1. Abstract
Narrow is an object-centric Layer 1 written in Rust. It is designed so that digital assets behave like owned objects — a natural fit for games, inventories, and player economies — rather than only account-balance ledgers optimized for trading.
The network’s native coin, NAR, pays for gas. Optional
NR20 assets give issuers controlled mint authority for game or
wrapped-style tokens. A public testnet at narrowl1.com lets anyone try the
wallet and explorer today.
2. Vision
Games first. Friction last. Players should not need a finance degree to move an item or tip a teammate. Narrow aims to make on-chain actions feel close to in-game actions: quick to confirm, easy to understand, and inspectable on a clean explorer.
Narrow is currently an educational public testnet. It demonstrates consensus, object execution, wallets, and explorer surfaces end-to-end. It is not a claim of mainnet financial product readiness.
3. Built for games
Games impose different constraints than DEXes:
- Latency tolerance — sessions are short; settlement should keep up.
- Asset shape — items are discrete objects, often transferred whole.
- Issuer control — studios need mint authority without opening floodgates.
- Player UX — create wallet, fund gas, send — with progressive disclosure of advanced tools.
Narrow’s object store, native gas coin, NR20 issuer model, and public faucet (capped for abuse resistance) are aimed at that product surface.
4. Architecture
Object-centric execution
State is held as versioned objects (coins, packages, jobs, shared escrows). Transactions declare inputs and commands. Gas is paid in NAR. This keeps ownership explicit and makes inventory-like flows straightforward.
Node stack
- Consensus — permissioned PoA validators with quorum certificates.
- Mempool / P2P — gossip of transactions between validators.
- RPC + Explorer — HTTP APIs and Narrow Scan UI.
- Wallet UI — browser wallet with local signing where possible.
5. NAR & gas
NAR is the native coin. It is not an NR20 contract. Gas for every transaction is paid in NAR. On the public testnet, a faucet can mint a limited amount of NAR per address (policy: 200 NAR lifetime cap per wallet) so users can experiment without an operator token.
Explorer surfaces circulating NAR against a displayed max supply policy constant (100,000,000 NAR) for testnet readability.
6. NR20 assets
NR20 is Narrow’s native issued-asset model — not a copy of ERC-20 account maps.
- A shared
0x3::nr20::Assetregistry object holds symbol, name, decimals, issuer, and supply. - Balances are owned coin objects with type tags like
0x3::nr20::WBTC. - Only the asset issuer may mint; holders may burn their own coins.
- There is no approve / transferFrom allowance system — ownership is the object itself.
Genesis can register studio tokens (e.g. WBTC, WETH, WSOL, USDT, USDC labels on testnet) under a chosen issuer address. Names on testnet do not imply real bridged collateral.
7. Consensus
The reference testnet runs a small proof-of-authority validator set with HotStuff-inspired propose / vote / QC flow, leader rotation, and Byzantine-style hardening suitable for an educational multi-node deployment (equivocation checks, timeouts, mempool limits, signed hellos).
This is intentional for a controllable public demo. Future networks may evolve the validator set and incentives as the project matures.
8. Public testnet
Live surfaces:
- Wallet — https://testwallet.narrowl1.com
- Explorer — https://testexplorer.narrowl1.com
9. Roadmap (indicative)
- Now — Public testnet, wallet, explorer, NR20, gaming positioning.
- Next — Game SDK samples, richer asset metadata, performance tooling.
- Later — Real cross-chain bridges (e.g. Sepolia) with relayers and custody — not simulated mint strings.
10. Disclaimer
This document and the Narrow software are provided for education and experimentation. Nothing herein is an offer to sell securities or a promise of mainnet token value. Use the testnet at your own risk. Smart contracts and bridges described as future work are not live until separately shipped and audited.