SORA Nexus

One World. One Economy. One Ledger.

SORA Nexus (also known as SORA v3) represents the next evolution of the SORA network—a complete reimagining of blockchain architecture designed to host global economic activity with unprecedented performance, privacy, and governance.

Built on Hyperledger Iroha 3, SORA Nexus aims to be the definitive infrastructure for a new world economic order.

Vision: The End of History

The name “SORA Nexus” reflects its ambition to be the final blockchain architecture needed—a single logical ledger capable of hosting all transactions for all time. This bold vision is enabled by:

Infinite Scalability — Parallel lanes that can split and merge based on demand
Universal Compatibility — Support for public and private data spaces
Future-Proof Security — Post-quantum cryptographic primitives
Global Standards — ISO 20022 alignment for institutional integration

Key Features

Sub-Second Finality

SORA Nexus targets transaction finality in under one second:

Metric	Target
Lane Finality	≤ 1 second
Commit Window	≤ 2 slots
Proof Verification	100-200 ms

This is achieved through the SUMERAGI consensus protocol, a BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerant) mechanism with deterministic leader rotation.

Data Spaces

Data Spaces are first-class partitions within SORA Nexus:

Private Data Spaces

Permissioned zones for institutions, governments, and enterprises with confidential transactions.

Public Data Spaces

Open participation for DeFi, community projects, and general blockchain use cases.

Both types share the same deterministic admission rules and can interact when policy allows—enabling unprecedented interoperability between private and public blockchains.

Lanes and Merge Ledger

SORA Nexus scales through parallel lanes:

Multiple lanes process transactions independently
Each lane finalizes blocks with ~1 second finality
A lightweight merge ledger orders lane tips into a single global sequence
Lanes fuse under low load, split under high load—automatically

This architecture allows horizontal scaling without sacrificing consistency or requiring sharding complexity.

Post-Quantum Security

SORA Nexus is designed for a post-quantum world:

ML-DSA-87 signatures for consensus and data space attestations
Ed25519 for standard operations (with PQ fields reserved)
STARK proofs with 128-bit security
Kyber768 for SoraNet encryption

These primitives ensure SORA Nexus remains secure even against future quantum computers.

Architecture Overview

SORA Nexus unifies multiple architectural innovations into a single coherent system. The diagram below illustrates how data spaces, parallel lanes, and the merge ledger work together to achieve infinite scalability while maintaining a single logical ledger.

SORA Nexus Architecture Overview

Figure: SORA Nexus architecture showing data spaces (public and private), parallel processing lanes, and the merge ledger that unifies them into a single canonical sequence.

The IVM: Iroha Virtual Machine

At the core of SORA Nexus is the Iroha Virtual Machine (IVM), a purpose-built execution environment:

Deterministic Execution — No floating point, no reentrancy, explicit syscalls
Pointer-ABI — Type-safe handles for assets, accounts, and data spaces
Auditable — Merkle commitments over memory and registers
Hardware Acceleration — SIMD/GPU allowed only if bit-for-bit identical

Smart contracts compile to Kotodama bytecode, SORA’s native contract format.

Consensus: SUMERAGI

SUMERAGI is the consensus protocol powering SORA Nexus:

BFT Safety — Tolerates up to f Byzantine nodes (N = 3f + 1)
Deterministic Leaders — Leader rotation based on VRF randomness
No Empty Blocks — Blocks only produced when there’s work
Post-Quantum QCs — Quorum certificates signed with ML-DSA-87

Data Availability

SORA Nexus uses advanced data availability (DA) techniques:

2D Erasure Coding

Blocks are encoded with row and column parity for redundancy
ZK DA Proofs

Cryptographic proofs bind data shards to block Merkle roots
DA Certificates

Attesters sample shards and sign availability certificates
Sampling Budget

Verification completes in ~300ms with 1.5x overhead

Ecosystem Integration

Polkaswap on Nexus

Polkaswap will migrate to SORA Nexus, gaining:

Faster trade settlement (sub-second)
Cross-data-space liquidity
Enhanced privacy options
Institutional-grade compliance tools

Bridge Architecture

SORA Nexus serves as a hub chain connecting:

TON — Via the TON Bridge with XOR buyback-and-burn
Polkadot — Through existing bridge infrastructure
Ethereum — For major DeFi integration
Future Networks — Modular bridge architecture

ISO 20022 Alignment

For institutional adoption, SORA Nexus aligns with ISO 20022:

Payment messages (pacs.008) map to Norito transfers
Deterministic field mappings
Versioned specifications
Ambiguous mappings rejected

This enables SORA to interface with traditional financial infrastructure.

Governance Evolution

From V1 to Parliament

Governance in SORA Nexus evolves toward a hybrid DAO framework:

Current (V1)	Nexus (V3)
Council + referendum	Council + Assembly
Token-weighted voting	Sortition + stake-weighted
Single governance track	Domain-specific governance
Manual enactment	Deterministic ISI execution

Governance Surfaces

SORA Nexus introduces governance surfaces:

Configuration — iroha_config as source of truth
Parameter Sets — Versioned, on-chain governance parameters
Attestations — Cryptographic certificates for governance actions
Data Space Governance — Customized rules per data space

Development Roadmap

Fujiwara Testnet

The Fujiwara Testnet is the first public testnet for SORA v3:

Named after Japan’s influential Fujiwara family
Enables experimentation with key features
First public blockchain on Iroha 3 infrastructure
Tests DeFi, governance, and network stability

SORA Integrated Plan

The SORA Integrated Plan tracks development across:

Business Track — Partnerships and adoption
Backend Track — Core infrastructure
Web Track — User interfaces
Mobile Track — Fearless Wallet integration

Technical Highlights

Performance Targets

Parameter	Default
Lane TEU Budget	~20,000 TEU/s
Envelope Size	≤16 MB typical, 32 MB hard cap
DA Samples	8 per data space, ≤2048 total
Lane Validators	22 per lane (f=7)

Cryptographic Primitives

Hashing — Poseidon2 (internal), SHA-2/3 (external)
Signatures — Ed25519, secp256k1 (legacy), ML-DSA-87 (consensus)
Proofs — STARK with DEEP-FRI
National Suites — SM2/3/4 and GOST available when governed

Serialization: Norito

Norito is the canonical serialization format:

Binary and JSON derived from Norito schemas
SignedBlockWire encodes all persisted blocks
SCALE excluded from production paths
Streaming via Norito/Kaigi for real-time data

Why It Matters

SORA Nexus isn’t just an upgrade—it’s a paradigm shift:

For Users

Faster Transactions — Sub-second finality
More Privacy — Data space isolation
Better Integration — Cross-chain + traditional finance

For Developers

Deterministic Execution — Predictable smart contracts
Rich SDKs — Mobile, web, server libraries
ISO Standards — Enterprise integration

For Institutions

Compliance Ready — ISO 20022, privacy controls
Private Data Spaces — Regulated activity
Audit Trail — Complete transparency

Summary

SORA Nexus represents the culmination of SORA’s vision:

Feature	Capability
Finality	Sub-second
Scale	Parallel lanes, dynamic splitting
Privacy	Data spaces (public + private)
Security	Post-quantum ready
Standards	ISO 20022 aligned
Governance	Hybrid DAO with Parliament

One World. One Economy. One Ledger.

Learn More

Hyperledger Iroha 3 The blockchain framework powering Nexus

Data Spaces Private and public domains on one ledger

SUMERAGI The BFT consensus protocol

Fujiwara Testnet Test SORA v3 today

Next Steps

Overview — Return to SORA fundamentals
Tokenomics — XOR utility in SORA Nexus
Governance — Parliament evolution in v3