What is Nexera Network

The Nexera Network is a cutting-edge blockchain infrastructure designed to bridge the real and digital economies.

Core Architecture

The Nexera Network is a decentralized, stateful computing platform. It operates as a distributed ledger maintained by a peer-to-peer network of nodes. Each node stores a copy of the entire blockchain history and independently processes transactions to verify and maintain the network's current state, known as the "world state."

Accounts

There are two fundamental types of accounts on the Nexera Network:

• Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs): These accounts are controlled by users via private keys. An EOA can initiate transactions to transfer the native asset, NXRA, or to trigger code execution in a contract account.
• Contract Accounts: These accounts are controlled by the code they contain (a smart contract). They do not have private keys and can only execute operations when instructed by a transaction from an EOA or a message-call from another contract.

Every account is defined by an address and a balance in NXRA. EOAs also have a nonce to ensure each transaction is processed only once. Contract accounts additionally contain immutable code and associated storage (a key-value store).

Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)

The EVM is the sandboxed runtime environment for smart contracts on the Nexera Network. It is a quasi-Turing-complete state machine that executes contract bytecode. Every node on the network runs the EVM to process transactions and compute the resulting state changes. Its computational resources are metered by a system known as "gas."

Transactions

A transaction is a cryptographically signed instruction initiated by an EOA. It can trigger a state change on the network. The key components of a transaction include:

• to: The recipient address (an EOA or a contract).
• value: The amount of NXRA to transfer.
• data: An optional field containing bytecode for contract creation or data for a contract function call.
• gasLimit: The maximum amount of gas the sender is willing to consume.
• maxPriorityFeePerGas: The maximum "tip" the sender is willing to pay the validator.
• maxFeePerGas: The maximum total fee (base fee + priority fee) the sender is willing to pay per unit of gas.

Gas and Fees

Every operation on the NVM consumes a specific amount of gas, which is a unit measuring computational work. The transaction fee mechanism consists of two parts:

• Base Fee: A network-wide fee per unit of gas that is algorithmically adjusted based on network demand. This fee is burned (destroyed), not paid to the validator.
• Priority Fee (Tip): An optional fee paid directly to the validator to incentivize the inclusion of the transaction in a block.

The total transaction cost is calculated as (base fee + priority fee) * gas used.

Blocks and State

Transactions are batched into blocks, which are cryptographically linked together to form the blockchain. Each block contains a list of transactions, a reference to the previous block (parent hash), and other metadata. The world state is a mapping of all account addresses to their respective states (balance, nonce, code, storage). The NVM processes the transactions in a block to transition the network from one valid state to the next.

Consensus Mechanism: Proof-of-Stake (PoS)

Nexera is secured by a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus protocol.

• Validators: Network participants who stake a required amount of NXRA become validators. Validators are responsible for processing transactions, proposing new blocks, and attesting to the validity of blocks proposed by other validators.
• Slots and Epochs: Time is divided into slots (12 seconds) and epochs (32 slots). In each slot, one validator is randomly selected to be the block proposer, and a committee of other validators is selected to attest to that block.
• Rewards and Penalties: Validators are rewarded with NXRA for honest participation. Malicious or negligent behavior, such as proposing conflicting blocks or being offline, results in penalties. Severe violations lead to slashing, where a portion of the validator's stake is forfeited.

Smart Contracts

Smart contracts are programs stored and executed on the Nexera blockchain. They are typically written in high-level languages like Solidity and compiled down to NVM bytecode. Once deployed, a smart contract's code is immutable. They execute deterministically, meaning they produce the same output for the same input on every node in the network.

Network Layers

The Nexera protocol is separated into two primary layers that work in tandem:

• Execution Layer: Responsible for transaction execution, state management, and the NVM. This layer is managed by execution clients (e.g., Reth).
• Consensus Layer: Responsible for the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism, including block proposal, attestations, and managing the validator set. This layer is managed by consensus clients (e.g., Lighthouse).

These two layers communicate via the Engine API, a secure channel that allows the consensus layer to direct the execution layer to build and verify blocks.