No.154
Conflux CFX
A little branch sprite that keeps every forked block and ties them into one tree
๐ญ A branch sprite from a Tsinghua University lab. Where other chains throw away forked blocks, it keeps them all and weaves them into a tree it calls the Tree-Graph. It's also known for being a public blockchain that plays by China's rules.
๐ฌ โThe path split in two? Good. I'll keep both. Every branch belongs on my tree. ๐ณโ
- Conflux runs its own Layer 1 blockchain. It isn't a copy or a fork of anyone.
- Its trick: instead of discarding forked blocks, it keeps them all and weaves them into a tree (the Tree-Graph) to run faster.
- It's the rare crypto project that markets itself as compliant with China's rules, which is a selling point in Asia.
๐ The Story
Here's a problem most blockchains run into. Sometimes two new blocks pop up at the exact same moment. That's called a fork, and the usual fix is blunt: keep one block, toss the other, and forget all the work that was riding on it.
Conflux's branch sprite refuses to do that. It keeps every forked block and hangs them on a tree it calls the Tree-Graph, sorting out the proper order afterward. More branches means more work happening at the same time. The idea came out of a Tsinghua University lab run by Andrew Yao, a Turing Award winner, and in a 2020 research paper the team clocked it at roughly 3,480 transactions per second, with confirmation in under a minute.
The mainnet, nicknamed Tethys, went live in October 2020. The other thing worth knowing about Conflux is its reputation as a public chain that operates inside China's regulatory lines, which is why it gets pitched as a friendly on-ramp into Asian markets.
๐ Stats
๐งฉ How it works
When two blocks appear at once (a fork), most blockchains keep one and throw the rest away. Conflux doesn't do that. It keeps every forked block, hanging them on the tree like branches and processing them at the same time, then just sorts out the order afterward. This tree is called the Tree-Graph. Because it uses all those branches, it can handle more transactions at once, in its research paper it reached up to about 3,480 TPS, with confirmation in under a minute.
๐ Light & Shadow
- The Tree-Graph keeps every forked block instead of wasting it, which is built for high throughput (around 3,480 TPS in the team's own research paper)
- Serious academic roots: the design came out of Andrew Yao's lab at Tsinghua, and Yao holds a Turing Award. That's an unusually credentialed origin story for a crypto project
- Since 2022 it has run an EVM-compatible space called eSpace, so Ethereum tools and apps work on it. Pair that with its compliant-in-China standing and you get a real foothold in Asian markets
- There's no hard cap. CFX is inflationary, with fresh coins minted every year (total supply sits around 5.2 billion), so it's on the low-scarcity side. Some burn mechanisms exist, but nothing like Bitcoin's fixed 21 million
- Outside Asia it stays fairly niche next to giants like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and a smaller, less-traded altcoin tends to have a bumpier price
- The same compliance that opens China can also box it in. Conflux is tied to Chinese policy, and that policy can shift
๐งฌ Evolution lineage
Conflux is an independent Layer 1, it's not a fork or a sibling of any other coin. It's an original project built by Andrew Yao's lab at Tsinghua University together with researchers from the University of Toronto. In 2022 it adopted EVM (Ethereum) compatibility via eSpace, so its only tie to Ethereum is being a โcompatible cousinโ (not a direct bloodline).
๐งญ Meet other friends
โ FAQ
- What is Conflux (CFX)?
- It's not a copy of another coin, it has its own main blockchain (a Layer 1). When blocks fork, it doesn't throw the extras away; it weaves them all together like a tree (Tree-Graph) and processes them at the same time, aiming for high speed. It's also often introduced as a regulation-friendly public blockchain built in China.
- What is the Tree-Graph?
- When several blocks appear at once (a fork), most blockchains keep one and throw the rest away. Conflux keeps all of them, hanging them on the tree like branches and processing them together, then sorts out the order afterward. That lets it handle more transactions, faster. In its research paper it reached up to about 3,480 TPS, with confirmation in under a minute.
- Who created it?
- It started in a Tsinghua University lab led by Turing Award winner Professor Andrew Yao. The founders are Fan Long, Ming Wu, and Yuanjie Zhang, who set up the Conflux Foundation in 2018. The mainnet officially launched in October 2020.
- Does CFX have a supply cap?
- No. Unlike Bitcoin (fixed at 21 million), CFX has no hard cap, it's inflationary. Total supply is currently around 5.2 billion CFX, with new coins issued every year. There are, however, mechanisms that burn some of it.
โ ๏ธ Not investment advice. All figures are for information only (MOCK ยท 2026-06-04).