Gold Mining Manual ｜Pharos: Focused on high performance and modular L1 for RWA on-chain

30,000 TPS, 1 second final confirmation, will Pharos, a startup founded by core members of the Ant Group, become the core hub linking real assets with the Web3 world?

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

On May 16, the EVM-compatible Layer 1 project Pharos, founded by former executives of Ant Group, announced the official launch of its testnet.

As a modular blockchain focusing on high performance and RWA on-chain, it claims to achieve a transaction performance of 30,000 TPS with 1 second final confirmation. Additionally, the blockchain-based verifiable storage solution can reduce storage costs by 80.3%, attracting market attention to the new generation of Web3 infrastructure. This article will introduce the team background, technical architecture, ecological layout, and interaction methods from various dimensions.

Team Background

The core team of Pharos consists of former blockchain backbones from Ant Group and former executives from leading Web3 projects:

• Founder Alex Zhang: Former CTO of Ant Blockchain, former CEO of Ant Group's Web3 project ZAN, and head of Alibaba DAMO Academy's Blockchain Laboratory.
• Co-founder and CTO Wish Wu: Former Chief Strategy Officer of Ant Group's Web3 project ZAN.
• CMO Laura Serein: Formerly worked at Solana, PayPal Crypto, and Visa.
• Ecosystem Director Wilguish: Formerly worked at Wormhole.

Pharos is currently hiring for positions such as Senior Blockchain Engineer (C++), Social Media Director, Web3 Research Intern, Blockchain R&D Intern (C++), and more.

In terms of financing, in November 2024, Pharos announced the completion of an $8 million seed round of financing, led by Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC, with participation from SNZ Capital, Reforge, Dispersion Capital, Hash Global, Generative Ventures, Legend Star, MH Ventures, Zion, and Chorus One. At that time, Alex Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Pharos, revealed to The Block that this round of financing began fundraising in July and was completed in September, using a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) format, along with token warrants.

In March 2025, Pharos launched a $20 million ecosystem grant program aimed at promoting innovation and growth within the ecosystem by providing funding and support for projects that contribute to the advancement and application of Pharos technology.

Additionally, according to researcher @WorldOfMercek, Pharos will launch its mainnet in the third quarter, at which time $300 million worth of renewable energy RWA assets will be put into use (as learned through peers by @_FORAB, Pharos has already secured commitments for $300 million in RWA assets). In the fourth quarter, SPN will be launched and the RWA environment will be optimized, with plans to expand into new asset types and introduce more institutional partners by 2026.

How is the Pharos architecture?

Pharos is a modular and full-stack parallel L1 blockchain network compatible with EVM, focusing on high throughput, low latency, and scalability, while supporting heterogeneous computing and cross-chain interoperability. Its core goal is to provide enterprise-grade infrastructure for Web3 applications, while supporting the integration of RWA and DeFi. From the Pharos documentation, the Pharos framework is similar to Cosmos SDK, supporting the construction of L1 or L2 on this infrastructure.

From a macro system perspective, Pharos adopts a three-tier architecture design:

1. L1-Base (Base Layer): Provides data availability and hardware acceleration capabilities.

2. L1-Core (Core Layer): A high-performance global distributed blockchain network driven by decentralized nodes.

3. L1-Extension (Extension Layer): A modular extension layer based on L1-Core that supports network expansion in three dimensions:

• Create customized Special Processing Networks (SPNs) using heterogeneous computing: support running blockchain networks, sidechains, or non-blockchain applications (similar to subnets), such as HFT, ZKML, and AI models.
• Native Re-staking: Validators can re-stake the mainnet staking tokens to SPNs, achieving secure sharing, staking reward distribution, and penalty mechanisms.
• Cross-SPN Interoperability: Achieve seamless flow of assets and data between different networks through cross-SPN protocols, supporting the collaboration of infrastructure-type, middleware-type, and application-type SPNs, building a highly modular and composable ecosystem.

From the perspective of functional modules, the Pharos modular blockchain stack is divided into the consensus layer, execution layer, settlement and re-staking layer, and data availability layer.

Consensus Layer: Pharos supports multiple consensus models, including PBFT, PoS, and PoA, and ensures effective communication and verification between SPN and the main network. The Pharos network topology and consensus mechanism utilize three basic node types: validator nodes, full nodes, and relay nodes. Among them, validator nodes operate based on Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) proof-of-stake protocol, ensuring network security and efficiently processing user transactions. In addition to transaction fees and staking rewards, validators can also earn additional income through re-staking. Full nodes and relay nodes support the distribution of blockchain data and provide services such as state synchronization, parallel hint generation, indexing, querying, and APIs.

Execution Layer: It consists of two key components, the scheduler and the executor. The scheduler is the core component for parallel scheduling and executing transactions, utilizing optimization algorithms to achieve maximum parallelism and minimal conflict; the executor employs a dual virtual machine (EVM and WASM) engine, enabling fast and flexible execution of smart contracts. Pharos also leverages optimistic execution and the "Pipeline Finality" algorithm, allowing execution results to be quickly aggregated and effectively determining the final state. In the Pipeline Finality algorithm, Pharos prioritizes transaction finality to enhance user experience and also sets a maximum final time for each block.

Source: Pharos

Settlement and Re-staking Layer: Validators in the main network can participate in SPN re-staking, thereby enhancing double rewards for SPN and the main network. The Pharos re-staking protocol can quickly initiate SPN, ensuring shared security, resource pooling, and incentivizing validators.

In addition, Pharos supports multi-asset protocols and can seamlessly integrate with re-staking protocols such as Babylon and Eigenlayer, thereby enhancing the interoperability and security of the entire network.

Data Availability Layer: Achieves high throughput and low latency storage through Authenticated Data Structures (ADS). Pharos indicates that its blockchain-based verifiable storage solution can increase throughput by up to 15.8 times, with storage cost savings of 80.3%. For SPN, the combination of cross-SPN protocol and native re-staking is said to achieve sub-second finality.

Additionally, the Pharos Gas model adopts the Ethereum Gas mechanism, compatible with EIP-1559 (base fee + priority fee). The base fee is dynamic and recalculated at each epoch.

The Ecological Potential and Application Scenarios of Pharos

Alex Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Pharos, revealed to The Block that real-time payments and RWA are the two main use cases prioritized by Pharos. Pharos has also established a strategic partnership with ZAN, the Web3 brand under Ant Group's Ant Digital Technology, aiming to jointly develop Web3 infrastructure focused on node services, security, and hardware. Alex Zhang emphasized that the collaboration with ZAN will focus on RWA use cases, while another collaboration with the Global Stablecoin Payment Network (WSPN) will also focus on stablecoin payment use cases.

According to the description on the Pharos official website, Pharos has the following use cases:

• Institutional-level RWA tokenization: Through zkDID authentication and on-chain/off-chain credit systems, supporting the on-chain of assets such as renewable energy, real estate, and supply chain finance. Pharos CTO has stated that the goal of Pharos's RWA application is to use credible data and blockchain technology for asset pricing, rather than centralized financial institutions.
• Full-chain central limit order book contracts or spot DEX: supports advanced order types such as take profit, stop loss, time-weighted average price (TWAP), etc.
• Real-time payments: Leveraging 1-second finality and extremely low transaction costs to help achieve a seamless blended payment system.
• Scalable DePIN
• Unified liquidity across multiple virtual machines: Supports EVM and WASM smart contract interoperability across virtual machines, allowing developers to build cross-chain applications under a unified account system, reducing multi-chain deployment costs.

How to interact?

Considering that Pharos adopted the SAFE format in last year's seed round financing, along with token warrants, and that the testnet has deployed the native token PHRS as network fees, we can reasonably expect Pharos to launch its native token. Pharos's official Twitter stated that within 24 hours of the Pharos testnet going live, there were over 110,000 real users.

The specific interaction strategy for Pharos is as follows:

1. Connect Wallet:

2. Faucet test coin claim:

• Scroll down the page to claim 0.2 PHRS every 24 hours (human verification required).
• Receive 0.2 PHRS in ZAN (available for 24 hours, registration required).
• Claim USDC or USDT at the faucet (the author failed to claim).

3. Complete on-chain tasks and social tasks. (experience)

On-chain tasks include:

• Exchange tokens on Zenith (
• Transfer PHRS tokens to another address;
• Invite friends.

4. Explore other ecosystem projects of Pharos afterwards.

Challenges and Opportunities of Pharos

Pharos, leveraging the technical accumulation and resource integration capabilities of core members from the Ant Group, may demonstrate differentiated competitiveness in areas such as RWA on-chain and high-performance DeFi. Its modular architecture and SPNs design provide flexible customization spaces for enterprise applications, while EVM compatibility lowers the migration threshold for developers. However, balancing performance with decentralization, addressing regulatory compliance requirements (especially in the RWA field), and constructing a sustainable token economic model will be key challenges it faces after the mainnet launch.

With the full opening of the testnet, whether Pharos can secure a position in the Web3 infrastructure track depends on the speed of technological implementation, the efficiency of expanding ecological partnerships, and the acceptance of traditional financial institutions. If it can deliver on its performance promises and bridge the value loop between RWA and DeFi, it is expected to become a core hub linking real assets with the blockchain world.

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