Shardeum goes live, claims to solve blockchain 'trilemma'; CTO promises ‘truly scalable, decentralised' blockchain

WazirX founder Nischal Shetty-led autoscaling layer 1 blockchain network Shardeum has launched the final product (also called Mainnet) after the testnet phase attracted over 1.4 million participants. The blockchain company revealed over 171,000 physically run validator nodes or independent computers validated transactions on the new blockchain network, which it claims is the "highest" among layer 1 testnets.

Srini Parthasarathy, Chief Technology Officer, while speaking to Fortune India, talked about the core innovation, decentralisation and synchronous scaling feature of Shardeum, while saying that Shardeum has been built with the conviction the future of Web3 must be "open, inclusive, and truly scalable". "Shardeum is a dynamically sharded, layer one, EVM-compatible blockchain...We take this huge spreadsheet [of transactions] and break it up into multiple tabs, where each node is responsible for a small subset of the data."

“Shardeum is proving that scale, security, and true community ownership can co-exist on a single Layer 1,” said Adam Struck, Managing Partner at Struck Crypto, while appreciating the record-size grassroots validator set.

On the decentralisation philosophy, Parthasarathy says the company wants the technology to be affordable to people all over the world, including Southeast Asia, Africa, and India. "It’s a network for the people. Every decision we take is focused on decentralisation."

Aims to solve trilemma

Shardeum's mainnet launch, where the blockchain is officially marking the transition from R&D into a fully operational layer 1 network, is seen as a key technical breakthrough as the network aims to solve the blockchain trilemma without trade-offs.

In other words, it promises to be a fast, cheap, and user-friendly blockchain for mass adoption at a time when most blockchains (including key players like Ethereum) struggle with slow speeds and high gas fees when too many people use them.

He also explains why dynamic sharding remains a problem even for bigger blockchain players. "Dynamic sharding is a hard problem—it spans blockchain and distributed systems. Most avoid it because it’s easier to fork existing chains. We built from scratch, prioritising decentralisation."

Features of Sharmdeum L1 Blockchain

The key features of the L1 blockchain include automatic scaling by adding more validators unlike traditional networks that slow down under demand, low gas fees ($0.01) even during congestion, less time running a node (under a minute) with minimal hardware, and seamless expansion as more users join. The EVM-compatible use case allows developers to easily port apps from Ethereum, as its open-source code promises transparency.

"Because each node processes only a fraction of the data, hardware costs are minimal. This lets us keep gas fees low permanently, unlike Ethereum where fees spike with demand...we can start with 10 tabs [shards], and as transaction volume grows, scale to 100 or 1,000 dynamically. If demand falls, we scale back. No other blockchain does this natively," says the Shardeum CTO.

Lessons from WazirX hack

The Shardeum CTO also spoke on the recent major hacks that shook the crypto world, including the one (after $230 million hack) that led to shuttting down of operations at WazirX, India's largest crypto exchange until 2023. "Most hacks target centralised entities like exchanges, not blockchains themselves. The lesson? Use 2FA, own your keys, and avoid custodial wallets. If you don’t control your keys, you don’t own your coins," adds Parthasarathy.

He says to make the blockchain safe and secure, at the start of every cycle, nodes are randomly assigned shards. "No one knows which data they’ll validate next, making collusion or attacks nearly impossible."

India’s crypto potential and usecases

Parthasarathy says India has untapped potential. "(It) has world-class engineering talent, easier funding in Web3, and vibrant startups. Even Polygon began here. The growth trajectory is strong. With low fees and scalability, imagine gaming, NFTs, or micropayments. EVM compatibility means developers can port existing dApps in minutes. We’ve barely scratched the surface," he said.

Trading, SHM tokens minting to start soon

PrimeVault will act as secure treasury operator for Shardeum, while Mintair act as validator and Tokensoft will enable airdrop and token vesting management.

Co-founded in 2022 by WazirX's Nischal Shetty and blockchain architect Omar Syed, Shardeum is backed by prominent investors, including Struck Crypto, Amber Group, Big Brain Holdings, Foresight Ventures, Arrington Capital, Jsquare/DFG, Amber Group, Axelar Foundation, The Spartan Group, Ghaf Capital, Jane Street, and Alphemy.

In October 2022, Shardeum raised $18.2 million in seed funding from over 50 investors, including from angel investors like Balaji Srinivasan, and Mayur Gupta (CMO at Kraken). In July 2023, it secured an additional $5.4 million, with participation from Amber Group, Galxe, J17 Capital, TRGC, and others at $248 million valuation.

The total circulating supply of Shardeum (SHM) at launch stands at 249 million. The company says trading on crypto exchanges (like CoinGecko, Binance, etc.) and minting of the SHM tokens will start soon after the mainnet launch.

In near future, the company expects developers will be able to begin testing smart-contract functionality, with stable dApp (decentralised apps) deployments, meaning developers will be able to build apps on the blockchain for low fees while ensuring scalability.