Integrate a Chain
Use these guides if you are building a stablecoin, tokenized asset platform, exchange, payment network, or other application that needs dedicated chain infrastructure with decentralized settlement.
The Espresso stack
When you integrate a chain or application with Espresso, your environment is composed of four layers. Understanding how they fit together will help you choose the right integration path.
1. Execution environment
Your application runs its own execution environment. This is where transactions are executed and state is derived. Espresso does not execute transactions and does not dictate what VM or logic your environment uses.
Supported execution clients include:
Besu and other EVM clients
OP Stack execution environments
Nitro / Orbit execution environments
Custom VMs
Your execution environment defines its own rules for fees, ordering policy, compliance checks, and asset support.
2. Sequencer
Each application environment has a dedicated sequencer. The sequencer is responsible for ordering incoming transactions and streaming blocks to Espresso. Blocks can be encrypted before submission to preserve transaction privacy.
The sequencer is operated by you or your designated operator. It is separate from Espresso's validator network.
3. Espresso
Espresso finalizes the blocks produced by your sequencer through decentralized Proof of Stake consensus. Once Espresso finalizes a block, it cannot be reordered or removed without consensus-level corruption.
Espresso provides:
Finality: decentralized Proof of Stake consensus across a permissionless validator set
Scalable throughput: the ability to scale to millions of transactions per second across parallel environments
Crosschain readability: State finalized by Espresso can be verified by other chains and applications
Optional data availability
Espresso does not execute transactions. It finalizes the transaction stream your sequencer produces.
4. RPC nodes and provers
Authorized clients read the finalized transaction stream from Espresso via RPC nodes. They execute the deterministic application logic against that stream to derive state. For private applications, this includes decrypting blocks using access keys they hold.
For crosschain coordination, coordination servers generate zero-knowledge proofs that allow destination environments to verify message correctness without re-executing the source logic.
Choose your integration path
Private permissioned Besu network
New Nitro / Orbit chain
Existing Nitro / Orbit chain
OP Stack chain
Not sure which path fits? Contact Espresso to schedule an architecture review.
Integration stages
All integration paths follow the same four stages:
Internal deployment: deploy and validate against your own test environment (3 to 4 days)
Devnet: validate against a shared Espresso development network
Testnet: minimum 5 to 7 day clean run required before proceeding
Mainnet: go live on Espresso Mainnet with 24/7 monitoring
Espresso provides a kick-off call, devops assistance, async support, and monitoring throughout.
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