Understanding Ardor

What is Ardor?

Ardor is a Full BaaS 100% PoS blockchain platform, that solves the infamous “blockchain bloat problem” that plagues Ethereum, BTC, et. al. Ardor can scale due to its parent/child chain architecture, while still being energy efficient as well as cost effective for businesses, with its inbuilt contracts.

Why the ARDR token?

ARDR is the consensus token that "forges" and secures every child chain transaction on the Ardor parent chain and secures the entire Ardor network. "Forging" is the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism's equivalent to "mining" in PoW-systems like Bitcoin. Forging can be done on low-cost devices.

Is Ardor special?

Yes. Ardor is the most stable, light weight, and advanced blockchain in existence, and it actually exists - for real! The development began in 2013, with Nxt, and with Ardor going live 1/1-2018. I cannot pitch Ardor for you in 12 lines of text, you need to read on, but - you will not regret taking the time.

"The fundamental concept of the Ardor design is a clean separation of „forging token“ and „transactional token“. This new flexible architecture allows users to create their own blockchains, customised to fit their needs, while drawing security from the collective eco-system of the global platform".

What is "Pruning"?

Pruning is the process of keeping a blockchain fast and lightweight.

Ardor and Nxt address the blockchain bloat problem by pruning themselves every day. The security of the blockchain is not compromised as the transaction records of the last 24 hours are verified and they are condensed into a cryptographic hash. The hash can be reversed to recover the contents.

What does this mean for the average person? Instead of having to store the entire history of the blockchain, Ardor nodes just validate the previous day and nothing more. This pruning process prevents the blockchain from becoming bloated and slowing down. Running an Ardor node is incredibly lightweight and easy to do.


Forge blocks

Forging is the process of adding blocks to the blockchain - forgers receive the transaction fees associated with the transaction records in the forged block

Forging is a blockchain security mechanism that incentivizes people to join the network. The more people forging, the more secure a blockchain. More forgers also mean a quicker transaction validation time across the network.

Forging Nxt or Ardor can only be done on their respective clients. The process is simple, just click the button that says Forge. You will be prompted to enter your passphrase, and that is it! You are now contributing to the security of the blockchain by validating transaction records and if you successfully forge a block then you will receive the fees associated with the transactions.


Bundle Transactions

Unique to Ardor, the bundling process is used to group child chain transactions from a child chain into a transaction on the Ardor chain - this is the linking process between the child chain and parent chain

Since child chains are dependent on the parent chain for security, a mechanism is needed to group child chain transactions onto the parent Ardor chain in a “child chain block” - enter bundling. Any account can set up a bundler, provided they have enough ARDR to pay the forgers.

It is possible to have zero fee child chain transactions for child chain users. The bundler is still required to pay the ARDR fees to forgers but a business can bundle user transactions without fees. Bundlers can also be selective about which transactions they bundle. They cannot, however, determine the order in which bundled child chain transactions are processed.

To illustrate, if you have a bundler set up on the Ignis chain you need to choose your minimum rate. This number is multiplied by the 0.01 ARDR transaction fee to determine how much you receive in the native child chain token. The next step is to determine the fee limit, in ARDR. Remember that bundlers need to pay ARDR to forgers so if you set your bundler limit to 500 then you are saying that you are willing to pay forgers up to 500 ARDR worth of child chain transactions that have been bundled into a child chain block. If a child chain block reaches 500.01 ARDR worth of fees then your bundler will reject it. The last thing is the Overpay setting - which in the case of a tie between bundlers preferentially determines which account bundler will be chosen. If you set the Overpay to 10 then you are saying that you will be willing to pay 10 extra ARDR to the forger to select your bundled child chain block over another account’s bundler.


Who uses ARDR?

The common user - to support the network and earn fees from doing so, and the businesses / service providers that run Dapps, coins, assets, or child chains. By "bundling" the relevant transactions, the users will not have to pay any fees to the blockchain or own ARDR or other blockchain tokens.


Archival Nodes?



Can I get a Chain?

Yes, but you have to contact Jelurida.

A permissioned/private blockchain network requires an invitation to join, businesses who set up a private blockchain will generally set up a permissioned network which places restrictions on who is allowed to participate in the network consensus

Great for enterprise applications, one of the biggest advantages, apart from restricting users, is those consensus mechanisms are easier to implement as there is a smaller number of nodes that need to validate a smaller number of transactions.


Which features does an Ardor Child Chain have?

Every Ardor child chain has its own coin and sets its own rules and permission levels for the users of its features. Asset trading or creation of currencies can be restricted by the child chain issuers, for example.

To get a full picture, you can read about the IGNIS child chain, as Ignis is the most advanced and only full featured and 100% permissionless child chain.

List of features include a child chain token DEX, global Asset Exchange, Messaging, Marketplace, Voting System, Shuffling, Data Cloud, Phasing, Account Control, Account Properties, Alias System, Monetary System, + more.

Crowdfunding functionality is available on all child chains, and on each child chain the funds are collected in the corresponding coin. Reserve and claim transactions must happen on the child chain the currency was issued on.




Via third-party exchange - oftentimes the most frustrating process of using a blockchain

One thing that the Ardor client cannot do is exchange your dollars or euros into ARDR or any other child chain token. The AEUR child chain was created to specifically address this issue and if live in the EU it is a handy shortcut.

To buy crypto, whether it be ARDR, NXT, BTC or any possible other tokens you need to create an account with an exchange. If that exchange allows you to convert fiat currency into cryptocurrency then you need to be aware of the KYC/AML process.


The Crosschain DEX

Ardor has an inbuilt Coin Exchange; a decentralized trading engine, where all of Ardor's child chain tokens can be traded against each other P2P and also against ARDR. One child chain token is AEUR, a "stable coin" pegged to the Euro and backed by Euros.



What is Jelurida?

Jelurida B.V. is the company behind the development of the Ardor Platform and Nxt Blockchain technology.

Jelurida was incorporated to own the IP for Nxt and all subsequent blockchain technology. Although Nxt started out as a fully decentralized community, many long time developers of Nxt realized the need to incorporate in order to protect themselves from lawsuits and protect their intellectual property from being cloned. 


Existing Child Chains

The first child chain of Ardor, Ignis is the only child chain that has all possible functionality of a child chain and is fully permissionless - anyone can freely use it

Ignis is the best example of what a child chain can offer. Jelurida is developed Ardor for it next generational capabilities and extreme scalability, offered through its child chains. The transactional token of this chain is IGNIS, which is listed on several exchanges.

AEUR is a child chain of Ardor that is tethered to the euro - by definition: 1 AEUR token = 1 Euro



Ardor Compared

Development Updates

New to Blockchain?

What is Proof-of-Stake?

In a PoS blockchain the ability to mine ("forge") is directly proportional to your “stake” - your account balance. All tokens already exist and were created when the blockchain launched, so there are no new coins mined. When you add a new block to the blockchain, you (generally) receive the transaction fees in that block. The value of the tokens come from their transactional power, their ecosystems, and the “forging” process. 

The PoS architecture makes Nxt and Ardor very energy efficient. Any computer with 2 GB of RAM can run a node and forge with a sufficient balance - the entire Nxt and Ardor blockchain can be run on a Raspberry Pi.

How does it work?

The amount of blocks you get to forge is proportional to your ARDR balance vs. the total ARDR balance forging. Imagine one account with 1,000 ARDR tokens and one account with 10,000 ARDR tokens. Both are eligible to forge blocks and be awarded with the transaction fees associated with that block, but because of the different balances, the account with 10,000 ARDR tokens is (approximately) 10x as likely to be selected to forge the next block as the account with 1,000 tokens. Ardor and Nxt were both created with 1,000,000,000 tokens.

You only earn transaction fees from forging blocks with ARDR. Unless forging reward program is ongoing.

What is Blockchain Bloat?

Blockchains, by design, keep every transaction record - every day the blockchain grows and becomes slower

The creative team that founded Jelurida recognized that this issue would impede blockchain adoption in the long run and they came up with a novel solution - why not prune the blockchain without sacrificing security? From this Ardor was born.