Chromia

About Chromia (CHR)

What Is Chromia (CHR)?

Chromia is a modular Layer 1 blockchain designed to support complex, data-intensive decentralized applications through a relational blockchain architecture. Unlike blockchains that rely primarily on key-value data models, Chromia integrates a database-style structure into the protocol, enabling more expressive logic, structured data handling, and scalable application design.

The Chromia network supports standalone application chains, EVM-interoperable enhancements, and infrastructure use cases that extend beyond typical smart contract execution. This makes it suitable for applications in areas such as gaming, digital collectibles, artificial intelligence, and other data-heavy workloads.

The native token of the network is CHR, launched in May 2019. Chromia’s mainnet became fully operational in 2024.

Core Design Philosophy

Chromia is built around the idea that decentralized applications should not be constrained by limitations of traditional blockchain data models. Its architecture allows each application to operate on its own independent blockchain, giving developers control over rules, governance, performance parameters, and economic models.

This design enables applications to scale independently rather than competing for shared block space, while still remaining part of a broader interoperable ecosystem.

Relational Blockchain Architecture

At the core of Chromia is its relational blockchain model. Instead of storing application state as simple key-value pairs, Chromia uses structured relational data similar to traditional databases.

This approach can allow applications to:

• Handle complex data relationships natively on-chain
• Perform advanced queries efficiently
• Reduce reliance on off-chain indexing services
• Lower operational complexity for developers

As a result, Chromia can support applications that could be inefficient, costly, or impractical on many other blockchains.

Modular Extensions and Infrastructure Capabilities

Chromia uses a modular system that allows developers to integrate optional components known as Extensions. These extensions can add advanced functionality directly at the protocol level, such as:

• Vectorized data storage
• On-chain AI inference
• Oracle services
• Specialized computation logic

This modular approach positions Chromia not only as an application platform, but also as a decentralized infrastructure layer for advanced use cases, including AI-driven and data-heavy systems.

EVM Interoperability and Companion dApps

Chromia is designed to work alongside Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains. EVM-based projects can use Chromia as an enhancement layer to:

• Store structured or complex metadata
• Build companion decentralized applications
• Reduce dependence on centralized databases
• Offload data-intensive operations

This positioning allows Chromia to complement existing ecosystems rather than competing directly for the same execution space.

Application Hosting and Economic Model

Chromia uses an economic model that resembles hosting rather than per-transaction gas fees. Developers pay CHR tokens to cover hosting costs for their application chain.

Once deployed, applications can offer gas-free interactions for users with more predictable infrastructure costs. This model provides cost certainty for projects and improves usability for end users by removing per-transaction fees.

Rell Programming Language

Chromia introduces its own programming language called Rell, designed to work with the network’s relational blockchain structure.

Rell emphasizes:

• Clear data modeling
• Strong security guarantees
• Familiar programming concepts
• Faster development cycles

By aligning the language closely with the underlying data model, Rell can reduce development complexity and lower the barrier to building secure and efficient decentralized applications.

Team and Origins

Chromia was co-founded by Henrik Hjelte, Alex Mizrahi, and Or Perelman. The founders are long-time contributors to the blockchain space, with backgrounds that include early work on Proof-of-Stake systems and the Colored Coins project.

While the original leadership remains actively involved, Chromia is supported by a distributed team of developers, researchers, and ecosystem partners building applications and infrastructure on the platform.

Ecosystem Direction

Chromia’s ongoing development focuses on expanding developer tooling, improving scalability, and introducing new protocol extensions. A key area of emphasis is decentralized AI infrastructure, including on-chain vector databases and support for AI inference directly on network nodes.

The ecosystem continues to grow across verticals such as gaming, AI-enabled applications, digital collectibles, and decentralized infrastructure services.

Where Can You Buy Chromia (CHR)?

CHR is available on several centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, with trading activity varying by region and market conditions.