What is LAYER?

Question

What is LAYER?

Accepted Answer

## TLDR
Solayer is a high-performance blockchain project that began as a restaking platform on Solana and is evolving into a standalone, hardware-accelerated network called InfiniSVM, targeting over 1 million transactions per second.

1. **Hardware-Accelerated Architecture** – It uses programmable chips and a novel multi-execution model (InfiniSVM) to offload blockchain computations, aiming for extreme throughput and near-zero latency.
2. **Evolution from Restaking** – The project originated as Solana's first restaking platform, allowing users to stake SOL to secure additional services (AVSs) before pivoting to build its own scalable execution layer.
3. **Governance and Utility Token** – The LAYER token is the network's native asset, used for protocol governance, treasury management, and, in the future, for paying transaction fees and participating in network consensus.

## Deep Dive
### 1. Hardware-Accelerated Architecture
Solayer’s core innovation is InfiniSVM, a hardware-accelerated blockchain architecture. It offloads key components onto programmable hardware chips (like FPGAs) and uses technologies such as Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) ([Solayer](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/solayer)). This design targets a theoretical capacity of over 1 million transactions per second (TPS) and 100 Gbps network bandwidth, aiming to enable real-time, low-latency applications that traditional blockchains cannot support.

### 2. Evolution from Restaking to Standalone Chain
Solayer initially launched in 2024 as the first restaking platform on Solana. It allowed users to stake SOL or liquid staking tokens (LSTs) to provide security for Actively Validated Services (AVSs)—modular infrastructure components ([Solayer Foundation](https://solayer.foundation/blog/welcome-layer-tokenomics-and-2nd-distribution)). Building on this foundation, the project's thesis expanded in 2025 to develop InfiniSVM, positioning itself as an infinitely scalable execution layer rather than just a restaking protocol.

### 3. LAYER Token Utility and Governance
LAYER is the native token of the Solayer ecosystem with a maximum supply of 1 billion. Its primary current utility is governance, allowing holders to vote on protocol upgrades, treasury management, and ecosystem grants. Future planned utilities include serving as the gas token for the InfiniSVM network and enabling holders to participate in proof-of-stake consensus to earn block rewards, though these are subject to design changes ([Solayer Foundation](https://solayer.foundation/blog/welcome-layer-tokenomics-and-2nd-distribution)).

## Conclusion
Solayer is fundamentally an ambitious infrastructure project transitioning from a Solana restaking service to a proprietary, ultra-fast blockchain designed to unlock new real-time use cases. Will its hardware-accelerated approach successfully attract developers building applications that demand instantaneous settlement?

What is Solayer (LAYER)?

Deep Dive

1. Hardware-Accelerated Architecture

2. Evolution from Restaking to Standalone Chain

3. LAYER Token Utility and Governance

Conclusion

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