Canopy is a recursive framework to build blockchains (the Canopy Stack) and the first (of many) decentralized network to host those blockchains (the Canopy blockchain). The Canopy Stack offers developers the benefits of all blockchain layers in a single, easy to understand framework. The Canopy blockchain seeds the layerless future with the first recursive security root: a decentralized network that allows new projects to launch like a smart contract but grow into a fully independent L0 to host future projects.

To learn more about Canopy, check out our docs or Whitepaper. To learn more about our Go implementation of the Canopy client, check out Github.  

By relying on the current security architecture of web3, developers make many compromises, from sovereignty to censorship. We believe that Web3 applications without full sovereignty are just Web2 apps with bad UX. Canopy addresses this by eliminating security and scaling bottlenecks and maintaining interoperability and composability, solving the blockchain trilemma and enabling scalable, autonomous, and secure ecosystems.

Canopy is built for new and existing applications. Canopy enables the creation of side-chains and interoperability tools, with functionality only limited to your imagination. Canopy can extend the functionality of your existing application or act as an entirely new version. Need a scalable EVM on the side of your application? Canopy can do that. Missing incentives from your current protocol? Canopy can read your chain and build in the missing incentives as a modular side-chain.

Anyone can leave their mark on the Canopy Network! Validators connect to the network like any other proof-of-stake blockchain and opt-in to securing one or more of the chains of Canopy Network. For more information, please visit our node runner docs.

Launching an application on Canopy is as simple as deploying a smart contract. Just fork the Canopy repo, add your utility, update the built-in web wallet and block explorer with the config file, and you’re instantly a Nested Chain that is compatible with the rest of the ecosystem. Learn more on how to get started in our builder docs.

Additionally, we welcome contributions to tooling, Canopy Stack, content, or simply being an evangelist for Canopy technology. Join our Discord and read our docs to dig in! 

Recursiveness is the ability for a system to replicate itself within the system. A recursive blockchain is a blockchain that can both give and receive security - creating nested web of security within the network. Because those relationships are voluntary, Nested Chains can migrate, swap roots, or detach as their ecosystem grows - nothing is locked in stone. As a Nested Chain, you can compose new features or specialized logic without duplicating the entire security apparatus.

Canopy is the first layerless blockchain because participants aren’t locked into any particular layer like they are in traditional architectures. At the base of Canopy, there’s at least one security provider that secures other chains, although we anticipate that many security roots will eventually sprout and provide security beyond the Canopy blockchain. Uniquely, these security roots can both receive and supply security. This provides (at least) three logical paths for scaling - applications creating their own security ecosystems and replicating themselves through composable nested chains or security-as-a-service ecosystems sprouting up to provide security for application-specific use cases. We believe the future looks like a hybrid of the two options.

Nested Chains maintain their interoperability after they gain sovereignty because every chain in the Canopy ecosystem, nested or sovereign, relies on the same one-way permissionless interoperability. Because it is one way, relying on committees, switching the validator set changes the nodes, but not the code. In other words, nothing changes on how the network interacts with the ecosystem, preserving seamless interoperability. Sovereignty changes the signers, not the underlying architecture.

The Canopy blockchain issues a block reward to incentivize restaking-based validating and delegating. Beyond that, validators and delegators receive native rewards of nested chains through our unique cross-pollinating economics. You can read about economics here on our docs page.

Within the Canopy Network protocol, we've implemented a code-driven ruleset to minimize discretionary decision-making and potential vulnerabilities. Our "Auto Compounding" mechanism incentivizes validators to stake their rewards, promoting a robust and healthy ecosystem. This feature operates by applying a reward rate reduction of 20% (initially) to validators who opt out of staking their rewards, while those who participate benefit from automatic staking of their rewards. To further discourage frivolous staking and unstaking behavior, we've introduced an unstaking period of 7 days for validators and 3 days for delegators, introducing an opportunity cost for token withdrawal. 

Restaking is a core component of Canopy's economic framework, driving validator and delegator participation in the ecosystem's growth. As new Nested Chains emerge, stakeholders must restake their CNPY to maximize rewards, unlocking additional native token rewards. We anticipate that not all validators will stake for every chain, creating a dynamic where demand for new Nested Chains drives staking. Those who don't restake will experience reward dilution, as active stakeholders accumulate more rewards. This mechanism incentivizes CNPY retention, as stakeholders seek to capitalize on the expanding ecosystem.