Understand Nervos CKB in
five steps

Step

What is Nervos CKB?

Built on RISC-V and secured by Proof-of-Work, CKB is the most cryptographically flexible and programmable UTXO-based chain.

CKB was built around a conviction: a blockchain should remain useful as technology evolves, without giving up the principles that make it worth using. Its ambition is to carry Bitcoin’s resilience, openness, and independent verifiability into a broader world of applications, where developers can define their own rules and users retain control over the digital assets and systems they depend on.

• The Blockchain: CKB stands for Common Knowledge Base, the Layer 1 of the Nervos Network.
• The Token: CKB is the native currency, used to pay transaction fees and occupy on-chain storage.
• The Network: Nervos is a growing set of standards and protocols built around CKB.

Step

Why it’s built differently?

CKB is built to let applications and cryptography evolve independently of the core protocol. Developers can introduce new features, signature schemes, and ownership rules without requiring a network-wide upgrade, keeping the foundation stable while expanding what can be built on it.

Three design choices set CKB apart:

• The Cell Model: Bitcoin’s UTXOs, extended to hold assets, data, and code, with programmable rules governing how they can be used.
• A RISC-V VM: Built on an open instruction set used in real processors, CKB can run application logic and cryptographic libraries compiled for RISC-V.
• Native Account Abstraction: Each Cell defines how access is authorized, enabling wallets and apps to support passkeys, multiple signatures, and post-quantum schemes.

Step

What it makes possible

CKB’s flexibility translates into new ways to secure assets, build payment networks, and connect blockchains. Developers can put these ideas into practice on the same underlying foundation.

From the keys that protect your assets to the networks that move them, here’s what that freedom enables:

• Flexible security: From Quantum Purse’s post-quantum signatures to JoyID’s passkeys, developers can choose how users secure and access their assets.
• Novel Layer 2s: Fiber extends Lightning’s payment-channel model with more expressive channels supporting multiple assets, native swaps, and cross-chain payments.
• Interoperability: CKB can link asset ownership to another blockchain while enforcing the asset’s rules on CKB, as RGB++ demonstrates with Bitcoin.

Step

Crypto-Agile & Quantum-Ready

CKB is the only crypto-agile blockchain in existence today.

Security shouldn’t be limited to the cryptography a blockchain launched with. CKB can support new signature schemes, including post-quantum alternatives, without changing its core protocol, giving developers the freedom to prepare for emerging threats.

• Crypto-Agility by Design: Signature schemes live in programmable scripts, so anyone can deploy or use new ones without waiting for soft or hard forks.
• Post-Quantum Protection Today: SPHINCS+ is available on CKB and used by the Quantum Purse wallet.
• Ready For What Comes Next: As better post-quantum schemes emerge, developers can add them through the same process, without seeking permission.

Step

Make your next move

You’ve seen what makes CKB different. Now explore what people are building, meet the community, or start building something of your own.

You don’t have to read everything. The fastest way to make CKB click is to try it out.