In this episode, Srinivasan Parthasarathy, the Chief Technology Officer of Shardeum, shared how Shardeum builds an auto-scalable layer-one blockchain through dynamic state sharding and a blockless transaction model. This architecture achieves linear scalability while maintaining low node requirements, providing a unique balance between performance and decentralization.
He also discussed lessons from testnet operations, key bug bounty discoveries, and the network's security approaches, including a custom Proof of Quorum that rotates node responsibilities every 60 seconds. As an open-source, community-driven project, Shardeum plans to launch its mainnet on May 5th, with subsequent phased support for smart contracts and incentive programs.
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Introduction and Shardeum Overview
Ehan: Welcome to the Wu Blockchain podcast. Today, we are excited to invite Srinivasan, the Chief Technology Officer of Shardeum. Welcome, please introduce yourself and Shardeum.
Srinivasan: Yes, hello everyone, I'm Srinivasan. I'm the Chief Technology Officer of Shardeum. At Shardeum, we are building the world's first auto-scalable layer-one blockchain, and I'm very excited to be here.
My blockchain journey began in 2016. In 2017, I built my first Non-Fungible Token marketplace. Since then, I've worked in multiple places and built many Web3-related products. I was a Vice President of Engineering at DraftKings, helping build blockchain infrastructure for their flagship product. Recently, I worked at a company called Six, where we sold Non-Fungible Token tokens representing US resource rights.
Now at Shardeum, I lead an excellent team focused on building this groundbreaking auto-scalable layer-one blockchain.
[The translation continues in this manner for the entire text, maintaining the specified translation rules and preserving the XML tags.]Ehan: Could you share the most critical vulnerabilities discovered in the bug bounty program and how you resolved them?
Srinivasan: Certainly. We have conducted multiple bug bounty programs and discovered some quite unique issues. First, everything we do is open source, so all fixes and changes are publicly visible. Anyone can access our GitHub repository and see the specific modifications we've made to support the network.
That said, we did discover some significant problems in these programs. Some of these issues involved how we sign transactions - such as selecting the wrong hash or inconsistencies in the signing process. These vulnerabilities could pose risks like replay attacks, where transactions from the testnet could potentially be replayed on the mainnet. Therefore, we had to carefully analyze and fix all these vulnerabilities.
The bug bounty program has been extremely valuable to us. We discovered numerous issues, especially in protocol-layer features like multi-signature support, which we have directly implemented at the protocol layer. White hat hackers helped us rigorously test these features, and their feedback led to critical security improvements.
All these fixes are now integrated into our upcoming mainnet version - scheduled to launch on May 5th.
How will you handle security issues after mainnet launch?
Ehan: What measures will Shardeum take for continuous security monitoring and threat mitigation after mainnet launch?
Srinivasan: We've adopted a multi-layered approach. We have a dedicated internal security team focused on monitoring system health and assessing potential attack vectors.
We've also built and continuously develop a comprehensive telemetry and observability system that allows us to understand in real-time what's happening in the network. This enables us to detect anomalies, track system behavior, and respond promptly to threats.
While we've established this system, we'll continue to improve it as we approach mainnet launch. In fact, we're building a complete open telemetry framework from scratch to ensure the network remains secure as it scales.
How is your RPC layer different from other EVM chains?
Ehan: How does Shardeum's RPC layer differ from typical EVM-compatible chains in terms of performance, scalability, or reliability?
Srinivasan: That's a great question. As I mentioned before, using a spreadsheet analogy - most EVM-compatible chains view the entire blockchain state as one massive spreadsheet, with each node maintaining complete data. In contrast, Shardeum splits this spreadsheet into multiple shards or tabs, with each tab managed by a portion of nodes.
Each process is responsible for one or more specific tabs - for example, tab 33 - and this allocation is dynamic. Shardeum operates on a 60-second internal clock cycle. At the end of each cycle, the system rotates nodes: it might replace five nodes out of a thousand active nodes with five new nodes selected from a standby pool based on certain criteria like inactivity duration. Then, the system reallocates responsibilities - so a newly entered node might suddenly be responsible for tabs 33 and 37, without prior knowledge and unaware of which other nodes share these responsibilities.
This mechanism significantly enhances security. Randomness and rotation make it extremely difficult to target or influence a specific part of the network. Any transaction requires supermajority confirmation - like 67 out of 100 participating nodes. And these 100 nodes don't know who else is in the group or how they were selected. This uncertainty helps ensure decentralization and tamper-resistance.
We call this consensus mechanism Proof of Quorum. It's tightly integrated with our 60-second cycle structure. To disrupt the network, an attacker would need to identify and control two-thirds of the randomly assigned validator set within a single cycle - which is nearly impossible.
From a performance perspective, our architecture allows near-linear scalability. We can dynamically scale between 100 to 10,000 shards (or tabs) and contract as needed. This flexibility makes Shardeum excel in scalability, reliability, and security while maintaining full EVM compatibility through our RPC layer.
Will you continue audits and bug bounty programs?
Ehan: Does your security strategy include ongoing third-party audits or community-driven bug bounty programs?
Srinivasan: Yes, absolutely. We're an open-source project - our entire codebase is available on GitHub - and every technical decision we make fully adheres to our commitment to decentralization. We're fortunate to have an excellent community supporting us, and we're deeply grateful for that.
We plan to continue collaborating with third-party auditors and conducting community-driven bug bounty programs. In fact, we have a dedicated team committed to working with the community to build products around Shardeum. Some of these projects we'll help launch and ultimately hand over to the community.
We also plan to host hackathons and other events to encourage active community participation. Once we launch our mainnet on May 5th, all these initiatives will accelerate. We look forward to the community playing a core role in Shardeum's continued success.
How are you growing the community and ecosystem?
Ehan: How is Shardeum building its community and ecosystem? Which specific projects or incentives have been most effective?
Srinivasan: Our community is indeed one of our greatest strengths. For instance, in our recent incentivized testnet ITN4, we had around 5,200 globally participating validators (testnet 171,000). We've established a massive and active presence on social platforms like Discord and X, and our ecosystem team is fully dedicated to interacting with and growing this community.
We've taken a phased development approach - first token transfer functionality, then introducing support for smart contracts and other key features. Our community is involved at each stage of progress.
We also have a dedicated team focused on designing and executing community projects. This includes incentives, onboarding training, educational content, and collaborative activities to ensure the ecosystem continues to expand in a sustainable and decentralized manner.
What projects are currently being built on Shardeum?
Ehan: So, what types of projects or applications are currently being developed on Shardeum?
Srinivasan: That's a great question. As a self-scaling layer-one blockchain, Shardeum is particularly suitable for use cases where scalability and transaction costs are primary concerns. Let me give an example: at my previous company, we sold NFTs representing real-world resources like horses for $1,200. At the time, Ethereum's gas fees were around $200 per transaction. Adding 20% fees on top of the purchase price made no sense - it was completely unsustainable.
On Shardeum, because we've achieved linear scaling, our gas fees remain low and stable regardless of network congestion - even if a meme coin launches on the chain. This makes the platform extremely suitable for fee-sensitive financial and decentralized finance applications.
Since Shardeum is EVM-compatible, developers can deploy Solidity-based smart contracts with minimal effort. Any contract running on other EVM chains can be easily migrated here. This means we inherit the massive network effects of the EVM ecosystem - a decade of tools, developer knowledge, and infrastructure.
Therefore, while we've anticipated DeFi and Non-Fungible Token projects will migrate to Shardeum, I believe the community will surprise us...
Although we've anticipated decentralized finance (DeFi) and Non-Fungible Token (NFT) projects will migrate to Shardeum, I believe the community will bring unexpected surprises. Once the mainnet launches, I hope to see a wave of innovative applications that fully leverage Shardeum's EVM compatibility, low fees, reliability, and dynamic scalability.
How will tokens be used for staking and governance?
Ehan: How will the Shardeum token be applied to staking, governance, or network incentives?
Srinivasan: We are still finalizing the specific details of governance, which will be announced soon. That said, our core principle is complete decentralization - anyone holding a small amount of Shardeum tokens can run a node. These tokens will be available in our token sale.
In terms of incentives, the reward mechanism is based on the participation time of nodes in the "active set", which is the group of nodes currently participating in consensus. When you start a node, it first joins the "standby pool". Every 60 seconds, in each cycle of our internal clock, we rotate some nodes out of the active set and introduce new nodes from the standby pool. Once a node enters the active set, it begins to receive rewards.
Rewards are proportional to the node's active time in network tasks - including verifying transactions, signing blocks, and maintaining network security. Node selection also considers past performance records. Nodes that meet expectations - online time, responsiveness, and correct behavior - are more likely to stay longer in the active set, thus earning more rewards.
We do not punish underperforming nodes, but if a node fails to meet performance standards, it will be rotated out of the active set more quickly, reducing its ability to earn rewards. This is a gentler, incentive-based approach to guiding behavior, rather than direct punishment.
These details are still being refined, and more information about governance and reward mechanisms will be announced before mainnet launch. Please follow our website for updates.
How do you ensure transparency and independence?
Ehan: How does Shardeum ensure operational transparency and governance independence?
Srinivasan: This is a great question. As I mentioned before, Shardeum is a fully open-source project. Everything we do is public - like working in a fishbowl. All our code is available on GitHub, and anyone can view how our system works.
You can review our consensus mechanism, algorithms for node selection and reward allocation, and every other aspect of the protocol. The logic behind node performance evaluation and network expansion decisions is completely transparent.
After mainnet launch, we will no longer have any centralized control over who can start a node or where. The network is designed to adapt to a decentralized environment, dynamically handling node participation and consensus. This openness and lack of centralized authority form the basis of Shardeum's commitment to transparency and independence.
When will mainnet launch, and why is this important?
Ehan: Can you share the recently announced mainnet launch date and the significance of this milestone for Shardeum?
Srinivasan: Our mainnet will launch on May 5th, which is an important milestone for Shardeum. This network has been in development for some time, and we have an excellent team working on it.
The importance of this launch lies in the complexity of what we've built. Automatically scaling a Layer 1 blockchain and designing an entirely new transaction protocol are highly challenging technical tasks - which require time and deep expertise.
We believe now is the best time for Shardeum to enter the next phase. The mainnet launch will be phased, with the first phase starting on May 5th. From then on, we will gradually introduce more community-facing features, continue to improve performance, and make the system more scalable and accessible to global users.
How will you attract and develop a contributor base?
Ehan: What strategies do you have to promote community growth and meaningful contributor engagement?
Srinivasan: If I understand your question correctly, as I mentioned before, we have a dedicated team working closely with the community, guiding what is being built and how it is released. We have already seen massive participation in our past incentivized testnet, and I want to thank all the friends who were part of it.
Our community team actively collaborates with partners and contributors, and we anticipate that this level of engagement will significantly grow after mainnet launch. We look forward to continuing to build together with the community.
Ehan: Is there anything else you would like to share with our audience?
Srinivasan: Yes - thank you for the tremendous support. Your feedback and participation during the testnet were crucial in ensuring network security and shaping Shardeum. Please visit shardium.org for the latest updates, and we greatly appreciate your continued support.
