Kanari

Kanari is a real-time transaction network designed for in-game payments and asset systems.

It allows developers to build instant game economy features — such as UID top-ups, item purchases, and asset transfers — with sub-second finality and no gas fees.

---

What can you build with Kanari?

• 🎮 In-game payment system (UID top-up)
• 💰 Instant item purchases
• 🔁 Real-time asset transfers
• 📊 Game economy backend

---

Why Kanari?

Traditional systems:

• ❌ Slow settlement (seconds or batch processing)
• ❌ Complex backend logic
• ❌ No verifiable state

Kanari:

• ⚡ Instant execution (~10 ms)
• 🔒 Secure finality (~300 ms)
• 💸 No gas fees (user-friendly UX)
• 🧩 Simple integration

---

How it works

1. Transaction is submitted
2. Executed instantly by a small node set (~10 ms)
3. Propagated across the network (DAG)
4. Finalized by Byzantine quorum (~300 ms)

Result:

• Instant user experience
• Strong consistency and correctness

---

Example: In-game payment

1. Player enters UID
2. Payment is submitted
3. Balance updates instantly
4. Transaction is finalized within ~300 ms

No waiting. No gas fees.

---

Developer Quick Start

Prerequisites

• Rust and Cargo (stable channel recommended)
• Clang, LLVM, CMake (for RocksDB)
• Libssl-dev, pkg-config

Build CLI

cargo build -p kanari

Run CLI

# List wallets (first run will bootstrap genesis)
cargo run -p kanari -- keytool list

Move commands

# Create new Move package
cargo run -p kanari -- move new my_token

# Test Move package
cargo run -p kanari -- move test ./my_token

Note: On first run, the CLI performs a Rust-side genesis that mints initial supply. To reset state, remove ~/.kanari/kanari-db/ and rerun.

---

Testing

# Run all tests
cargo test

# Run specific crate tests
cargo test -p kanari-types

---

Project Structure

• crates/kanari — CLI binary and bootstrap logic
• crates/kanari-types — domain types (accounts, balances, TransferRecord)
• crates/kanari-move-runtime — Move VM integration (execution, validation, persistence)
• crates/kanari-crypto — key management, signing, crypto utilities
• crates/kanari-frameworks/packages/kanari-system — Move packages (on-chain modules)
• crates/kanari-core — blockchain engine and DAG consensus
• crates/centauri — consensus implementation
• third_party/move — bundled Move toolchain (path dependencies)

---

Local State

• RocksDB path: ~/.kari/kanari-db/move_vm_db
• State storage: Serialized MoveVMState under key "state"
• Reset state: Delete the DB directory and restart

---

Architecture (Advanced)

Kanari uses a distributed execution model with:

• Event-driven execution (no block dependency)
• DAG-based propagation (Narwhal & Bullshark)
• Byzantine quorum consensus (2f+1 finality)
• Parallel transaction processing
• Sparse Merkle Tree state verification

Transactions are executed instantly and finalized asynchronously through DAG consensus.

For detailed architecture documentation:

• Kanari Core README
• DAG Architecture
• System ER Diagram

---

Key Files for Development

• crates/kanari/src/main.rs — CLI entry point and bootstrap
• crates/kanari-move-runtime/src/move_runtime.rs — Move VM integration
• crates/kanari-types/src/transfer.rs — TransferRecord validation
• crates/kanari-frameworks/packages/kanari-system — Move modules

---

Documentation

• Move CLI Guide — Complete Move development guide
• Kanari Core — Engine and consensus details
• Whitepaper — Technical whitepaper
• Developer Book — Comprehensive docs

---

Vision

Kanari is built for real-time interactive systems like games, where speed, usability, and reliability are critical.

It bridges the gap between traditional game backend systems and verifiable distributed infrastructure.

---

Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for guidelines.

License

Copyright (c) KanariNetwork, Inc.
SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

---

Need help?

• Issues: GitHub Issues

• Docs: docs.kanari.network