Nested Blockchain
Web3 / blockchain technology
A nested blockchain is a blockchain architecture where a secondary blockchain (child chain) operates within or on top of a primary blockchain (parent chain), with the parent chain setting foundational rules and providing final settlement security. The parent chain anchors the child chain's state through periodic commitment verification, allowing the child to process transactions with lower overhead while maintaining cryptographic security inheritance. This hierarchical structure enables scalability improvements and specialized execution environments while leveraging the parent chain's consensus finality and immutability guarantees. Example: Arbitrum and Optimism are nested blockchains running as rollups on Ethereum, processing thousands of transactions off-chain and periodically submitting cryptographic proofs to Ethereum for final settlement and dispute resolution. Why it matters for blockchain technology: Nested blockchains enable horizontal scalability and specialized chain optimization while maintaining security inheritance, solving the blockchain trilemma by allowing fast execution without sacrificing decentralization or security.
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