📄️ What's Chromia?
Why choose between a traditional database and a blockchain when you can have the best of both worlds? The _Relational Blockchain_ is a new architecture that combines the power and flexibility of mature database systems with blockchain's disruptive potential. Chromia is a relational blockchain platform for decentralized applications (dapps).
📄️ Chromia architecture
Chromia's architecture is built around a relational database, making it a full-stack decentralized development platform. This means it provides all the necessary layers to build and deploy complete dapps, from front-end user interfaces to the underlying blockchain functionality.
📄️ Providers
Providers are the backbone of the Chromia ecosystem. A provider is a person or organization responsible for nodes, which are physical or virtual instances of computing power.
📄️ Nodes
A node is a machine that runs blockchains. Each node has its own PostgreSQL instance and runs the Postchain node process.
📄️ Decentralized application (dapp)
A dapp is an application that runs on a blockchain network. Its back end runs on nodes and it could also have a front end with a UI.
📄️ Key pair
Chromia uses public-key cryptography, a robust cryptographic system that employs a pair of public and private keys, to establish secure and trustworthy transactions on the blockchain. These key pairs are generated using cryptographic algorithms and serve multiple purposes, such as authentication, encryption, and digital signatures.
📄️ System chains
Chromia's innovative architecture employs multiple blockchains to achieve horizontal scalability, effectively distributing the network's workload. This approach ensures that each node only handles data relevant to its associated blockchains, reducing overall computational strain and enhancing scalability. The overall system comprises two primary types of blockchains: system blockchains and dapp blockchains.
📄️ Generic elements of the blockchain
You can visualize the structure of a Chromia blockchain with the help of the following diagram:
📄️ Consensus
Our consensus method is based on PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) protocol. It's our custom implementation from the ground up called eBFT, a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) protocol. In PoA, rights to generate new blocks are awarded to nodes that have proven their authority. These nodes are called validator nodes, and they validate transactions and blocks.
📄️ Cross-chain communication
Empowering seamless cross-chain communication is the Interchain Messaging Facility (ICMF), which is orchestrated by system providers and verified at the blockchain level. In parallel, the Interchain Confirmation Facility (ICCF) refines cross-cluster communication, enabling a single chain to validate transactions confirmed on another.
📄️ Staking
To encourage providers to secure their nodes, they must stake Chroma tokens representing the provider's stake in the Chromia economy. The stake is used as collateral and forfeited when the provider's nodes misbehave.
📄️ Hosting fees
Chromia offers a unique approach to resource management and fees that allows you to design user experiences on par with traditional Web2 applications. Instead of gas fees paid by users for every transaction, Chromia allows you to lease containers with a known amount of vCPU, RAM, storage, and I/O, similar to traditional cloud service providers without the drawbacks of centralization. You can pay manually or programmatically directly from the dapp, allowing you to design a fee structure and revenue model that makes sense for your dapp while still maintaining decentralization.
📄️ Glossary
Block