Canton Network is a privacy-enabled smart contract network built for regulated financial institutions and enterprise applications. It introduces a modular “network of networks” architecture, allowing independent applications to operate with their own privacy, governance, and scaling rules, while retaining the ability to interoperate through synchronised infrastructure.

Unlike global ledgers where all participants share a single replicated state, Canton enables selective state sharing. Each participant node operates its own private ledger view. When coordination is needed, cross-application workflows are synchronised using encrypted messaging through independently operated sync domains.

Key technical components include:

• Daml smart contracts – enable fine-grained permissioning and data confidentiality
• Participant nodes – run per institution or application, holding only relevant ledger state
• Sync domains – provide time-ordered encrypted messaging across nodes
• Global Synchronizer – a public sync domain operated by Super Validators, allowing decentralised, time-ordered, interoperable messaging

The ledger model supports sub-transaction privacy, deterministic transaction resolution, and compliance with jurisdiction-specific requirements, making the network suitable for asset tokenisation, financial market infrastructure, and real-world data coordination.

Canton Coin (CC) is the native token of the Canton Network. It acts as a payment and coordination instrument for accessing services within public network infrastructure, primarily the Global Synchronizer and related services.

Canton Coin is a network-native payment mechanism. It supports an economic model where usage of shared services such as bandwidth or message throughput is priced in USD-equivalent terms but paid in CC.

CC is used to:

• Pay for infrastructure usage including messaging, data throughput, and bandwidth
• Signal network demand by linking fees to CC burns
• Enable integration of decentralised applications through public sync domains
• Reward validators and developers by minting CC in proportion to service value provided

Canton Coin operates under a burn-mint equilibrium model:

• CC is burned when used to pay for services (pegged to a USD fee schedule)
• CC is minted to validators and apps based on the USD-denominated value delivered
• A dynamic on-chain exchange rate between CC and USD is maintained by Super Validator oracles

The network targets approximately 2.5 billion CC burned and minted per year, balancing supply and utility over time.

• Transaction and sync domain fees – users pay for infrastructure usage, such as messaging or throughput
• Access to services – applications that connect to the Global Synchronizer use CC to access shared functionality
• Public signalling of utility – burns reflect real network activity, providing insight into service demand
• Incentive distribution – validators, apps, and other contributors are rewarded with CC for generating ecosystem value
• On-chain settlement – while fees are priced in USD, all settlement on public domains occurs in CC

Canton Coin is optional for private or closed networks. It is not required for all use cases, allowing flexibility in regulatory or enterprise environments.