Each elastic sidechain is comprised of a collective of randomly appointed virtualized subnodes which run the SKALE daemon and the SKALE consensus. Nodes in the SKALE Network are not restricted to a single chain but rather can work across multiple sidechains via the use of virtualized subnodes. This multiplex capability is made possible via a containerized subnode architecture deployed on each node in the Network. Each node is virtualized and is able to participate as a validator via this subnode architecture for an independent number of sidechains. Sidechains sizes can be small, medium, or large with a small chain using 1/128 of a node’s resources, a medium using 1/8 of the resources, and a large using the full amount. Currently, only medium SKALE chains will be available.
The subnode virtualization is enabled via an innovative containerized architecture that provides industrial-grade performance and optionality for decentralized application developers – performance and flexibility that is similar to traditional centralized cloud and microservice systems. Containers are divided into several main components encapsulated via a dockerized Linux OS – allowing for each node to be hosted in an OS-agnostic manner.