Layer 1 blockchain
WAX ticker WAXP
Summary
WAX announced its mainnet release in July 2019. It runs WAX's build of the Antelope node software with delegated proof of stake. Holders stake WAX and vote for up to 30 guilds, WAX's name for block producers; the system contract is written to multiply each candidate's votes by a score from the Office of Inspector General's guilds contract when its weighting switch is on, puts the top-ranked guilds on the active schedule and pays a few more as standbys. Scheduled guilds take turns signing blocks every half second, and a block becomes irreversible after two rounds of confirmation by two-thirds of the scheduled guilds. A public API read on 2026-09-29 showed eight active guilds and the last irreversible block about 55 seconds behind the head; WAX announced in August 2026 a move from ten to seven active guilds. 1416171821222336
Design
- System
- Layer 1 blockchainWAX mainnet is an independent delegated proof-of-stake chain running WAX's own build of the Antelope node software (the line formerly called EOSIO); it does not post data to or settle on another chain. WAX's multichain bridge and Antelope IBC links are separate systems and are not described by these cells.
- Settlement family
- Its own design
- Scarce resource
- Stake (proof of stake)
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- Guilds on the active schedule, sorted by location and then name, produce blocks in turn, and a missed slot is skipped. The eosio account sets the number of active guilds between 1 and 21, one step at a time with a cooldown that defaults to one day, and the schedule is re-elected about once a minute from stake-weighted votes (a stake's vote weight doubles every 13 weeks), multiplied by guild scores when weighting is on. In Antelope's design the active producers jointly hold the authority over privileged system accounts, so they approve system contract upgrades.
- Fork choice
- No open weight-based chain selection. Only the guild scheduled for a slot may sign its block. Nodes keep competing branches of reversible blocks and switch branch only when another becomes preferred; the protocol prefers the branch containing the most recent last irreversible block, even over a longer branch, and otherwise the longer branch. WAX's published Spring-based software supports Savanna, a vote-based finality protocol, but a 2026-09-29 API read reported pre-Savanna node software (v5.0.3wax01) and a finality lag that fits the older rule.
Qualifications
- Settlement family · Partial. Recorded as other. WAX's own terms: the WAX Protocol Blockchain, running WAX's build of the Antelope node software (nodeos, formerly EOSIO) with WebAssembly smart contracts, human-readable named accounts with permission hierarchies, and a CPU, NET and RAM resource model with PowerUp.
- Finality · Partial. Recorded as other. WAX's own terms: the last irreversible block. A block becomes irreversible after two stages of confirmation, each by two-thirds of the active guild schedule, and is then never rolled back; no stake is slashed if guilds misbehave. On 2026-09-29 the last irreversible block trailed the head by about 55 seconds.
- Scarce resource · Partial. Stake decides who produces blocks: staked WAX weights votes for up to 30 guilds, and the system contract can multiply those votes by guild scores. No stake slashing was found in the reviewed sources; the whitepaper's penalties for guilds are lost rewards and the prospect of being voted out.
- Producer weighting · Partial. Votes may not be the only input to guild selection: the system contract is written to multiply each candidate's stake-weighted votes by a score read from the Office of Inspector General's guilds contract, and uses plain vote order when weighting is switched off or that contract's code hash is not on an allow-list; which of these applied at review was not read. The Office of Inspector General is a panel of three inspector generals that evaluates and rates guilds; how its published ratings become the contract's scores was not reviewed.
- Slashing · Not applicable. No stake slashing was found in the reviewed sources. The whitepaper says guilds that produce half or less of their scheduled blocks lose their rewards and that a guild signing two blocks at one height is likely to be voted out.
- Savanna finality · Not applicable. Savanna, the vote-based finality protocol in Antelope's Spring software, was not active on WAX mainnet at review: a public API node reported version v5.0.3wax01, a fork of Leap 5.0.3, and the last irreversible block trailed the head by 109 blocks on 2026-09-29. WAX has published Spring-based node releases, but no activation announcement was found.
- Transaction fees · Partial. WAX's docs describe transactions as feeless, and there is no per-transaction gas price. Accounts still need CPU and NET, either rented through PowerUp for a WAX fee or reserved by staking WAX, and must buy RAM for stored data.
- Tps · Contested. The only throughput figure is WAX's own 'up to' claim without a published method; it is kept in the classified claims list and is not an observed rate.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability
- Gives up
- Decentralization of block production: eight guilds made up the active schedule on 2026-09-29, and WAX announced a move to seven active and three standby guilds from September 2026. Guilds are elected by stake-weighted votes, which the system contract can multiply by scores from the Office of Inspector General's guilds contract, the active guilds jointly approve system contract upgrades, and a full node needs server-class hardware.WAX's docs call its delegated proof of stake fast, secure and energy-efficient. Security is not listed as an emphasis here because irreversibility rests on two-thirds of the elected guild schedule, eight guilds at review, behaving honestly, and no stake slashing was found in the reviewed sources; readers who weigh fast deterministic irreversibility as a security property may disagree. Vote concentration and guild operators were not verified.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 1322WAX's mainnet node guide, an example from the EOSphere guild described as valid in March 2024, lists 128 GB or more of RAM, a high-endurance enterprise SSD or NVMe of at least 384 GB for chain state, a 6 TB or larger disk for the block log (then 2.1 TB and growing), a 4 GHz 4-core CPU for block producers, a 100 Mb/s synchronous connection and a static public IP, and calls WAX's infrastructure requirement very heavy. Producing blocks needs election into the active schedule, which listed eight guilds on 2026-09-29.
- Throughput claims
- Theoretical peak: 10,000 tx/s 2Theoretical peak; not comparable across chains or with observed load.Stated as 'up to 10,000 transactions per second' on WAX's 'Why WAX?' documentation page.No measurement window, date range or workload statedProject-stated capacity with no published method, transaction mix, hardware or window; not an observed network rate. Real capacity depends on the chain's per-block CPU and NET limits and on each transaction's CPU cost, which vary by contract; neither was measured here. The same page describes transactions as feeless, while PowerUp charges WAX for temporary CPU and NET, so the page is treated as promotional rather than technical. The figure ignores state growth, block propagation and spam or decoy load.
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 | Built into the protocolLimited scope | Limited to exchanges on WAX itself. Antelope's transaction protocol lets one transaction carry actions authorized by several accounts, requires every listed authorization with its signatures, and applies all actions atomically, so two parties can both sign one transaction that moves both assets. This is an inference from the protocol documentation; no cross-chain hash- or time-locked swap was reviewed. The AtomicAssets contract separately offers two-sided NFT trade offers between named accounts. 61938 |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Unknown | No light client was found in the reviewed WAX or Antelope documentation. The node's light validation mode skips signature checks for blocks from producers the operator chooses to trust, which is a trust setting, not light verification. WAX's docs describe Antelope IBC for cross-chain transfers, but how it checks proofs was not reviewed. 318 |
| 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 or state channel network settling to WAX was found in the reviewed sources. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Accounts can host smart contracts, commonly written in C++ with WAX's contract toolkit, that define actions and tables. Every account's owner and active permissions can require a weighted threshold of keys and other accounts' permissions, and custom permissions can be linked to specific actions. 5720 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. Antelope authorities can include other accounts and time waits, and the owner permission is meant for recovery when a lower permission is compromised; that is control by the account's own authority, which the pending programmable account control row covers. Whether delayed user transactions, which a sender could cancel before they run, remain usable on WAX mainnet was not verified. 1920 |
| Rollups | Unknown | No rollup anchored to WAX was found in the reviewed sources. WAX's 2025 roadmap mentioned side chains only as planned My Cloud Wallet support, not as a layer anchored to WAX; no such layer was verified. 24 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. AtomicAssets trade offers are addressed to a named recipient account, and its documentation says marketplaces can build on them without taking ownership of listed assets; whether any WAX mechanism lets any taker complete a maker's offer in one transaction without escrow was not assessed. 3839 |
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 | ThinAlcor Exchange, Taco Swap, Defibox | Alcor's docs describe a concentrated-liquidity AMM alongside self-listed order books on WAX, and WAX's ecosystem page also lists Taco Swap and Defibox. DeFiLlama lists Alcor Exchange, Taco Studios, DefiBox and A-DEX on WAX, with little value locked by DeFiLlama's count at review. Operators, audits and liquidity depth were not reviewed. Alcor's own block producer file names bp.alcor as its guild account, and that account was on the active schedule on 2026-09-29. 1222252837 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | None found | Neither Circle's USDC address list nor Tether's supported-protocol list includes WAX. USDT on WAX is a wrapped token that Alcor bridges from the EOS network through IBC contracts. Tether says it no longer issues or is obliged to redeem USDT on EOS and lists that token, now under the network's current name Vaulta, among deprecated protocols. 26272930 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | No algorithmic stablecoin on WAX was reviewed. |
| Bridges | First-partyWAX NFT & Token Bridge (My Cloud Wallet), Alcor IBC bridge (third party) | WAX's own bridge, reached through My Cloud Wallet, moves NFTs and tokens between WAX and other chains; WAX's posts name Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Solana, Base and TON among them, and collection owners must enable NFT bridging. Alcor, a third party, bridges USDT from the EOS network to WAX with IBC contracts. Risk: WAX's bridge is run by WAX's team, and the reviewed pages publish no signer set, trust model or audit; the 2025 roadmap's plan to hand bridge operations to block producers and open-source its code was not verified as done. Alcor's USDT depends on its IBC contracts and on USDT held on EOS, which Tether no longer redeems. A wrapped asset is only as sound as the bridge that minted it. 324262730 |
| Block explorers | Established in the ecosystemWAXBlock, EOS Authority, WAX Items, Eoseyes | WAX's docs call WAXBlock the official WAX explorer, though its operator was not identified in the reviewed sources; WAX's ecosystem page also lists EOS Authority, WAX Items and Eoseyes. Listing is not a quality or completeness check, and explorer data is provider-indexed. 912 |
| Hardware wallets | ThinLedger (through Anchor desktop) | See custody rows: WAX's docs and Anchor's site route Ledger use through Greymass's Anchor desktop wallet with the Ledger EOS app, Ledger's published currency list has no WAX entry, and Trezor says Trezor Suite does not natively support WAX. 11313235 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Through an intermediaryAnchor desktop wallet (Greymass), signing with the Ledger EOS device appSame as native: Unknown | Can: Connect a Ledger running the EOS device app to the Anchor desktop wallet, which WAX's docs and Anchor's own WAX page describe as the Ledger route for WAX accounts Cannot: Find WAX in Ledger's published Ledger Wallet currency list (@ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0) Cannot: Use a Ledger on WAX through Anchor's browser version: Anchor's WAX page says the browser version does not serve WAX and names Anchor for desktop as the Ledger routeAnchor's site says the Ledger EOS app is the one Anchor uses on every network it supports, WAX included; Greymass's support guide is written for Antelope networks in general. Ledger's own pages were not checked for how the EOS app handles WAX. 101132333435 |
| Trezor | None foundSame as native: No | Can: Hold WAXP as a token on Ethereum: Trezor's WAX page lists Ethereum as the supported network Cannot: Manage WAX-chain accounts in Trezor Suite, which Trezor says does not natively support WAX Cannot: Sign WAX-chain transactions on the Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 that Trezor's WAX page names: Trezor's firmware support data lists signing for EOS-format transactions on the Model T onlyTrezor's page says a Trezor can be used with third-party wallets that support WAX and names MetaMask and Rabby, which handle the token on Ethereum; it names no wallet for the WAX chain itself, and WAX's wallet docs name no Trezor path. No wallet documenting a Model T path for WAX was found. 131 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for WAX 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: Reviewed Sep 29, 2026 Next review due Oct 9, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
-
WAX plans to cut active guilds from ten to seven and standbys from six to three
WAX said that from September 2026 the number of active block-producing guilds would fall from ten to seven and standby guilds from six to three, and that its enhanced API provider program would shrink to three lead infrastructure providers offering full Hyperion history, AtomicAssets and Light APIs, while every guild keeps providing chain RPC APIs. WAX gave cost pressure on operators as the reason and said Office of Inspector General seats are also being restructured.
- Proposal:announced plan
- Implementation:the system contract lets the eosio account change the active guild count one step at a time, with a cooldown that defaults to one day (feature listed in wax-3.2.0)
- Release:no software release; a parameter change
- Activation:incomplete or in progress: the 2026-09-29 schedule listed eight active guilds
Sources: WAX (wax-io.medium.com) — WAX.io blog feed (external site) · Greymass (public WAX API node) — WAX Chain API get_producer_schedule via wax.greymass.com (external site) · WAX (wax-system-contracts GitHub) — WAX extensions to eosio.system: architecture overview (external site) · AntelopeIO (docs GitHub repository) — Antelope Consensus Protocol (external site)
-
AtomicAssets v2 contract released and running on WAX mainnet
The AtomicAssets maintainers released version 2.0.0 of the AtomicAssets NFT contract, adding mutable templates, per-field schema media types, collection author succession, template maintenance actions and CPU reductions. It also ends new token backing: the backing action now always fails, while tokens already backed are still released when an asset is burned. The contract code hash read on WAX mainnet on 29 September 2026 matched the published v2.0.0 build.
- Implementation:released as v2.0.0 after five release candidates
- Release:GitHub release v2.0.0 published 2026-08-03
- Activation:live: the atomicassets account's code hash on 2026-09-29 equalled the v2.0.0 wasm hash
Sources: AtomicAssets (GitHub) — AtomicAssets v2.0.0 release (external site) · AtomicAssets (GitHub) — AtomicAssets CHANGELOG (external site) · Greymass (public WAX API node) — WAX Chain API get_code_hash (atomicassets) via wax.greymass.com (external site)
-
WAX Cloud Wallet adds a Vault signing session and phrase-based passkey recovery
WAX released a beta of its new Cloud Wallet (My Cloud Wallet) with a Vault window that keeps a signing session open, so repeated dApp requests do not each need a passkey confirmation, and with the ability to import the wallet's 12-word phrase to create a new passkey, either to recover after losing a device or to add a second device. The legacy wallet stayed live, and users could migrate when ready; a step-by-step migration guide followed on 23 March 2026.
- Implementation:released as a beta of the new wallet
- Release:live per WAX; legacy wallet kept
- Activation:WAX's current docs describe the passkey wallet as the latest version and cover migration; not tested here
Sources: WAX (wax-io.medium.com) — WAX.io blog feed (external site) · WAX Blockchain Documentation — My Cloud Wallet (external site) · WAX Blockchain Documentation — Migrate to the New My Cloud Wallet (external site)
-
System contract release adds weighted guild voting and a variable number of producers
WAX tagged system contract release wax-3.2.0, whose notes list an RNG stipend paid from inflation, standby guilds paid from the system contract, weighted producer voting and a variable number of producers. The repository's architecture notes describe the weighting as votes multiplied by a score from the guilds.oig contract, and the producer count as adjustable between 1 and 21, one step at a time with a cooldown that defaults to one day. A later tag, wax-3.3.0 (7 February 2026), changed the producer and savings inflation shares from 1 and 2 percent to 1.5 and 1.5 percent, minus the RNG stipend.
- Implementation:tagged in wax-system-contracts
- Release:GitHub releases wax-3.2.0 and wax-3.3.0 published, both marked as pre-releases; wax-3.2.2 (4 January 2026) is the only release in between marked as a full release
- Activation:not confirmed by code hash; the eight-guild schedule read on 2026-09-29 indicates that variable producer counts are active on mainnet (inference)
Sources: WAX (GitHub) — wax-system-contracts release wax-3.2.0 (external site) · WAX (GitHub) — wax-system-contracts release wax-3.3.0 (external site) · WAX (GitHub) — wax-system-contracts releases (external site) · WAX (wax-system-contracts GitHub) — WAX extensions to eosio.system: architecture overview (external site) · Greymass (public WAX API node) — WAX Chain API get_producer_schedule via wax.greymass.com (external site)
-
WAX published a Spring-based node release; the chain still used the older finality rule at review
WAX published 'WAX Spring Community Edition release 1.3.0wax01' in its wax-blockchain repository, which describes itself as a WAX port of Antelope Spring with support for Savanna consensus; a further WAX tag, ce-v1.3.1wax01, followed on 15 September 2026 without notes. A release is not an activation: on 29 September 2026 a public WAX API node reported version v5.0.3wax01 and a last irreversible block about 55 seconds behind the head, which fits the pre-Savanna rule.
- Implementation:node software released
- Release:GitHub release published; adoption by guilds not verified
- Activation:not activated at review (inference from a 2026-09-29 API read)
Sources: WAX (GitHub) — WAX Spring Community Edition release 1.3.0wax01 (external site) · WAX (GitHub) — wax-blockchain repository (external site) · WAX (GitHub) — wax-blockchain releases Atom feed (external site) · Greymass (public WAX API node) — WAX Chain API get_info via wax.greymass.com (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for WAX through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- No WAX announcement of a Savanna activation date was found; the pre-Savanna status rests on one public API node's version and finality lag read on 2026-09-29.
- Whether system contract tags wax-3.3.0 to wax-3.3.3 are deployed on mainnet was not verified; the reward split and election rules described follow the repository's documentation for tag wax-3.3.2.
- Current guild scores in the Office of Inspector General's guilds contract, and how the OIG's published guild ratings become those scores, were not reviewed.
- WAX's system contract repository records a new guilds contract build deployed on mainnet on 2026-09-29 at block 458,427,040; its documentation says a code hash missing from the allow-list silently switches elections to plain vote order, and whether the new hash was listed, or weighting switched on, was not read.
- Who operates each active guild account, their jurisdictions and vote concentration were not verified.
- WAX announced a move from ten to seven active guilds for September 2026; the 2026-09-29 schedule listed eight, so completion was not confirmed.
- The amount of WAX actually issued after PowerUp fees are netted against inflation was not measured, and the current PowerUp and staking resource split was not read.
- Anchor's site names the Ledger EOS device app for WAX; Ledger's own documentation for that app was not checked for WAX use.
- Where the new My Cloud Wallet stores its encrypted key package, and whether WAX can sign for accounts it manages, was not verified.
- The WAX bridge's signer set, trust model and audits were not found in the reviewed sources.
- How Antelope IBC contracts on WAX verify proofs was not reviewed; the IBC documentation site did not respond on 2026-09-29.
- No light client, rollup, payment or state channel, swap with other networks, reversible transfer or signed open offer was found; absence was not exhaustively verified.
- Whether delayed user transactions remain enabled on WAX mainnet was not verified.
- Node hardware figures come from a March 2024 example; the current block-log size was not measured.
- WAX's 2025 roadmap planned My Cloud Wallet support for side chains, a testnet and Ethereum Virtual Machine compatibility; whether any of this was delivered was not verified.
- WAXBlock's operator, and the audits and liquidity of Alcor, Taco Swap and Defibox, were not reviewed.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 29, 2026 Next check due Oct 29, 2026.
- Trezor firmware support data (common/defs/support.json, main branch): misc:EOS supported on the Model T only (external site)
- Why WAX? (external site)
- WAX: Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers (WAX Interoperability) (external site)
- PowerUp and Resources (external site)
- Permissions (external site)
- Transactions (external site)
- Smart Contracts (external site)
- libraries/chain/fork_database.cpp (wax-blockchain tag v5.0.3wax01): branches ordered by last irreversible block, then block number (external site)
- Claim My Cloud Wallet Account (external site)
- WAX Wallets (external site)
- Anchor (external site)
- WAX Ecosystem (external site)
- How to Set Up a Solid WAX Mainnet Node (external site)
- WAX Launches Blockchain Mainnet Purpose-Built for E-Commerce (17 July 2019) (external site)
- WAX Protocol White Paper (external site)
- WAX extensions to eosio.system: architecture overview (develop branch, describes tag wax-3.3.2) (external site)
- System contracts, system accounts, privileged accounts (external site)
- Antelope Consensus Protocol (external site)
- Antelope Transactions Protocol (external site)
- Antelope Accounts and Permissions (external site)
- WAX Chain API get_info via wax.greymass.com (read 2026-09-29 17:18 UTC) (external site)
- WAX Chain API get_producer_schedule via wax.greymass.com (read 2026-09-29) (external site)
- WAX.io blog feed (includes 'Streamlining WAX: Infrastructure for a Resilient Future', 17 Aug 2026) (external site)
- WAX.io publication feed (includes 'WAX Blockchain 2025 Roadmap: What's Next?', 16 Jan 2025, and the WAX NFT & Token Bridge post, which the feed dates 23 May 2024 alongside several older posts) (external site)
- What is Alcor Exchange? (external site)
- Alcor USDT: USDT on WAX provided by Alcor (external site)
- Alcor USDT Proxy: USDT transactions on WAX (external site)
- DeFiLlama protocols API (WAX entries: Alcor Exchange, Taco Studios, DefiBox, A-DEX, AtomicHub and others) (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- Keep Your WAX (WAXP) Safe with Trezor Wallet (external site)
- @ledgerhq/cryptoassets 13.56.0 currency list (external site)
- Connecting Ledger to Anchor (external site)
- Anchor with a Ledger (external site)
- Create a WAX account with Anchor (external site)
- WAX Guild Reports (waxguilds repository README) (external site)
- Alcor Block Producer bp.json (producer account bp.alcor) (external site)
- AtomicAssets contract README (external site)
- AtomicAssets wiki: Offers (external site)
- guilds.oig provenance row: final contract deployed 2026-09-29 (pull request 150) (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