How XChain works
No jargon required. These short explainers cover what XChain is, what you can do with it, and, just as importantly, what it deliberately doesn't try to be.
The big picture
The whole platform at a glance
A handful of small, independent services turn a coin node into a queryable token platform: data flows from the chain up to your app. The same shape runs once per chain.
Track 1 · Start here
Foundations
What XChain is and what a token is, from zero. Already hold crypto? Skip to Tokens.
The big idea
How XChain adds tokens, trading, and contracts on top of Bitcoin without changing Bitcoin at all.
2Tokens
What a token is, how supply and decimals work, and how to lock the rules so they can never change.
Seen in practice 3Fees
What actions cost, and how you can pay the fee in bitcoin, litecoin, or dogecoin. No special gas token needed.
4One protocol, every chain
Why XChain runs on many blockchains at once, and why adding the next one is a config file, not a fork.
5What it's not
An honest look at the trade-offs: block-speed, fully public, UTXO-only, and when to choose something else.
Track 2
What you can do
The things people actually build: collectibles, markets, royalties, gated files, verified projects.
NFTs & collectibles
Unique items, editions, and collections: ordinary tokens made one-of-a-kind, with art attached on-chain.
Seen in practice 2Trading & the DEX
The built-in exchange: order books, dispensers, and how trades settle directly on-chain.
Seen in practice 3Token rules & royalties
Attach a rule to a token and the network enforces it on every sale, including royalties that travel with the token.
Seen in practice 4Token-gated content
Encrypt files on-chain so only holders can unlock them, with the key traveling on every sale.
Seen in practice 5Project registry
How a project declares which tokens are officially its own, so wallets and explorers can show a verified badge.
Seen in practice 6Paid API requests
Pay for an API call in tokens, on-chain: the “402 Payment Required” web standard, made real for apps and AI agents.
Track 3
Programmable
Contracts, outside-world answers, and putting stake behind a promise.
Smart contracts
Programmable rules that can even ask AI and the web for verified answers, safely, without a new chain.
Seen in practice 2AI & the web, on-chain
How a contract asks a question (a web endpoint or an AI model) and gets an answer the whole network agrees on.
Seen in practice 3Built for AI agents
Read everything keylessly, connect over MCP, give an agent a bounded wallet, and pay (or get paid) in tokens.
4Staking
Lock any token against a contract on any supported chain, and how slashing keeps participants honest.
Seen in practiceTrack 4
Across chains, and who keeps it honest
Moving between chains without a bridge, and the network that makes the result checkable.
Cross-chain swaps
Trading across every chain you run atomically, without a bridge or wrapped coins.
Seen in practice 2Cross-chain calls
A contract on one chain can call a contract on another, relayed and verified by the validators, with the result delivered back.
3The validator network
The staked network that prices fees, attests cross-chain trades, and governs the protocol, holding no custody.
4State checkpoints
Signed snapshots written back to the chain, so anyone can verify the platform's state, or rebuild it from scratch.
Want the full reference? Browse the Core Concepts docs.