Architecture Overview
This document provides an architectural overview of Polygon Supernets.
Please note that the Supernets documentation hub currently only documents the functionality of the v0.8.0 release, as the code is still in active development and undergoing auditing. As such, it is not recommended for use in production environments.
At present, the following components are available:
- Smart contract and validator allowlisting.
- Transfers of ERC20 tokens and arbitrary message passing using the native bridge.
- Migration support from older versions of the consensus client that use IBFT consensus.
Additional components, including on-chain governance and creating a full production instance with MATIC staked, are currently in progress.
If you have any questions or are interested in using Supernets in a production environment, please get in touch with the Polygon team for guidance and support.
The following diagram offers an architectural overview of Polygon Supernets.
Components
The following table breaks down each of these components.
| Component | Description | Link |
|---|---|---|
| libp2p | Provides the networking layer for Supernets and is designed for peer-to-peer network architectures. | libp2p overview |
| Bridge | An in-built bridging mechanism enabled by PolyBFT that allows message passing between a Supernet and another Proof-of-Stake blockchain without mapping. | bridge overview |
| Mempool | Enables multiple validators to aggregate their signatures to create a single, aggregated signature representing all validators in the pool. | mempool overview |
| Consensus | PolyBFT serves as the consensus mechanism of Polygon Supernets and consists of a consensus engine, IBFT 2.0, and a consensus protocol that includes the bridge, staking, and other utilities. | PolyBFT overview |
| Blockchain | Coordinates everything in the system, curates state transitions, and is responsible for state changes when a new block is added to the chain. | blockchain overview |
| Runtime (EVM) | Uses the EVM as the runtime environment for executing smart contracts. | runtime overview |
| TxPool | Represents the transaction pool, closely linked with other modules in the system. | txpool overview |
| JSON-RPC | Facilitates interaction between dApp developers and the blockchain, allowing developers to issue JSON-RPC requests to a Supernet node and receive responses. | JSON-RPC overview |
| gRPC | Essential for operator interactions, allowing node operators to interact with the client easily and providing a seamless user experience. | gRPC overview |