Hierarchical Structure
Detailed specification of Qai Network’s hierarchical structure.
The Scaling Challenge
Traditional blockchains face an impossible choice: stay small and secure, or grow large and vulnerable. Qai’s hierarchical structure breaks this limitation.The Innovation: Imagine a tree where every branch processes transactions independently, but the trunk ensures all branches stay secure. That’s Qai’s hierarchical structure - multiple blockchain “branches” working in parallel while sharing the security of the entire “tree.”
How It Works
Three Levels of Organization:
Prime Chain (The Trunk): Coordinates the entire network
Region Chains (Main Branches): Organize geographical areas
Zone Chains (Leaves): Process your actual transactions
The Key Breakthrough:
Traditional sharding: Splits security (dangerous)
Qai’s approach: Splits only workload (safe)
Each zone processes transactions independently while maintaining the full security of the entire network through merged mining.
Why This Matters
For Users:
50,000+ TPS: Process more transactions than Visa
Sub-penny fees: Sustainable even at massive scale
5-second blocks: Near-instant transaction confirmation
Global scale: Ready for billions of users
For the Network:
Unlimited growth: Add new zones as demand increases
Maintained security: Every zone has full network protection
Optimized performance: Miners self-organize for best efficiency
The Security Innovation
Traditional Sharding Problem: When blockchains split into shards, each shard typically gets only a fraction of the security. A network with 10 shards might give each shard only 10% of total security - making them vulnerable to attacks.Qai’s Solution: Through merged mining, every transaction in every zone receives 100% of the network’s security. This maintains the full hash-based security guarantees while allowing unlimited parallel processing.
Self-Optimizing Performance
The Latency Problem: Network latency - the time it takes for data to travel between nodes - is the primary bottleneck in blockchain performance.Qai’s Unique Solution: Miners naturally organize themselves for optimal performance because:
Higher latency = Lower profits (more uncle blocks)
Miners choose their zone based on best connection
Result: Geographic self-organization without central planning
The Math Behind the Improvement:This relationship is described by t = pnlog_m(n) where:
t = time to propagation
p = ping time between nodes
n = number of nodes in the network
m = average number of connected peers
Real-World Example:
Bitcoin: 8 hops × 100ms ping = 800ms total propagation time
Qai zones: 3 hops × 10ms ping = 30ms total propagation time
Improvement: 25x faster data propagation
This self-organizing system creates naturally optimized regional networks without any central coordination.
Parallel Processing Power
Think of Qai as a multi-core processor for blockchains. Each zone chain operates like an independent CPU core, processing transactions in parallel while staying perfectly synchronized.How Chains Work Together:
Independent operation: Each zone produces blocks on its own schedule
Perfect coordination: Hash linked references keep all chains in sync
Atomic operations: Cross-chain transactions either complete fully or not at all
The Three-Tier Architecture:
Prime
1 (top)
100%
~20s
Region
2 (middle)
~33%
~10s
Zone
3 (bottom)
~11%
~5s
† Block production in Qai Network is a stochastic process, meaning that real-world block times will have minor variance. These times are calculated for a 2×2 network configuration (2 regions, 2 zones per region, 4 total zones).
Starting Simple: Single Shard Launch
Why Start with One? Qai Network launches with a single zone chain because adding unnecessary shards would:
Reduce aggregate security: Splitting hashrate when not needed
Increase settlement times: More complexity without benefit
Waste resources: Running infrastructure for unused capacity
Automatic Expansion Trigger: When sustained demand causes the uncle rate to exceed 20% for an extended period, the network automatically expands by adding new shards. This ensures optimal security and performance at every stage of growth.
Prime Chain: The Global Coordinator
Purpose: Acts as the network’s backbone, ensuring all regions stay synchronized (when multiple exist)
Security: Mined by 100% of network hashrate for maximum security
Function: Pure coordination - no transactions or accounts
Role: Becomes active when network expands beyond single shard
Region Chains: Geographic Organization
Purpose: Organize zones within geographical areas for optimal performance (activated during expansion)
Security: Each region gets ~1/N of total hashrate (where N = number of regions)
Function: Coordinate zone chains within their region
Activation: Created when network demand triggers expansion
Zone Chains: Where Transactions Happen
Purpose: The actual workhorses - processing all user transactions
Speed: 5-second average block times for near-instant confirmations
Function: The only chains that store accounts and process transactions
Initial state: Network launches with one zone chain
Expansion: Additional zones added based on demand
Each zone operates as an independent execution thread. As the network grows, this creates a truly multithreaded blockchain environment.
Cross-Chain Communication
The Innovation: Through coincident blocks, Quai creates natural bridges between all chains in the network. These hash linked references enable trustless cross-chain transactions without any additional infrastructure.How It Works:
Automatic creation: Merged mining naturally produces these connections
Zero overhead: No extra work required from miners
Trustless transfers: Move assets between chains without intermediaries
Atomic operations: Cross-chain transactions complete fully or not at all
This represents the first truly decentralized bridge between hash-based blockchains, enabling seamless interoperability across the entire network.
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