Question 1

What is Parallax?

Accepted Answer

Parallax is a blockchain protocol that combines Bitcoin's proven monetary discipline with Ethereum's programmability. It maintains Bitcoin's fixed 21M coin supply, 10-minute blocks, and Proof of Work consensus while adding full EVM compatibility for smart contracts.

Question 2

Who created Parallax?

Accepted Answer

It doesn't matter — and that is the point. The source code was public before launch, the launch date was announced in advance, and the supply at genesis was zero, so every participant stood at the same starting line. The original authors hold no keys to the protocol, received no allocation, and are required for nothing; the network would not notice their disappearance. Every claim about Parallax can be checked against the chain itself, so authorship carries no authority.

Question 3

How is Parallax different from Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Accepted Answer

Parallax uniquely combines the best of both worlds: Bitcoin's monetary policy (21M fixed supply, halving cycles, PoW) with Ethereum's programmability (EVM compatibility, smart contracts). Unlike Bitcoin, it supports complex applications. Unlike Ethereum, it maintains a fixed supply and doesn't burn fees.

Question 4

Why Proof of Work instead of Proof of Stake?

Accepted Answer

Proof of Work anchors security to an external, objective cost — energy — that cannot be simulated, voted into existence, or socially negotiated. Proof of Stake systems replace one set of trusted intermediaries with another (validators/committees), merely relocating trust rather than removing it. PoW ensures that influence is earned only through work, never through privilege or identity, making it the only consensus mechanism compatible with true permissionlessness.

Question 5

What consensus mechanism does Parallax use?

Accepted Answer

Parallax uses Proof of Work (PoW) consensus with XHash mining algorithm, making it GPU-friendly unlike Bitcoin's ASIC-dominated SHA-256. This ensures broader mining participation while maintaining the security benefits of PoW.

Question 6

What is XHash and why was it chosen?

Accepted Answer

XHash is a modified Ethash variant: memory-hard, so commodity GPUs mine competitively, and altered precisely so that the existing stock of Ethash ASICs cannot be reused on Parallax. A proof-of-work network is most fragile in its early years, when total hashrate is small; XHash ensures that security in those years is supplied by widely held hardware rather than by whoever owns the residue of another chain's hardware arms race.

Question 7

Is Parallax EVM compatible?

Accepted Answer

Yes — Parallax runs the Ethereum Virtual Machine, complete through the Paris fork. Contracts written in Solidity or Vyper deploy unchanged, and familiar tools like MetaMask, Remix, Hardhat, and Foundry work with only a chain ID change (2110). One caveat: opcodes introduced after Paris (such as PUSH0 from Shanghai) are not available, so set your compiler's EVM version to "paris" — Solidity 0.8.20 and later targets Shanghai by default.

Question 8

What are the block times and transaction fees?

Accepted Answer

Parallax maintains 10-minute block intervals like Bitcoin for stability and predictability. Transaction fees use a first-price auction model where fees go directly to miners, ensuring sustainable mining incentives without fee burning.

Question 9

Why 10-minute blocks instead of faster?

Accepted Answer

Global agreement requires physical delay. Systems that minimize time-to-finality below physical limits introduce hidden advantages — proximity to validators, specialized networking, privileged transaction ordering — all of which centralize consensus. Parallax treats time as a stabilizing force. Finality earned slowly through accumulated work is more robust than finality declared quickly through social agreement.

Question 10

What is the block gas limit?

Accepted Answer

Parallax uses a conservative block gas limit of 600 million gas, approximately half of Ethereum's throughput at roughly 1 million gas per second. This is a deliberate design choice: keeping the base layer conservative in throughput ensures full nodes remain accessible to individuals running commodity hardware, prioritizing decentralization over raw speed.

Question 11

How does Parallax handle 51% attacks?

Accepted Answer

Parallax's security model combines Proof of Work, 10-minute block intervals, and XHash mining to make attacks prohibitively expensive. Rewriting history requires accumulating more work than the honest chain — a cost that grows with every block. XHash's accessibility promotes a diverse, distributed mining base, making it harder for any single entity to accumulate majority hash power. The 100-block coinbase maturity period also prevents attackers from immediately spending mined rewards during a reorganization attempt.

Question 12

What is coinbase maturity?

Accepted Answer

Coinbase maturity is a 100-block lockup period (approximately 17 hours) before newly mined block rewards can be spent. This prevents miners from spending rewards from blocks that might later be reorganized out of the chain, adding an additional layer of security against chain reorganization attacks.

Question 13

What are the hardware requirements for running a full node?

Accepted Answer

Parallax is designed so that full nodes can run on commodity hardware accessible to individuals. The conservative block gas limit of 600M gas and 10-minute block intervals keep storage growth, bandwidth, and computation requirements manageable. Any modern computer with a broadband connection can participate in validating the network.

Question 14

How can I mine Parallax?

Accepted Answer

Parallax uses the XHash mining algorithm. You can mine with a CPU via the built-in client miner, or with GPUs using Hashwarp — the official open-source miner — or SRBMiner-Multi. Point your miner at a Parallax pool, or at your own node for solo mining.

Question 15

What is the mining reward schedule?

Accepted Answer

Parallax follows Bitcoin's halving schedule. The initial block reward starts at 50 LAX per block and halves approximately every 4 years (210,000 blocks). This ensures the same scarcity model that has proven successful with Bitcoin.

Question 16

Can I use my Ethereum mining rig?

Accepted Answer

Yes — the hardware carries over. XHash is Ethash-derived and memory-hard, so Ethash-class GPU rigs mine Parallax competitively without hardware changes. The software does change: existing Ethash miners cannot mine XHash, so use Hashwarp (the official open-source miner) or SRBMiner-Multi, pointed at a Parallax pool or your own node.

Question 17

What is the total supply of Parallax?

Accepted Answer

Parallax has a fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins, identical to Bitcoin. This hard cap ensures scarcity and deflationary monetary policy, making LAX a store of value while enabling programmable functionality.

Question 18

How are transaction fees handled?

Accepted Answer

Unlike Ethereum's fee burning mechanism, Parallax uses a first-price auction model where all transaction fees go directly to miners. This ensures sustainable mining incentives and maintains the economic security of the network.

Question 19

Why doesn't Parallax burn fees like Ethereum?

Accepted Answer

Fee burning reduces miner revenue and creates a dependency on transaction volume for economic security. In Parallax, all fees go directly to miners, ensuring they remain economically incentivized to secure the network regardless of block subsidy levels. This is especially important as block rewards diminish through halving cycles — transaction fees become the primary incentive for miners, and burning any portion of them would undermine long-term network security.

Question 20

What happens when all 21 million coins are mined?

Accepted Answer

Once all 21 million coins have been mined (estimated to take over a century following the halving schedule), miners will be sustained entirely by transaction fees. Because Parallax does not burn fees, all transaction fees flow directly to miners, providing a long-term economic incentive to continue securing the network. This model mirrors Bitcoin's design and ensures the network remains viable without relying on perpetual coin issuance.

Question 21

Is there a premine or ICO?

Accepted Answer

No. Parallax follows a fair launch model with no premine, no ICO, and no privileged allocations. All coins are distributed through mining rewards, ensuring decentralized and equitable distribution from day one.

Question 22

How are protocol upgrades decided?

Accepted Answer

Parallax follows a minimal governance philosophy. The protocol's monetary policy — the 21 million supply cap, halving schedule, and PoW consensus — is considered immutable and not subject to governance. Protocol upgrades are limited to technical improvements and bug fixes, and are driven by community consensus rather than any central foundation or company. Any rule that requires interpretation introduces discretion, and discretion introduces capture; Parallax favors deterministically evaluable rules.

Question 23

Is there a foundation or company behind Parallax?

Accepted Answer

No. There is no foundation, no company, no treasury, no council, and no privileged governance tokens. Client development happens in the open, and consensus rules are intended to ossify: changes are limited to technical repair, and even a repair becomes real only through the voluntary adoption of node operators, one by one. The original authors hold no keys and are required for nothing — the protocol must remain correct even if its creators disappear or disagree.

Question 24

Will Parallax support Layer 2 solutions?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The base layer is intentionally conservative — it exists to settle, not to impress. Maximizing throughput and expressiveness at the base layer increases complexity and attack surface. Parallax confines experimentation to higher layers where failure doesn't threaten settlement. Layer 2 solutions such as rollups and sidechains can anchor to Parallax's secure base layer for scalability while preserving the security guarantees of PoW settlement.

Question 25

Are there bridges to other blockchains?

Accepted Answer

As a fully EVM-compatible chain, Parallax is architecturally compatible with existing cross-chain bridge protocols. Bridge development is driven by the community and ecosystem participants. Since Parallax uses standard Ethereum tooling and interfaces, integrating with bridge infrastructure follows the same patterns as any EVM chain.

Question 26

How can I build on Parallax?

Accepted Answer

Building on Parallax works like building on Ethereum. Use Solidity, Remix, Hardhat, or Foundry, and deploy with MetaMask or any Web3 wallet connected to the Parallax network (chain ID 2110). Set evmVersion to "paris" in your compiler config — the execution layer is complete through the Paris fork, and Solidity 0.8.20+ otherwise emits PUSH0, which Parallax does not support.

Question 27

Are there development grants available?

Accepted Answer

The Parallax ecosystem encourages community-driven development. While there's no central foundation distributing grants, the community actively supports promising projects through various mechanisms and partnerships.

Question 28

What tools and libraries are supported?

Accepted Answer

All Ethereum development tools work with Parallax: Web3.js, Ethers.js, MetaMask, Remix, Hardhat, Foundry, OpenZeppelin contracts, and more. Compile with EVM version "paris" — the execution layer does not include post-Paris opcodes.

Frequently Asked Questions

General

What is Parallax?

Who created Parallax?

How is Parallax different from Bitcoin and Ethereum?

Why Proof of Work instead of Proof of Stake?