Psy Protocol Testnet Launches with Million-TPS Blockchain

The launch of Psy Protocol’s public testnet marks a significant milestone in blockchain evolution, directly confronting what investors and developers have long identified as the fundamental barrier to mainstream web3 adoption: the scalability-security trade-off. Traditional blockchains like Ethereum, which processes roughly 60 transactions per second, and even high-performance proof-of-stake networks like Solana averaging 1,000 TPS, have struggled to support the high-concurrency applications that define modern internet usage. This limitation has kept fully on-chain DeFi, agentic payments, and decentralized versions of platforms like Amazon and eBay largely theoretical concepts rather than practical realities.

Psy’s breakthrough comes from its unique PARTH state architecture, which eliminates the traditional blockchain bottleneck where every full node must validate every transaction. Instead, the protocol leverages client-side zero-knowledge proofs, shifting computational burden to users who generate proofs locally on their devices. These proofs are orders of magnitude faster to verify than underlying transactions, and the network aggregates them through recursive zero-knowledge proofs, culminating in a single, succinct block proof that validates millions of transactions in seconds. The architecture enables block creation times that scale logarithmically with user count, allowing Psy to process 10 million transactions in roughly 10 seconds during benchmark scenarios.

In a notable departure from most high-throughput blockchains that rely on proof-of-stake consensus, Psy builds on Bitcoin’s proof-of-work principles while eliminating its traditional energy inefficiency. The protocol makes mining ‘useful work’ by having miners generate and aggregate zero-knowledge proofs that directly secure transactions. This fundamental shift transforms mining from wasteful competition to collaborative value creation, where the network advances by maximizing the useful work miners perform for users rather than through raw hash power alone.

This approach addresses key concerns with proof-of-stake systems, which often concentrate power among validators with large token holdings and create circular dependencies where security depends on the very tokens the system issues. Psy’s modified proof-of-work maintains Bitcoin’s superior security while eliminating the environmental concerns that have plagued traditional proof-of-work systems. The protocol’s backing from strategic mining groups F2Pool and ViaBTC Capital underscores the industry’s recognition of this innovative approach to consensus mechanism design.

Psy’s technology stack represents a fundamental enabler for web3 business models to compete in demanding use cases that have remained out of reach for existing blockchain platforms. As Carter Feldman, founder and CEO of Psy Protocol, stated: ‘Web3 commerce and the agentic economy never scaled because users were asked to choose between convenience and decentralization. Psy removes that false choice, giving developers the tools to build fast, secure, and scalable platforms that feel seamless — even though they run fully on-chain.’

The protocol’s performance capabilities open new possibilities for fully on-chain DeFi applications, agentic payments, and decentralized versions of high-concurrency web2 platforms. With faster transaction speeds, scalable architecture, and built-in data privacy, Psy enables blockchain applications to compete directly with centralized platforms while giving users back data ownership and control. This addresses the core limitation that has prevented decentralized applications from challenging tech monopolies in high-volume commercial and social applications.

Backed by leading investors including Blockchain Capital, Arrington Capital, UTXO, Anagram, Draper Dragon, and StarkWare, among others, Psy Protocol has secured substantial industry support for its vision. As Aleks Larsen, General Partner at Blockchain Capital, emphasized: ‘Psy’s architecture tackles the core barrier to mainstream web3 adoption by solving the scalability and security trade-offs that have held decentralized applications back. For the first time, recognized high-concurrency models in the web2 ecosystem — from commerce to AI — can run on a fully decentralized foundation with Bitcoin-level security.’

With the public testnet now live, developers and users can experience Psy’s performance firsthand, testing the protocol’s claims of million-TPS throughput and Bitcoin-level security. The mainnet deployment, planned for later this year, will represent the true test of whether Psy can deliver on its promise to make web2 business models financially viable on web3.

The success of Psy Protocol could fundamentally reshape the blockchain landscape, proving that the long-standing trade-off between scalability and security is no longer inevitable. If the protocol delivers on its technical promises, it could unlock a new era of decentralized applications that combine the user experience of centralized platforms with the security and data ownership benefits of blockchain technology, potentially transforming everything from e-commerce to artificial intelligence applications.