What is Pharos?

Pharos is a next-generation Layer-1 blockchain network that aims to bring real-world financial needs together with blockchain infrastructure. It is EVM-compatible, high-performance, and offers enterprise-grade compliance. With its modular architecture, deep parallel execution structure, and built-in compliance layer, Pharos aims to provide an inclusive financial infrastructure that appeals not only to the crypto ecosystem but also to traditional finance and institutional asset markets.

Founded by former Ant Group executives, Pharos centers its vision on “open yet regulation-compliant” finance, targeting the convergence of real-world assets (RWA), stablecoins, institutional financial products, and Web3 applications on a single chain.

Pharos Core Vision: Open, Real, and Inclusive Finance

Pharos starts from the problem that existing blockchain networks fail to provide sufficient performance, compliance, and user experience for large-scale financial use cases. While many networks claim high TPS figures in theory, they struggle to sustainably deliver that performance under real-world conditions.

Pharos aims to solve this issue not by optimizing a single layer, but through a holistic approach that addresses consensus, execution, storage, and network architecture together.

In line with this approach, the network aims to enable:

• Real-time payments
• Enterprise-grade asset tokenization
• Compliant DeFi and CeFi integrations
• Web2-scale user experience

all on the same infrastructure.

What Does Pharos Promise?

Pharos positions itself not merely as a Layer-1 blockchain, but as a comprehensive financial network that aims to bring institutional finance and the decentralized world together on the same infrastructure. By simultaneously delivering performance, compliance, and scalability, this structure targets to fill a critical gap for the mass adoption of Web3.

In this regard, Pharos stands out not just as a technical innovation, but as an ambitious infrastructure attempt for the future of global finance.

Modular and Parallel Layer-1 Architecture

Pharos is built on a fully modular and full-stack parallel Layer-1 blockchain architecture. The network consists of three main layers:

L1-Base

This layer provides industry-leading solutions in data availability and hardware acceleration. It forms the foundation of the infrastructure for applications requiring high data intensity.

L1-Core

This is the main blockchain layer operated by globally distributed, decentralized nodes.

• Sub-second finality
• High throughput
• Real-time Web3 experience

are provided at this layer.

L1-Extension

This is the layer that enables the network’s expandability. It has three core functions:

• Creation of SPN (Special Processing Network)
• Shared security through native restaking
• Cross-SPN interaction

Thanks to this structure, Pharos goes beyond the limits of a single chain and becomes a multi-layered, multi-purpose financial network.

What are SPN (Special Processing Networks)?

SPNs are application-specific networks that integrate with the Pharos main network but can operate independently. Each SPN has:

• Its own execution engine
• Its own validator set
• Its own governance model
• Restaking-based incentive mechanism

This structure enables highly customized use cases such as HFT systems, ZKML, AI models, or financial sidechains.

Technology Behind Pharos’ High Performance

Pharos’ technical infrastructure directly targets the performance bottlenecks commonly seen in blockchains.

Deep Parallel Execution

Thanks to the dual VM structure supporting EVM and WASM, transactions are executed speculatively and in parallel. The AsyncBFT consensus completes this process with sub-second finality.

Advanced Storage Structure

Thanks to delta-encoded multi-version Merkle Tree and log-structured page store architecture:

• Storage costs are reduced by up to 80%
• I/O and CPU efficiency are significantly increased

Pipelining

Every stage of the transaction lifecycle (execution, validation, storage) is pipelined to operate concurrently. This allows node resources to be utilized at maximum efficiency.

Compliant Finance: ZK-KYC and AML Integration

One of the most important elements that distinguishes Pharos from similar Layer-1 networks is that compliance is designed at the protocol level.

The network provides directly at the protocol layer:

• ZK-KYC
• Programmable AML
• Digital identity integration

This ensures regulatory compliance for institutional investors while preserving the principles of open finance.

Real-World Assets and Financial Products

Pharos aims to bring not only crypto assets but also:

• Energy
• Commodities
• Real estate
• Institutional financial products

onto the chain.

Highlighted Use Cases

• Tokenized investment and yield products
• Cross-border payments finalized in seconds
• Stablecoin-based daily transactions
• Institutional finance and DeFi integration

This structure presents a unified onchain economy vision described as a “digital financial city.”

Pharos Restaking and Ecosystem Integration

Pharos is designed to integrate with restaking protocols such as Babylon and EigenLayer. Multi-asset supported restaking:

• Increases security
• Deepens liquidity
• Enables rapid deployment of SPNs

Why is Pharos Different?

The core problems Pharos focuses on solving are:

• Lack of parallelism in blockchains
• Storage and merklization bottlenecks
• Inefficient use of node resources
• Data and liquidity fragmentation in L2 solutions

Against these issues, Pharos offers a holistic architecture centered on modularity and parallelism. The goal is to bring a Web2-level user experience into the Web3 world.

Pharos Investors

Pharos has raised a total of $8 million and continues with a strong investor base. The project’s investors include venture capital funds and industry players of various scales:

• Hack VC
• MH Ventures
• Faction
• SNZ Holding
• Generative Ventures
• Hash Global
• Dispersion Capital
• Reforge VC
• Legend Star
• Yunfeng Financial
• Chorus One

Pharos Team

Behind Pharos is a team with experience in both traditional finance and Web3:

• Wishlonger – Co-Founder / CTO
• Alex Zhang – CEO
• Laura Shen – CMO
• Matthew Castricone – CSO
• Wilguish Ng – CCO
• Wilguish Ng – Head of Ecosystem

Official Links

• Website
• X (Twitter)
• Whitepaper

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