# Custom Chain Infrastructure

Espresso provides dedicated chain infrastructure for teams building onchain systems that require control, configurability, connectivity to broader markets, and production-grade performance.

It supports a growing set of chains, applications, and infrastructure teams across payments, consumer, DeFi, and app-specific deployments. The same architectural requirements increasingly matter to organizations building stablecoins, tokenized assets, exchanges, and other digital asset systems.

Built on a modular architecture with a BFT consensus mechanism, the network delivers high throughput and fast finality. Its interoperable design enables native connectivity across chains, making it straightforward to build cross-chain applications and integrations. Transactions settle in under three seconds today across a decentralized validator set, with a roadmap to sub-second finality and throughput scaling to millions of transactions per second.

### Why teams use Espresso

| Control                                                                | Configurability                                                                                        | Connectivity                                                         | Performance                                              |
| ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| Operate in a dedicated environment built around your own requirements. | Design the system around the product instead of forcing the product into someone else’s default stack. | Stay connected to broader assets, applications, and onchain markets. | Support fast, reliable user and transaction experiences. |

Espresso is trusted by leading teams including Arbitrum ($16B+ secured), Celo ($65B+ annual stablecoin volume, 700K+ DAU), ApeChain, Morph Chain, Rari Chain, and LitVM.

L2s and rollups using Espresso as a decentralized base layer benefit from industry-leading finalization speed. The confirmations that Espresso provides underpin cross-chain applications that can tap into liquidity and users of all connected Espresso-chains.

### Get Started 

#### Build an Onchain Application or System

For teams building stablecoins, tokenized assets, exchanges, payment systems, and other applications that may benefit from dedicated chain infrastructure.

[These guides](https://docs.espressosys.com/network/guides/rollup-developers) help you evaluate when a dedicated chain is the right architecture.

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#### Build Cross-Chain Integrations

For teams connecting applications, assets, and workflows across chains using Espresso-connected infrastructure.

[These guides](https://docs.espressosys.com/network/broken-reference) show how to read from Espresso and build integrations that depend on reliable cross-chain state and messaging.

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####  Operate Infrastructure

For teams running validator, node, builder, or other network-critical services.

[These guides](https://docs.espressosys.com/network/guides/node-operators) cover how to deploy, run, and maintain production infrastructure on Espresso.