Canton Network
Canton Network is a privacy-enabled public blockchain network built on Daml by Digital Asset, designed for regulated financial applications.
- Category
- Canton fundamentals
- Related terms
- 6
- Glossary size
- 34
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-10
Canton Network explained
Canton Network is a public blockchain network designed around a requirement most chains ignore: participants in regulated finance cannot broadcast their positions and trades to the world. Built on the Daml smart-contract language by Digital Asset, Canton keeps transaction data visible only to the parties entitled to see it, while still providing the settlement guarantees expected of a shared ledger.
Architecturally, Canton is a network of networks rather than a single chain. Independent participant nodes host their own parties and data, and synchronizers order and deliver messages between them. Applications can run on private synchronizers and still interoperate through the Global Synchronizer, the shared public backbone operated by a decentralized group of super validators. Its mainnet launched in 2024 with participation from major financial institutions.
Two properties follow from this design. First, privacy is structural, not bolted on: a participant node only ever stores the sub-transactions its parties are involved in. Second, composability crosses application boundaries, so an asset issued in one Canton application can settle atomically against another.
Canton Coin is the network's native utility token, and OneSwap operates as an exchange within this ecosystem, running AMM pools for CC and other Canton-issued assets.
Entry last reviewed 2026-08-10. Live prices, reserves, and activity belong on the linked market pages, which regenerate every five minutes.
Related terms
- Daml Daml is the smart-contract language by Digital Asset that Canton Network is built on, modeling agreements as contracts between named parties.
- Global Synchronizer The Global Synchronizer is Canton Network's shared public interoperability backbone, operated by independent super validators and paid in Canton Coin.
- Participant node A participant node is Canton's ledger node: it hosts parties, validates their Daml transactions, and stores only data those parties may see.
- Synchronizer A synchronizer is Canton's message-ordering service: it sequences and delivers encrypted transactions between participant nodes without reading them.
- Privacy on Canton Privacy on Canton is structural: transaction data reaches only the parties entitled to it, with no global broadcast of contract contents.
- Canton Coin Canton Coin (CC) is the native utility token of Canton Network's Global Synchronizer, earned through network rewards and burned to pay traffic fees.