What Is Fantom?

1. What Is Fantom?

Fantom is a high-performance, scalable, and secure smart contract platform designed for building decentralized applications (dApps) and digital assets. Leveraging a unique consensus mechanism called Lachesis, Fantom offers near-instant transaction finality, low fees, and high throughput—making it a powerful alternative to legacy blockchains like Ethereum. Fantom’s architecture supports seamless interoperability and is tailored for real-world use cases, including DeFi, enterprise systems, and public infrastructure.

2. Why Fantom Was Created

Fantom was created to solve the critical issues of scalability, speed, and cost that have long plagued blockchain platforms. Traditional networks often suffer from high latency, congested networks, and excessive fees, which hinder mass adoption and limit real-world use. Fantom aims to overcome these limitations by providing a network that can support thousands of transactions per second (TPS) at a fraction of the cost—all while maintaining decentralization and security. The goal is to enable practical blockchain solutions for both public and private sectors.

3. How Fantom Works

1. Fantom uses a unique aBFT consensus mechanism called Lachesis, ensuring fast, secure, and final transaction confirmations without a leader-based system.
2. The Opera Chain, Fantom’s mainnet, is where smart contracts and dApps are deployed, offering full Ethereum compatibility.
3. Fantom employs a DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) architecture to allow asynchronous and parallel processing of transactions.
4. Fantom is building its own Fantom Virtual Machine (FVM) to improve performance and reduce gas consumption beyond current EVM standards.
5. Cross-chain bridges enable Fantom to connect with Ethereum, Polygon, and BNB Chain, facilitating multi-chain interoperability.
6. On-chain governance empowers token holders to propose and vote on network upgrades and changes.

4. Key Features of Fantom

• Ultra-fast transactions with finality in 1–2 seconds
• Low-cost network fees
• Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatibility
• Modular blockchain architecture supporting independent dApp chains
• Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (aBFT) consensus protocol
• Decentralized governance through on-chain voting

5. Who Can Use Fantom?

• Developers looking to build scalable, EVM-compatible decentralized applications
• Enterprises seeking cost-effective blockchain infrastructure for real-world use cases
• DeFi users in need of fast, affordable, and reliable platforms for lending, staking, and trading
• Governments and public sector organizations deploying smart city and digital identity solutions
• Retail crypto users exploring NFTs, dApps, or DeFi at low cost and high speed

6. What Is the $FTM Token?

$FTM is the native utility token of the Fantom network and plays a critical role in its ecosystem. It is used to pay transaction fees, secure the network through staking, and enable on-chain governance. Validators stake FTM to participate in consensus and earn rewards for maintaining the network.

FTM also serves as collateral in various DeFi applications built on Fantom and is compatible across multiple chains including Ethereum (ERC-20), BNB Chain (BEP-20), and Fantom's native Opera network, thanks to bridge integrations.