System Overview

System Overview

Nexus is a Layer 1 blockchain that unifies high-performance execution, deterministic consensus, and verifiable computation into one integrated system.

The Network supports generalized and specialized computations that demand both speed and verifiability, such as perpetuals trading, lending, and machine-driven applications.

Three-Layer Architecture

Nexus implements a three-layer system separating execution, consensus, and verification concerns

• Execution Layer

  • NexusEVM

  • NexusCore

• Consensus Layer

  • NexusBFT

• Verification Layer

  • Nexus zkVM

  • Nexus Network

Execution Model

At the execution layer, Nexus introduces a dual execution environment:

• NexusEVM provides a general-purpose, Ethereum-compatible runtime for contracts, governance logic, and composable DeFi applications.

• NexusCore hosts co-processors — high-performance state machines optimized for specialized financial logic such as order matching, risk management, or oracle updates.

Both environments operate in parallel and communicate via atomic cross-domain message passing, maintaining a single, globally consistent state.

This dual architecture resolves the long-standing performance-versus-programmability trade-off:

Developers retain EVM flexibility while the chain achieves CEX-level execution speeds.

Consensus and Coordination

The NexusBFT protocol coordinates the network and finalizes blocks. It validates execution roots from both NexusEVM and NexusCore, records co-processor updates, and guarantees safety under standard Byzantine fault assumptions.

Each block contains:

• Execution root (Merkle commitment of EVM + Core + cross-domain state)

• Validator signature and timestamp

• Optional registry updates for co-processors

By managing co-processor registration at the consensus layer, Nexus allows new engines to be enshrined without hard forks or disruption to existing modules.

Verification Through the zkVM

The Verification Layer extends trustless validation to the network’s entire state.

The Nexus zkVM serves as a verifiable compute engine that will eventually prove the correctness of all Layer-1 execution using zero-knowledge proofs.

These proofs are generated by the Nexus Network, a global compute layer where nodes contribute hardware to the proving process. Over time, this distributed zk proving system will compress the entire execution of the blockchain into a single proof, the Universal Proof.

Design Goals

The system is engineered to achieve:

• High-frequency execution: Sub-100 ms Core latency and sub-second EVM confirmation.

• Composable programmability: Seamless integration between general smart contracts and specialized co-processors.

• Deterministic coordination: Predictable block timing and atomic cross-domain operations.

• Progressive verifiability: zkVM integration enables recursive proof aggregation for full-chain validation.

• Scalable decentralization: Performance scales with hardware and validator participation, not fragmentation across rollups.

Summary

The Nexus Layer-1 system unifies execution, consensus, and verification into a single framework that can scale computation as reliably as it secures value. By embedding verifiability directly into the base layer — rather than layering it above — Nexus establishes a foundation for a global, programmable network of applications and autonomous agents.