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Nexus presents itself as “the global supercomputer”. The ambitions of the L1 are fully displayed because it is transformed in its latest Testnet test before the launch of Mainnet, later scheduled for this year.
Anyone can join the network in a few clicks from any device, contributing to the computing power to help create what Nexus calls “a verifiable world”.
What is a “global supercomputer”, could you ask? This is a new approach, according to the CEO and founder Daniel Marin:
“The objective is to build the biggest computer system distributed of all time, and part of the reason why we do it is because we try to aggregate the computing power to build a blockchain with a new architecture,” Marin told Blockworks.
Nexus combines familiar ideas from other peak chains but incorporates them into a single layer 1 of opinion.
Like the MINA protocol, Nexus aims to condense all blockchain states into a single succinct proof – but while Mina uses recursive snacks for constant evidence, Nexus is based on her ZKVM based on RISC -V to manage much more complex workloads, including an AI inference. His choice of a RISC-V ZKVM recalls RISC Zero, allowing rust for general use to be provenly proven, but Nexus makes this virtual machine a native part of his chain, not just a layer of service. Ethereum himself can possibly go in this direction.
For data availability, the planned sampling approach of Nexus echoes the Modular Da model of Celestia, while its consensus will evolve from the current and commonly used (former trendy) comett to Hotstuff-2, which makes it similar to Aptos or Su. These consensus protocols provide a rapid purpose – in the case of Nexus, the coordination of the proven tasks distributed on a global scale.
Nexus then cooked in a decentralized calculation cloud directly in its L1, transforming each device connected into a part of a single verifiable computer built around a calculation machine (IVC). The virtual machine generates succinct evidence for each stage of calculation, integrates this evidence via the propagation of DAG style and includes them in a single universal proof. Nexus uses the Prover Stwo (Circle Stark).
It’s a lot of fashionable words, but TL; DR is this architecture theoretically allows horizontal scalability – each added node increases the network flow.
On the cryptography front, Nexus praises the involvement of heavyweight figures like Jens Groth and Michel Abdalla, strengthening his references in zero knowledge and the search for blockchain.
And that’s not the whole theory. Last week, Nexus activated his third and last testnet, and his Mainnet is targeted for Q3.
Nexus is more like 2.1 million unique users in its various time tests, saved by the detection of Sybil. About 4,000 accounts are active today, shows the Nexus block explorer.
For Marin, Nexus exists to get out of the blockchains “because it is impossible to create a significant application today”.
Marin said: “Our hypothesis from the start of the company is that coding on a blockchain or coding on a ZKVM should be indistinguishable from coding on your own computer.”
The protocol optimizes speed, not decentralization.
“We want to be decentralized in the long term, (but) we do not want to be decentralized at all at all, and in fact, roughly the opposite,” continued Marin. “It is therefore a bit of a philosophical take that will piss certain people.”
In the short term, the Nexus team targets quarterly versions, drawing for the fashionable objective of being infrastructure for the AI era.
“We want users to feel like” wow, we build the future. We are part of a community and a network, I can see other applications in the ecosystem, I can make quests and have fun “,” said Marin.
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