Technology

You can find the mainnet endpoint here.

Our decision comes down to two priorities: adoption now, scalability next. In May 2025, we launched our token-only mainnet with a first-of-its-kind sharding architecture. That milestone validated our vision by delivering low fees and unprecedented validator accessibility. However with no smart contracts live yet, adoption and liquidity remained limited. We must remember what users and developers actually care about: a network that is reliable, fast, with low fees. So what matters is how seamlessly a technology delivers utility and value, making it practical, accessible, and life-changing, both today and in the future.

The community has consistently asked for smart contract functionality, and the broader crypto ecosystem around the world is bursting with dApps, utilities, and even meme tokens that need a reliable EVM chain today. By integrating a proven EVM stack into our Layer 1, Shardeum can rapidly onboard dApps while tapping into India’s massive untapped on-chain market. 

The EVM roadmap is structured in two phases: Phase 1 (starting now) is about enabling smart contracts, driving liquidity, and growing the user base toward tens of millions. Once there, Phase 2 roadmap will see introduction of Shardeum’s innovations to deliver a scalable EVM that supports global adoption while maintaining performance. Rather than waiting, we believe it’s more important to move forward with a clear, phased roadmap – one that delivers what users and stakeholders need now, while ensuring Shardeum’s unique technology is introduced at the right time for long-term scalability.

Shardeum’s EVM mainnet includes:

• Full smart contract functionality enabling seamless deployment of leading Ethereum dApps like Uniswap or Aave, and Shardeum-native versions of viral dApps such as pump.fun.
• Proof-of-Stake consensus with delegated staking and fast finality, ensuring efficiency and security.
• Low fees and high throughput benefitting both developers and end-users.
• Modular architecture that allows new features to be added in the future without disrupting the network.
• India-first strategy to tap into the world’s largest untapped on-chain market, creating a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring millions of people on-chain.
• Permissionless access: Any genuine participant – individual or enterprise, Web2 or Web3 – can build and transact freely without gatekeepers and at negligible cost.

Shardeum uses the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), making it fully compatible with existing Ethereum-based developer tools, including solidity for smart contract deployment. This makes it easy to migrate applications or build new ones on Shardeum – while benefiting from low gas fees, fast finality, and low latency. Check out our developer documentation which will guide you to build, run a node, stake on Shardeum.

Shardeum uses Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.

Here is the link to Shardeum whitepaper. Please note that the whitepaper is being updated currently, and the exact details will be available in the coming days. We appreciate your patience.

You can find the relevant details in the developer section of our technical documentation. We’re actively expanding and refining this content to provide more comprehensive guidance for developers. Thank you for your patience, and we welcome your feedback as we continue improving the documentation.

The updated roadmap is divided into two phases. Phase 1 begins now, with the goal of reaching 10 million users, primarily in India. Once there, Phase 2 will be about bringing Shardeum’s innovative technology to market, enabling the network to scale for global adoption while maintaining performance, and delivering seamless user experiences.

The Shardeum network runs on two main types of nodes.

1. Validator Nodes: Validators are responsible for proposing blocks, participating in consensus, and securing the network. Running a validator requires staking SHM tokens and maintaining high uptime and performance.
2. Full Nodes: Full nodes do not participate in consensus. They maintain and verify the blockchain state, functioning as a reliable “source of truth” for applications, wallets, and other network participants. Full nodes run with pruning enabled by default, storing only the most recent state needed for operation.
   • Archive Nodes: Archive nodes are a special configuration of full nodes. They store all historical blockchain state from genesis to the present. Configuration involves disabling pruning so the node retains every historical state snapshot. Running an archive node requires significantly more storage and may grow rapidly over time.

You can refer to our developer documentation for guidance on running the node types mentioned above, including RPC nodes.

Shardeum uses Proof-of-Stake (PoS), where validators must lock up SHM as collateral to join consensus. To take over the network, an attacker would need to control majority of all actively staked tokens and resources – an enormously costly and impractical effort. Misbehavior leads to slashing and reputational damage, making such attacks irrational. In practice, this design makes a 51% takeover prohibitively expensive and strongly incentivizes honest participation.

Energy efficiency means the consensus algorithm used by the network should not require excessive energy beyond what is necessary to process the transactions. Bitcoin and other networks based on the Nakamoto consensus are designed to use high energy expenditure to secure the network from a 51% attack. However, efficient consensus mechanisms like Proof-of-stake do not require high energy expenditure.

​EVM-based languages – Solidity and Vyper.

We are making an update to this answer. Your patience is appreciated.