Nitrolite is a lightweight, efficient state channel framework for Ethereum and other EVM-compatible blockchains, enabling off-chain interactions while maintaining on-chain security guarantees.
The Nitrolite framework consists of two main components:
- Smart Contracts: On-chain infrastructure for state channel management
- TypeScript SDK: Client-side library for building custom state channel applications
- Instant Finality: Transactions settle immediately between parties
- Reduced Gas Costs: Most interactions happen off-chain, with minimal on-chain footprint
- High Throughput: Support for thousands of transactions per second
- Security Guarantees: Same security as on-chain, with cryptographic proofs
- Chain Agnostic: Works with any EVM-compatible blockchain
This repository contains:
/contract
: Solidity smart contracts for the state channel framework/sdk
: TypeScript SDK for building applications with Nitrolite
The Nitrolite contract system provides:
- Custody of ERC-20 tokens for each channel
- Mutual close when participants agree on a final state
- Challenge/response mechanism for unilateral finalization
The core interfaces include:
- IChannel: Main interface for channel management
- IAdjudicator: Interface for state validation contracts
- IDeposit: Interface for token deposits and withdrawals
See the contract README for detailed contract documentation.
The SDK provides a simple client interface that allows developers to create and manage channels with their own application logic.
npm install @erc7824/nitrolite
import { NitroliteClient } from '@erc7824/nitrolite';
import { createPublicClient, createWalletClient, http } from 'viem';
import { privateKeyToAccount } from 'viem/accounts';
import { mainnet } from 'viem/chains';
// Setup clients
const publicClient = createPublicClient({
chain: mainnet,
transport: http('https://eth-mainnet.alchemyapi.io/v2/YOUR_API_KEY')
});
const account = privateKeyToAccount('0x...');
const walletClient = createWalletClient({
account,
chain: mainnet,
transport: http('https://eth-mainnet.alchemyapi.io/v2/YOUR_API_KEY')
});
// Initialize Nitrolite client
const client = new NitroliteClient({
publicClient,
walletClient,
account,
chainId: 1,
addresses: {
custody: '0xYOUR_CUSTODY_CONTRACT_ADDRESS',
adjudicators: {
base: '0xYOUR_BASE_ADJUDICATOR_ADDRESS'
}
}
});
// Create a channel
const channel = client.createCustomChannel({
// Channel configuration
});
// Open the channel with initial funding
await channel.open(
'0xTOKEN_ADDRESS',
[BigInt(100), BigInt(100)]
);
// Update state off-chain
await channel.updateAppState({
// Your application state
});
// Close the channel when done
await channel.close();
See the SDK README for detailed SDK documentation.
Check out the examples in the /sdk/examples
directory:
- NextJS TypeScript Example: A complete frontend application demonstrating the SDK
- Nitrolite RPC Example: Sample code for the WebSocket-based RPC protocol
A state channel is a relationship between participants that allows them to exchange state updates off-chain, with the blockchain serving as the ultimate arbiter in case of disputes.
+---------+ +---------+
| | Off-chain state | |
| Alice | <-------------→ | Bob |
| | updates | |
+---------+ +---------+
↑ ↑
| On-chain resolution |
+------------+ +---------------+
| |
+----+--+----+
| |
| Blockchain |
| |
+------------+
- Channel Creation: Participants deposit ERC20 tokens into the contract
- Off-Chain Updates: Parties exchange and co-sign states off-chain
- Happy Path: Both parties agree on a final state and close cooperatively
- Unhappy Path: If a party stops responding, the other can use the challenge mechanism to finalize
# Install dependencies
npm install
# Build the SDK
cd sdk && npm run build
# Run tests
cd contract && forge test
cd sdk && npm test
Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.
This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.