Canopy Network Docs
  • 👋Welcome to Canopy
    • Overview
    • What is Canopy?
      • Introduction
      • Why Canopy?
        • Blockchain 101
        • Background
        • Industry State
        • Seeding the Future
        • Comparables
          • Ethereum
          • Tendermint
          • Polkadot
          • Avalanche
          • Rollups
      • Core Features
        • Peer-To-Peer Security
        • Progressive Sovereignty
        • Capital Efficient Restaking
        • Composable Architecture
        • One-Way Interoperability
        • Built-In Liquidity
        • Chain Halt Rescue
        • NestBFT
          • PoS Is Trusted
          • PoAge Is Trustless
          • VRF Leader Election
        • Checkpoints as a Service
        • United Governance
      • Tokenomics
        • CNPY
        • Staking
        • DAO Treasury Fund
        • Recursive Rewards
        • Subsidies
      • Who is Canopy for?
        • New Blockchains
        • Existing Ecosystems
        • Token Participants
    • How does Canopy work?
      • Utility
      • Consensus
      • P2P
      • State Machine
      • Storage
      • Specifications
        • CLI
        • RPC
        • Config
        • Governance Params
        • Nested Chain IDs
  • ⚒️Build
    • Build a new L1
      • Introduction
      • Building
        • Application
        • Governance
        • Testing
        • Upgrading
      • Governance
        • Straw Polling
        • Proposals
    • Connect an external chain
      • Introduction
      • Building
        • Connecting
        • Testing
        • Upgrading
      • Governance
        • Straw Polling
  • 👨‍💻Node Runner
    • Setup
    • Install
    • Configure
    • Manage
    • Debug
    • Validate
      • Get CNPY
      • Plugins Config
      • Stake
      • Manage
      • Slashing
    • Govern
  • 💪Participate
    • How To Get CNPY
    • What to do with CNPY
      • Manage
      • Earn
      • Subsidize
      • Govern
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On this page
  • The problem
  • The reality
  • The future
  • This section
  1. Welcome to Canopy
  2. What is Canopy?

Introduction

PreviousWhat is Canopy?NextWhy Canopy?

Last updated 24 days ago

The problem

→ Web3 lacks a good way to launch new blockchains, leading to... → Too few security providers (Ethereum, Solana), resulting in... → Scalability bottlenecks, which force... → Compromised solutions like layered architecture (L2s, rollups)

Current options for the builder are rigid and constraining, forcing a choice between two bad paths:

Option A: Dependent Application

💡 L2s/dApps/Rollups ( Dependent Apps): are technologies built on top of a host protocol like an L1. These technologies are often marketed as decentralized though they are not sovereign and often have centralized components.

  • ✅ Low barrier

    • Economic: Host protocol handles capital lockup and security

    • Technical: Host protocol handles Consensus, P2P, and Persistence layers

    • Operation: Inherit the host's Validators

    • Ecosystem: Instantly a part of the host's community

  • ⚠️ A sub-optimal product:

    • Economic: Host protocol siphons value

    • Growth-Potential: Success-capped

    • Governance: Dependent on the host protocol

    • Trust: May be censored by non-stakeholders

    • Scalability: Limited by the host protocol

    • Freedom: Trapped in host - escape requires a rebuild

DApps are easy to build but Monolith chains don't scale, centralize security, and diversify through speculation only and lock in dApps.

Option B: Interoperable L1

💡Layer 1 ( L1 ): is an industry term used to describe the traditional blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum. Similarly, Layer 0 ( L0 ) is an industry term used to describe an L1 that hosts applications.

  • ⚠️ High barrier

    • Economic: Requires significant capital to be locked up to secure the network to avoid hostile takeovers

    • Technical: Requires deep understanding of Consensus, P2P, and Persistence layers to avoid execution failures

    • Operation: Requires diverse, experienced Validators to avoid centralization

    • Ecosystem: Requires interoperability features to avoid isolation

  • ✅ The optimal product:

    • Economic: Highest value capture

    • Growth-Potential: Historically best

    • Governance: Sovereign and self-governing

    • Trust: Can't be censored by non-stakeholders

    • Scalability: Scale independently

    • Freedom: Fully independent

And: The cold start problem is a significant challenge for L1s. To avoid takeover, they need high Total Locked Value (TLV), a diverse set of validator operators to ensure decentralization, and strong interconnection to prevent isolation. Beyond that - L1 technology is complex, making it difficult to build and maintain.

The reality

🟢 dApps are easy early on → It lowers technical, economic, and operational barriers 🔴 dApps trapped for life → It limits value capture, growth, and autonomy ⚠️ Achieving independence is expensive → Requiring a ground-up rebuild of the tech

There's no solution that bridges the lifecycle gap in this reality - preventing the technology from being widely adopted by builders.

Want to know more about the problem? Checkout Industry State


The future

🚀 A layerless future where blockchains can rely on their peers to bootstrap and scale.

Canopy is the first seed in a peer-to-peer security future, where chains recursively spawn new L0s, each receiving and providing security dynamically.

  • Chains no longer have to choose – sovereignty exist on a fluid spectrum

  • Security becomes an organic network, not a hierarchy

  • The barriers to independence are systematically removed

With Canopy, the era of rigid blockchain layers ends. Instead, chains grow like ecosystems - starting as sprouts that depend on their peers for security, then mature into sovereign networks, and seed the next generation.


This section

In the 'What is Canopy' section, you'll be taken from 0 → Masters in Canopy, including 'Why Canopy?' and an overview of the core features, tokenomics, and future vision.

Want to get technical right away? Checkout the How does Canopy work? section.

👋
Canopy's architecture = "layerless" future