Production Ready • 49 Tests Passing

🦄 Unykorn L1

A Production-Grade Layer-1 Blockchain Runtime Built in Rust. Deterministic execution. Cryptographic verification. Crash-safe persistence.

🚀 Get Started 📖 View Architecture
4
Core Components
49
Tests Passing
100%
Rust Native
3s
Block Time
Why Unykorn

Built for the Future

A closed-loop execution organism with strict trust boundaries

🔒

Security First

Every message passes through cryptographic verification before reaching the runtime. Nothing crosses from POPEYE to MARS without passing TEV.

⚡

Performance Optimized

Built in Rust for maximum performance and safety. Deterministic execution with crash-safe persistence and atomic writes.

🧩

Modular Architecture

Four distinct layers with clear separation of concerns. Each component has exactly one responsibility with no circular dependencies.

🛡️

Fault Isolation

Failures are contained to one layer. Network issues can't corrupt state. Invalid signatures can't reach the runtime.

💾

Crash Recovery

TAR provides crash-safe persistence with atomic writes. The chain recovers cleanly from any interruption.

📊

Observable

Clear boundaries for logging and metrics. Every component exposes its state for monitoring and debugging.

System Design

Architecture Overview

Four components working together as a unified runtime

🌐
POPEYE
Network Layer
→
🔐
TEV
Crypto Gate
→
🧠
MARS
Runtime
→
💾
TAR
Storage

Trust Boundaries

⚠️ Untrusted Zone
Network messages, peer data, external input. Any data here could be malformed, malicious, or replayed.
↓
🔐 TEV Gate — Cryptographic Verification
✅ Valid signature → Proceed to MARS   |   ❌ Invalid signature → Reject (never reaches runtime)
↓
✓ Trusted Zone
MARS execution, TAR persistence. Deterministic state transitions. Crash-safe writes. Recoverable on restart.
The Four Pillars

Component Deep Dive

🌐

POPEYE — Eyes & Ears

Network Perception + Message Transport

Peer discovery via mDNS, gossip propagation via libp2p, message routing with duplicate suppression.

"Hears rumors, not facts."

🔐

TEV — Truth Gate

Cryptographic Firewall

Ed25519 signature verification, 96-byte transport format enforcement, replay protection.

"Papers checked. No exceptions."

🧠

MARS — Runtime Brain

Deterministic State Machine

Canonical state, transaction validation, block production, pure state transitions.

"If MARS says no, the network doesn't matter."

💾

TAR — Memory Vault

Persistent Storage Layer

Append-only block storage, state snapshots, crash recovery with atomic writes.

"Remembers, but never validates."

Getting Started

Quick Start

Up and running in under 5 minutes

Terminal 
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/unykornai/Popeye-Tars-Mars-Tev.git
cd Popeye-Tars-Mars-Tev

# Build all components
cargo build --workspace

# Run tests (49 tests)
cargo test --workspace

# Start a node
cargo run --release -p node

# Or start a 3-node devnet
.\scripts\start-devnet.ps1
Quality Assurance

Test Results

Comprehensive test coverage across all components

Component Tests Status
🧠
MARS
14 ✓ Pass
🌐
POPEYE
12 ✓ Pass
🔐
TEV
9 ✓ Pass
💾
TAR
8 ✓ Pass
🖥️
NODE
5 ✓ Pass
Σ
Total
49 ✓ All Passing
What's Next

Development Roadmap

Phase 1 — Complete

✅ Foundation

Core architecture, P2P networking with libp2p, Ed25519 cryptography, crash-safe storage, 49 passing tests.

Phase 2 — In Progress

🚧 Production Hardening

24-hour soak testing, documentation, performance benchmarks, monitoring dashboards, mainnet preparation.

Phase 3 — Q2 2026

📋 Consensus Layer

Byzantine fault tolerance, validator set management, deterministic finality, block voting mechanism.

Phase 4 — 2027

🔮 Smart Contracts & Scaling

WASM/EVM execution, gas metering, sharding, cross-shard transactions, light clients.