on it (Fiber channels, the Godwoken rollup, RGB++ asset bindings) are described separately with their own trust assumptions.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Work (proof of work)
- State model
- UTXO
- Finality
- Probabilistic
- Who makes blocks
- Miners, mostly through pools (the official docs list seven CKB pools), find blocks by proof of work. A miner earns base issuance plus a share of secondary issuance, 40% of the fees of transactions it proposes and 60% of the fees of transactions it commits; nodes independently check every block.
- Fork choice
- Nodes follow the valid chain with the most accumulated work. Uncle blocks are referenced and counted when difficulty is recalculated, which the NC-Max design uses to make selfish mining unprofitable across a wide range of parameters. Confirmation confidence grows with depth; no depth is mathematically final.
Qualifications
- State model · Partial. Cells are a generalized form of unspent outputs: each cell is consumed whole and replaced, but it can also hold arbitrary data and an optional type script that enforces state-transition rules. It is grouped with output-based chains here, with that difference noted.
- Block interval · Partial. There is no fixed block time. Difficulty is tuned each epoch to a target orphan rate, and the mining docs give a current adjustment range of 8 to 48 seconds per block.
- Tps · Unknown. No sourced and classified transaction-rate figure was found. A project docs page claims a relative throughput figure without a stated method or measurement window, so it is not used.
- Settlement family · Partial. CKB is an independent proof-of-work network with its own hash function (Eaglesong), virtual machine (CKB-VM), code base and cell model, so its settlement family is recorded as other.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Decentralization and Security
- Gives up
- Base-layer throughput and convenience. Blocks are capped at 597,000 bytes, a transaction waits at least two blocks between proposal and commitment, and every byte of stored state must be backed by one locked CKB, so storing data is costly and fast or high-volume use is pushed to layers such as Fiber payment channels, whose software is still maturing.The project describes its base layer as prioritising decentralization and security by design. Mining-pool concentration, Eaglesong mining-hardware concentration and the number of reachable full nodes were not measured in this review, so that self-description is not independently confirmed here.
- Full node at home
- Practical at home 781937The official node overview (as of May 2025) recommends 2 CPU cores, 8 GB RAM and at least 150 GB of disk (SSD strongly recommended) for a mainnet full node; first sync from genesis can take several days. Each node release ships a default assumed-valid block, and Neuron release notes say blocks before it are skipped in validation, which speeds sync but means a new node trusts that older history was already checked unless the operator changes the setting. A light client needs under 100 MB of disk and 2 GB RAM.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
- Fiber Network · Payment channels, mainnet 2021222324
Two-party payment channels, funded and settled on CKB. Payments use hash-locked, time-limited contracts (sha256 hashes are supported for interoperation with Lightning); an outdated channel state can be punished through a revocation path, and a watchtower can watch the chain on behalf of a user who is offline. The reference node ships a mainnet configuration, but its README says the implementation is still a work in progress and should be used with caution; the latest stable release is 0.9.1 (11 September 2026), and a 0.10 release candidate was published on 25 September 2026. - Godwoken (optimistic rollup, EVM) · Rollup, status unknown 252627
Godwoken's documentation describes an EVM-compatible optimistic rollup whose layer-1 contracts on CKB check state transitions. Its public status page showed the mainnet service in partial outage on 2026-09-27, and its main code repository was last changed in January 2024, so whether it is maintained or usable today is unknown. Its operators, challenge period and withdrawal path were not reviewed.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Core-team softwareLimited scope | Core-team software, limited: Fiber, from the Nervos Network organisation, ships a mainnet configuration and stable release 0.9.1 (11 September 2026), and advertises swaps across its own channels and with Lightning using its commitment lock's hash-locked, time-limited contracts (blake2b or sha256). Limits: its README calls it a work in progress, and no standard on-chain cross-chain swap tooling for CKB itself was verified. Lock scripts can also combine a hash preimage with the since time-lock field, and RGB++ docs describe a BTC-for-token trade built from linked Bitcoin and CKB transactions. 121520212223 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Protocol, limited: the official light client (RFC 0044, based on the FlyClient design) samples a logarithmic number of block headers against a Merkle Mountain Range commitment and fetches only the user's own cells; bundled with the Neuron wallet, it became active on mainnet in version 0.111.1 (8 November 2023). The limit: Neuron says time-locked or cheque transactions still need a full node. As with any light client, the node docs say it relies on full nodes for transaction validation. 791737 |
| 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 | Ecosystem software (publisher not distinguished) Earlier definition | Fiber Network payment channels run through separate node software maintained under the nervosnetwork organisation, settling on CKB. Its channel trust model is described in this profile's layer list. 2021 |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Every cell has a lock script (who may spend it) and an optional type script (how its data may change), compiled to RISC-V and run in CKB-VM; scripts can read the transaction's input and output cells through system calls. This is output-based verification, not an account VM with shared contract storage. 2314 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; a time-lock script for vesting, delayed payments and time-bound escrow is a building block, and no cited source shows a sender-reclaim or recovery implementation live. Omnilock's optional administrator mode lets a named administrator revoke tokens held under that lock; that is administrator control over holders, not recovery for them. The network cannot reverse a confirmed payment. 1011 |
| Rollups | Partial (layer not stated) Earlier definition | Godwoken, an EVM-compatible optimistic rollup on CKB, has a mainnet service, but its status page showed a partial outage at review and its code has not changed since January 2024. No other rollup anchored to CKB was verified. 252627 |
| 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 | ThinUTXOSwap | UTXOSwap, listed as a DEX in the official docs' project directory, shows a banner saying it will shut down on 11 October 2026 and asking liquidity providers to withdraw. The same directory also tags HueHub, Omiga and Dobby market as exchanges; HueHub returned a service-unavailable error at review, and none of the three was verified as a working AMM. No replacement AMM was verified. 3031 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Neither Circle's USDC address list nor Tether's supported-protocols page mentions Nervos or CKB. Stable++, a project listed in the official docs, is covered under the algorithmic row because its mechanism could not be verified. 3334 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | UnknownStable++ | Stable++ describes itself only as built on RGB++ and powered by Nervos; its site renders client-side and its documentation could not be reached, so its collateral design, issuer and usage are unknown. 3032 |
| Bridges | ThinRGB++ (Bitcoin to CKB binding), Force Bridge | RGB++ binds Bitcoin outputs to CKB cells so assets can move (leap) between the two chains; JoyID supports this. Force Bridge, a committee-run bridge listed in the docs, had an inactive repository (last change July 2023) and its public site redirected to a hosting login page at review. Risk: RGB++ relies on a Bitcoin light client maintained on CKB and on CKB's own consensus; its security analysis was not reviewed. Force Bridge's own README says users must trust the committee that runs it, and it appears unmaintained. 1228293035 |
| Block explorers | First-partyCKB Explorer (explorer.nervos.org) | The official docs name explorer.nervos.org as the mainnet explorer; its frontend and server code are open source. Only one explorer was verified, and the live site blocked automated fetches at review. 1336 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (through Neuron) | See custody rows: Ledger's app catalogue lists a Nervos device app whose named companion wallet is Neuron, so Ledger signing works through the Neuron desktop wallet, a feature Neuron labelled experimental when it was added; Trezor says it does not support Nervos Network. The docs' wallet list also names imKey, OneKey and SafePal, which were not verified. 30373940 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryNeuron (Nervos full-node desktop wallet)Same as native: No | Can: Install the Nervos app on a Ledger device: Ledger's app catalogue lists it (latest version 0.6.3, August 2026) and names Neuron as its compatible wallet Can: Sign CKB transactions with a Ledger device through Neuron, which has offered Ledger support since version 0.35.0 (January 2021) Can: Verify receiving addresses on the device screen from Neuron Cannot: Manage CKB inside Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live): Ledger's catalogue names only Neuron as the companion wallet, and Ledger coin-page addresses for Nervos returned not foundKeys stay on the device and signing happens on the device, but the only documented companion wallet is Neuron, which labelled Ledger support experimental. The device app's repository under LedgerHQ still carries an older warning against mainnet use and says the app is not yet in Ledger Live, which conflicts with Ledger's current catalogue listing. 30373839 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Cannot: Hold or sign CKB with a Trezor device: Trezor's Nervos Network page says it does not currently support the asset 40 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Nervos CKB 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
-
CKB node v0.210.0 released with no consensus change; node releases since v0.208.0 use a new signing key
Version 0.210.0 of the CKB full node was published on 17 September 2026. Its release note calls it a regular minor release: it lists no new features, keeps mainnet on the ckb2023 rules active since epoch 12,293 with v0.200.0 as the oldest compatible version, updates the default assumed-valid blocks for mainnet and testnet, and says CentOS binaries will stop being provided at a later date. The substantive changes an operator picks up when upgrading from v0.207.0 or older came in two July releases: v0.208.0 (15 July) added the block hash to live-cell RPC responses and switched to a new release signing key, and v0.209.0 (29 July) replaced the Tor library with the node's own implementation, stopped unbounded memory growth in logging and relay queues, and added bearer-token authentication for the miner notify mode.
- Implementation:Released
- Release:v0.210.0 published 2026-09-17; preceded by v0.208.0 (2026-07-15) and v0.209.0 (2026-07-29)
- Activation:not a consensus change; takes effect for each operator on install
Sources: Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB v0.210.0 (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB v0.209.0 (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB v0.208.0 (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB release integrity check (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB releases (external site)
-
Fiber Network v0.9.0 focuses on reliability and security
The Fiber reference node added a database migration system, backup and restore, on-chain settlement of pending payments after a channel is force-closed, and routing, watchtower and recovery improvements, with broad input-validation and resource-exhaustion hardening. A follow-up v0.9.1 on 2026-09-11 fixed settlement edge cases.
- Implementation:Released
- Release:v0.9.0 published 2026-08-06; v0.9.1 published 2026-09-11
- Activation:not a CKB consensus change
Sources: Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/fiber) — Fiber v0.9.0 (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/fiber) — Fiber releases (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/fiber) — Fiber Network Node (external site)
-
Neuron v0.204.0 bundles CKB node v0.204.0 and light client v0.5.4
The official desktop wallet updated its bundled full node to CKB v0.204.0 and its bundled light client to v0.5.4, and moved its assumed-valid block forward. The release notes warn that the app identifier changed, so automatic updates may fail.
- Implementation:Released
- Release:v0.204.0 published 2026-01-12; v0.204.1 followed on 2026-04-10
- Activation:available to users
Sources: Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/neuron) — Neuron v0.204.0 (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/neuron) — Neuron CHANGELOG (external site)
-
CKB node v0.204.0 adds proxy and Tor onion support
The CKB full node release added support for routing peer connections through a proxy and for running as a Tor onion service, along with asynchronous relay messaging and compression improvements. It is not a consensus change.
- Implementation:Released
- Release:v0.204.0 published 2025-12-15
- Activation:not a consensus change; opt-in configuration
Sources: Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB v0.204.0 (external site) · Nervos Network (nervosnetwork/ckb) — CKB CHANGELOG (external site) · Nervos Network docs — Run a Node Over Tor (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Nervos CKB through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No throughput figure is listed; no primary-source rate with a stated method or window was found.
- Mining-pool and hashrate concentration, and the number of reachable full nodes, were not measured.
- nervos.org and explorer.nervos.org refused automated requests (too many requests), so the foundation's own site, blog and ecosystem pages were not read.
- Godwoken's current operator, challenge period, withdrawal path and whether it will be maintained are unknown.
- Axon (an appchain framework whose repository was last changed in January 2024) was not assessed; Perun channels and UTXO Stack, which the docs' project list includes, were not assessed either, and the UTXO Stack site showed a disabled deployment.
- Stable++ collateral design, issuer and usage could not be verified; no other stablecoin on CKB was reviewed.
- Whether any AMM remains after UTXOSwap's announced shutdown on 11 October 2026 was not verified.
- Ledger's catalogue data lists a Nervos device app, but no human-readable Ledger page listing Nervos could be read (coin pages returned not found and the support article linked from the catalogue did not render); hardware wallets named in the docs (imKey, OneKey, SafePal) were not verified.
- Security of the RGB++ Bitcoin light client on CKB and of the Fiber-to-Lightning swap service was not reviewed.
- Several third-party links in the official project list (a bridge and a wallet) now point to unrelated or compromised sites; the list was not otherwise audited.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Consensus (external site)
- Cell Model (external site)
- CKB vs. BTC (external site)
- Extreme Decentralization (external site)
- Algorithm and Difficulty Adjustment (external site)
- Rewards (external site)
- Node Overview (external site)
- Run a Mainnet Node (external site)
- Run a Light Client Node (external site)
- Time Lock (external site)
- Omnilock Script (external site)
- RGB++ Protocol (external site)
- CKB Networks (external site)
- RFC 0003: CKB-VM (external site)
- RFC 0017: Transaction Since Precondition (external site)
- RFC 0020: CKB Consensus Protocol (external site)
- RFC 0044: CKB Light Client Protocol (external site)
- NC-Max: Breaking the Security-Performance Tradeoff in Nakamoto Consensus (external site)
- CKB v0.210.0 release (compatibility table and default assume-valid target) (external site)
- Fiber Network Node (external site)
- Fiber mainnet configuration (external site)
- Fiber commitment-lock script (external site)
- Fiber v0.9.1 release (external site)
- Fiber releases (external site)
- Get Started with Godwoken (external site)
- Godwoken Status (external site)
- Godwoken monorepo (external site)
- Force Bridge (external site)
- RGB++ Protocol Light Paper (external site)
- Ecosystem projects list (source of docs.nervos.org/docs/ecosystem/projects) (external site)
- UTXOSwap (external site)
- Stable++ (external site)
- USDC Contract Addresses (external site)
- Supported Protocols (external site)
- JoyID (external site)
- CKB Explorer Frontend (external site)
- Neuron CHANGELOG (external site)
- Nervos application for Ledger devices (app-nervos) (external site)
- Ledger Live app catalogue data (Nervos app entry, compatible wallet: Neuron) (external site)
- Nervos Network on Trezor (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