Pharos: A modular L1 focusing on high performance and RWA on-chain.

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 that emphasizes high performance and RWA on-chain, it claims to achieve a transaction performance of 30,000 TPS and 1 second final confirmation. Additionally, the blockchain-based verifiable storage solution can reduce storage costs by 80.3%, attracting market attention to the next 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 is composed of former blockchain backbones from Ant Group and senior 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 Lab.

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: Previously worked at Wormhole.

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

In terms of fundraising, in November 2024, Pharos announced the completion of an $8 million seed round led by Lightspeed Faction and Hack VC, with SNZ Capital, Reforge, Dispersion Capital, Hash Global, Generative Ventures, Legend Star (Legend Star, the early-stage investment and incubation arm of Legend Holdings), and MH Ventures, Zion, and Chorus One, among others, participated. At the time, Alex Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Pharos, revealed to The Block that the funding round began in July and closed in September, in the form of a Simple Future Equity Agreement (SAFE) with token warrants.

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

In addition, according to researcher @WorldOfMercek, Pharos will launch its mainnet in the third quarter, at which time $300 million in renewable energy RWA assets will be put into use (according to @_FORAB through peers, 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 new asset types being expanded and more institutional partners introduced in 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-level infrastructure for Web3 applications, while facilitating the integration of RWA and DeFi. From the Pharos documentation, the Pharos framework is similar to Cosmos SDK, supporting the building of L1 or L2 on this infrastructure.

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

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

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

3. L1-Extension: A modular extension layer based on L1-Core, supporting network expansion in three dimensions.

Utilizing heterogeneous computing to create customized Special Processing Networks (SPNs): supporting the operation of blockchain networks, side chains, or non-blockchain applications (similar to subnets), such as HFT, ZKML, and AI models.

Native Re-staking: Validators can re-stake the mainnet staked 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 the Cross-SPN protocol, supporting collaboration among infrastructure, middleware, and application SPNs, and 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, ensuring effective communication and validation 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 protocols, 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: There are two key components, the scheduler and the executor. Among them, the scheduler is the core component for parallel scheduling and executing transactions, utilizing optimization algorithms to achieve maximum parallelism and minimum conflict; the executor employs a dual virtual machine (EVM and WASM) engine, which can quickly and flexibly execute 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, enhancing the user experience, and 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 dual rewards for SPN and the main network. The Pharos re-staking protocol allows for the quick initiation of 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: Implements high throughput and low latency storage using Authenticated Data Structures (ADS). Pharos states that the throughput of its blockchain-based verifiable storage solution can be improved by up to 15.8 times, with storage costs saving 80.3%. For SPN, the combination of cross-SPN protocols and native re-staking is claimed to achieve second-level finality.

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

The ecological potential and application scenarios of Pharos

Pharos co-founder and CEO Alex Zhang 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, with both parties 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 partnership with the Global Stablecoin Payment Network (WSPN) will also focus on stablecoin payment use cases.

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

Institutional-level RWA tokenization: Supporting the on-chain of assets such as renewable energy, real estate, and supply chain finance through zkDID certification and on-chain/off-chain credit systems. The CTO of Pharos has stated that the RWA application of Pharos aims to use credible data and blockchain technology for asset pricing, rather than relying on 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 payment: Relying on 1 second finality and extremely low transaction costs to help achieve a seamless mixed 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 during its seed round financing last year, 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 of Pharos is as follows:

1. Connect Wallet:

2. Faucet test coin distribution:

Scroll down the page to claim 0.2 PHRS every 24 hours (human verification required).

In ZAN (0.2 PHRS can be claimed every 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 other addresses;

Invite friends.

4. Explore other Pharos ecosystem projects 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 SPN design provide flexible customization space for enterprise-level applications, while EVM compatibility lowers the migration barrier for developers. However, balancing performance with decentralization, addressing regulatory compliance requirements (especially in the RWA field), and building 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 place in the Web3 infrastructure track depends on the speed of technology implementation, the efficiency of expanding ecological partners, and the acceptance of traditional financial institutions. If it can fulfill its performance promises and establish a value closed loop between RWA and DeFi, it is expected to become a core hub linking real assets and the blockchain world.