Technical Overview

The building blocks that make Pocket modular, secure, and future-proof.

Mainline Cosmos SDK

The Pocket Network is part of the full Cosmos ecosystem, being built entirely off the Cosmos SDK. That means Pocket has direct compatibility with the Cosmos ecosystem (wallets, explorers, IBC, etc.). The cosmos codebase is widely used making it easier for external contributors to work with the Pocket Network

CometBTF Consensus

The Pocket Network uses CometBFT as its consensus engine that is maintained by the Cosmos ecosystem. This offers Pocket great performance and security. It also ensures that Pocket is upgraded as the Cosmos core devs advance CometBFT.

Claim & Proof Tree Structure

The Pocket Network adopts Celestia’s well-audited Sparse Merkle Sum Trie implementation (Celestia’s SMT). A state-of-the-art cryptographic data structure for scalability and interoperability. Compact proofs with minimal storage overhead make for strong and efficient cryptographic proofs. This choice allows for easier verification across chains (especially with IBC or DA layers), future-proofing Pocket against scaling bottlenecks.

Shannon Code Base

By rebuilding fully on the Cosmos SDK, Shannon gains four key advantages (MICE):

1. Modularity – A clean, modular design makes it easier for external contributors to add features and improve the network.

2. Interoperability – With Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC), Pocket can connect to other Data Availability (DA) networks and layer-1 chains such as Celestia and EigenDA.

3. Compatibility – Any wallet, explorer, exchange, or bridge that works with Cosmos SDK chains also works with Pocket.

4. Extensibility – Future upgrades to the Cosmos SDK can be adopted directly into Pocket.

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The next article explores the deployment of the Shannon upgrade, it's current stage of development and the prioritary upgrades that are coming to Pocket...