Canton Network
Learning Hub

Canton is the first privacy-enabled public blockchain network built for financial markets. Instead of forcing every node to replicate the entire ledger, it lets participants share assets and data only on a need-to-know basis while still maintaining a globally synchronized view. This balance of openness and privacy makes it suitable for regulated institutions.

Traditional public chains expose all transaction data to everyone, making them unusable for regulated finance. Private chains offer privacy but fracture liquidity and require trusted bridges. Canton was created to solve both problems by allowing applications to enforce granular privacy rules while still enabling atomic settlement and cross-application workflows.

It tackles three pain points: sub-transaction privacy (only stakeholders see their part of a transaction); operationally credible interoperability without insecure bridges; and incremental adoption, allowing firms to migrate workflows gradually rather than all at once.

Canton is a network of networks. Applications run on independent sync domains (subnets) with their own operators, yet they can interact atomically via the Global Synchronizer. This modular architecture preserves privacy and control while still enabling composability across domains.

Canton Network is public — anyone can request a validator node and participate in consensus for transactions they are a party to. Each application decides its own access model, so you can build fully open apps or private workflows on the same network.

Governance is overseen by the Canton Foundation, a nonprofit that stewards the protocol and the Global Synchronizer. Participants — including super validators — vote on protocol upgrades and policies.

The Global Synchronizer is a decentralized service that orders transactions across independent domains. It uses a 2/3-majority Byzantine-fault-tolerant (BFT) consensus run by trusted super validators and ensures that cross-domain transactions settle atomically and privately.

Canton Coin (CC) is the network's native utility token. There was no pre-mine; CC is earned through real activity by app builders, users and infrastructure operators. It is used to pay for synchronizer usage, name service lookups and other network fees.

CC is minted only when measured utility is added to the network. You can earn CC by building applications, operating validators or using public infrastructure. CC is also available for purchase on regulated exchanges including SBI VCTrade, Bybit and Gate, as well as through institutional custodians.

Early adopters include Broadridge's Distributed Ledger Repo (DLR) platform, which processes nearly $9 trillion of U.S. Treasury repo transactions monthly, and the DTCC, which is tokenizing U.S. Treasuries with an MVP expected in mid-2026. Visa and Euroclear have joined as super validators, and app builders such as Dfns and BitSafe are deploying CIP-56 tokens.

Financial institutions handle sensitive positions, trades and client data. Public chains expose this information to everyone, which is unacceptable for regulated entities. Canton's architecture ensures that parties see only the portions of a transaction relevant to them, enabling on-chain settlement without leaking confidential information.

Smart contracts in Daml define who must sign a transaction and who can observe it. The protocol enforces these visibility and authorization rules and delivers only the relevant encrypted fragments to each participant.

Daml is an open-source smart-contract language designed for complex multi-party workflows. It lets developers specify which parties must sign a contract, who can see it and what actions they can take. Canton uses Daml to define privacy and authorization rules, then enforces those rules at the protocol level.

Canton is not a single monolithic chain; instead it connects many sync domains into one virtual ledger. Each domain can have its own operators and governance, yet all are compatible via the protocol. Applications choose which domain to run on and can switch or interact with others through the Global Synchronizer.

A sync domain is a messaging and sequencing service that routes encrypted transaction fragments and orders them for a set of participant nodes. Domains may be centralized or decentralized, and participants can connect to multiple domains to access different applications or enable cross-domain workflows.

Parties represent real-world users or institutions. They register with participant nodes, which act as trusted execution environments: nodes manage keys, decrypt transaction fragments, validate Daml contracts and maintain the local view of the active contract set.

Each Daml transaction is broken into fragments. A party receives only the fragment that pertains to its rights and obligations. In a delivery-versus-payment trade, the bank sees only the cash transfer while the securities registrar sees only the asset transfer. Sync domains never see transaction contents; they only handle metadata needed to order messages.

Canton does not use mining or classical proof-of-stake. Instead, each transaction is validated by its stakeholders (the parties involved) in a two-phase commit: either all stakeholders commit or none do. This local consensus is then sequenced by a sync domain to produce a global ordering of transactions.

When a transaction spans multiple domains, the Global Synchronizer provides a neutral sequencing layer. It routes encrypted fragments and uses BFT consensus among super validators to agree on ordering. Without it, cross-domain workflows would require bespoke bridges and would reintroduce settlement risk.

CIP-56 is Canton's token interface standard, analogous to Ethereum's ERC-20 but upgraded for institutional finance. It standardizes how wallets and applications query balances, transfer tokens and access metadata. CIP-56 adds privacy-preserving balance management, multi-step transfers (offer-accept model) and native support for atomic delivery-versus-payment.

As the network grew, token contracts implemented divergent interfaces, complicating wallet integration. CIP-56 unifies token APIs so that wallets can support any compliant token via a single implementation. It also embeds compliance rules (such as KYC screening) directly into transfers and enables multi-asset atomic swaps.

Canton already underpins large-scale institutional applications. Broadridge's DLR processes an average of $384 billion in repo transactions daily, totaling nearly $9 trillion monthly. The DTCC is working with Digital Asset to tokenize U.S. Treasury securities, with an MVP expected in mid-2026. Other use cases include tokenized money-market funds, syndicated loans and private stablecoin payments.

Adoption is surging. The network now runs 876 validators and 13 Super Validators, with over 15 million Canton Coin transactions monthly. It processes more than $6 trillion of on-chain assets and has attracted banks (Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas), infrastructure providers (Broadridge, DTCC), Visa and tech firms building wallets, exchanges and liquidity platforms.

Ethereum pioneered public DeFi but offers little privacy — everyone can see all transaction details. Canton prioritizes privacy and compliance while still offering composability and decentralization. Through the Zenith bridge, Ethereum developers can access regulated infrastructure.

Zenith is an EVM/SVM application layer and super-validator on Canton. It enables developers to deploy unmodified Ethereum or Solana smart contracts that interact atomically with Canton's institutional infrastructure. This bridge unites public DeFi liquidity with Canton's privacy-enabled assets.

Compliance logic is embedded directly into Daml contracts rather than handled off-chain. When a CIP-56 token transfer is initiated, the contract can invoke a compliance hook — checking whether the recipient holds a valid KYC credential before the transfer executes. These credentials are themselves Daml contracts, issued by authorized verifiers and visible only to the parties that need to see them. Because enforcement happens at the contract layer, there's no way to bypass KYC by routing around a frontend — the rule is the contract.

A Canton transaction involves two layers. First, the stakeholders validate the transaction via a two-phase commit: each participant node checks the Daml logic, signs off and ensures data consistency. If any stakeholder rejects, the transaction is rolled back. Second, a sync domain sequences the transaction and the Global Synchronizer orders cross-domain messages using BFT consensus.

Instead of maintaining a single global ledger, Canton's state is represented as a graph of active contracts. Each contract is immutable and may be created or archived by transactions. Participant nodes store only the contracts relevant to their parties, and the network assembles a virtual global ledger by linking these private views. This partitioned ACS allows independent transactions to run in parallel.

Privacy is enforced through end-to-end encryption and selective disclosure. Each transaction is broken into encrypted fragments; only stakeholder nodes can decrypt their piece. Super validators and sync domains never see raw transaction data; they handle only encrypted blobs, timestamps and ordering metadata. Daml's visibility rules ensure that observers receive only the data they are entitled to.

When a transaction spans multiple domains, the Global Synchronizer acts as a neutral sequencer. It sequences encrypted messages and ensures that multi-leg transactions across domains either fully succeed or fully fail. Only the parties involved see the full details; the synchronizer never decrypts the payload.

In Daml, a non-consuming choice is an action that references a contract without archiving it. This allows multiple workflows to operate concurrently on the same contract — for example, two parties may request quotes from a custodian without blocking each other. Non-consuming choices reduce contention and increase throughput.

Canton allows participant and domain operators to prune or redact historical data while preserving cryptographic commitments, enabling compliance with regulations like the EU right-to-be-forgotten. Pruning does not break the validity of the ledger because commitments remain verifiable.

Yes. Parties can jointly reassign the sync domain that maintains a contract to optimize performance or manage trust. The network uses cryptographic proofs to migrate the contract state and preserves atomicity during domain reassignment.

CC fees paid for using the Global Synchronizer, Name Service or other public infrastructure are burned — removed from circulation. After each round (roughly every 10 minutes), new coins are minted and distributed to validators, super validators and applications based on measured usage. The burn-and-mint system means total supply grows only when network activity increases.

To self-host a validator you prepare a container or Kubernetes environment and request approval from a sponsoring super validator. Steps: (1) prepare a fixed egress IP and have it whitelisted; (2) set up an OIDC authentication flow; (3) download build packages from your sponsor; (4) join DevNet for testing, then request access to TestNet and MainNet. Once live, you earn CC liveness rewards.

CIP-56 implements an offer-accept model: the sender creates an offer, the recipient explicitly accepts it, and the transfer executes only after compliance checks (e.g., KYC) pass. It supports multi-asset atomic swaps, dynamic authorization (time-limited delegations) and privacy-preserving off-ledger APIs.

Institutions need privacy, compliance and interoperability. Canton's sub-transaction privacy lets them run workflows without exposing sensitive positions. Atomic settlement eliminates counterparty risk and frees trapped capital. Because Canton balances decentralization with regulatory controls, major banks, custodians and payment firms are adopting it.

The network is used for large-scale repo trading via Broadridge's DLR, tokenization of U.S. Treasuries via DTCC, tokenized money-market funds and stablecoin payments. Other applications include syndicated loans, derivatives trading, collateral management and tokenized bonds.

Key participants include banks (Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas), market infrastructures (Broadridge, DTCC), payment networks (Visa), custodians (BitGo, Anchorage), wallets (Dfns), liquidity platforms (CantonSwap, Flowdesk) and compliance providers. The network has 876 validators and 13 Super Validators live, processing trillions of dollars in tokenized assets.

Public chains like Ethereum and Solana provide broad access and liquidity but lack native privacy and impose transaction ordering via gas auctions. Canton delivers privacy, compliance and atomic composition but introduces complexity (multiple domains, Daml learning curve) and slower public auditability.

Running or delegating to a super validator involves operational uptime requirements and token-price risk. Rewards depend on network usage; if activity slows, liveness rewards shrink. Governance is controlled by a limited set of super validators, which may introduce centralization concerns, though new validators can join through a super-majority vote.

Canton aims to become the settlement backbone for global finance. It seeks to converge traditional and crypto markets into a single network where regulated assets and DeFi innovations co-exist. Future milestones include expanding stablecoins, adding more EVM/SVM support via Zenith and broadening participation through open validator onboarding.

CC follows a burn-and-mint equilibrium: fees paid for network services are burned, reducing supply; new coins are minted as rewards for infrastructure and applications. This ties supply growth to real network usage and prevents unchecked inflation.

Canton plans to mint up to 100 billion CC over ten years, split evenly between infrastructure providers and application providers. After the first decade, only 2.5 billion CC per year may be minted, with 75% going to applications and 25% to infrastructure.

Validators host Daml contracts and maintain private ledger slices. Super validators operate the Global Synchronizer and the Name Service; they cannot see transaction data but sequence and order transactions. Fees paid for sequencing and name lookups are burned and reminted to these operators, and they receive a share of scheduled minting.

Application providers earn CC when users interact with their contracts. Featured applications receive the majority of reward issuance — 62% of monthly CC in early 2026. Users may earn CC through governance participation, providing liquidity or running oracles, depending on app design.