SKALE V4: Increased TPS and Privacy for the Internet of Agents

SKALE V4, a performance upgrade built for the internet of agents, is now live! Archive node block synching time has been reduced to ~0.3 seconds , and network-wide TPS has climbed up to 39,200. V4 also enables BITE (Blockchain Integrated Threshold Encryption) to be integrated on any newly deployed SKALE chain, bringing consensus-layer privacy and MEV resistance.

Built for the Internet of Agents & x402

Agents are moving from demos to production, placing orders, running game logic, coordinating logistics, and moving money with x402. As volume rises, two needs dominate: fast confirmation and predictable concurrency.

SKALE V4 brings these pieces together. 0.3s block sync time for archive node lets agents run multi-step strategies back to back with confidence. Increased throughput with limitless scalability keeps transactions and x402 payments flowing in parallel, and immediate broadcast puts new transactions in line for the next block so timing is predictable. With BITE, transactions stay encrypted until they are final, keeping strategies and payment intents private.

Performance Upgrades

39,200 Network Wide TPS

Per chain capacity rises to 800 TPS, and with a capacity of 39 chains, this brings the network TPS capacity to 39,200 - with room to further SKALE as more nodes join the network. This performance upgrade allows the network to handle the demands of agents & x402 payments. Agents can submit concurrent actions and get timely inclusion, which keeps coordination predictable even during high load. x402 payments clear on schedule across ongoing authorization and settlement flows, including high frequency microtransactions.

Major Performance Improvement for Archive Node

Archive nodes store the full historic state of the chain; without them, state would eventually disappear. On most blockchains, archive nodes struggle to keep up as state grows, but on SKALE they now sync fast: block syncing time is ~0.3s per block, with typical catch-up rates of about 1-4 blocks per second. That keeps historical state hot and in step with the chain, so agents and indexers can rely on predictable reads, chain multi-step logic safely, and avoid speculative work, delivering a UX that feels Web2-fast and making SKALE a more reliable long-term home for high-volume applications

What’s New Under the Hood

Privacy is now live on SKALE with BITE Protocol

Blockchain Integrated Threshold Encryption (BITE), is now available to implement on any newly deployed SKALE chain. BITE encrypts transaction contents before consensus and decrypts them after finality. This enables full transactional privacy, and thus, eliminates MEV. Developers can add privacy to their apps at the chain level, while users and agents get un-exploitable, predictable execution

Faster Access to Live Chain Data

With V4, SKALE makes reading the chain even faster and more predictable. Read-only JSON-RPC calls now hit per-block snapshots while a single writer handles new blocks, so readers don’t get slowed down by writes. That upgrade keeps response times low and steady, even under heavy use. Agents can check balances, rules, and recent activity at consistent speeds, x402 payment checks complete quickly, and users see fresh, accurate state while the network is under continuous load.

Smoother Performance, Fewer Lockups

V4 refines SKALE’s single-writer design and snapshot readers to strip out most of the state locking that causes contention on other chains. This upgrade keeps throughput more stable and makes test environments behave much closer to production. Agents run into fewer timeouts and retries, x402 flows move through each step cleanly, and the network spends more time executing real work instead of waiting on locks. For users, that shows up as fewer random pauses or stalls.

More Predictable, Near-Instant Inclusion

With V4, transaction inclusion on SKALE is faster and more predictable. New transactions are broadcast immediately and queued for the next block, removing an extra acknowledgment step. This upgrade keeps inclusion timing consistent across different load levels. Agents can safely align actions to specific block windows, x402 payments land on-chain quickly and reliably, and users see confirmations fast enough that the experience feels natural and Web2-like.

SKALE V4: The Foundation for SKALE Expand

V4 is the foundation for SKALE Expand, the initiative that lets the SKALE Manager be deployed into any EVM ecosystem, right where users and liquidity already live. That means the same ultra-fast, private, x402-ready execution environment agents get on SKALE today can fan out across many L1s and L2s. Together, V4 performance plus SKALE Expand’s multi-chain reach set SKALE up to onboard the first billion always-on agents without forcing them into a single network silo.

The first deployment of SKALE Expand, SKALE on Base, will be deployed on mainnet with the V4 upgrades.

Build on SKALE V4

With the SKALE V4 upgrade, and the deployment of the first SKALE Expand chain on Base coming soon, SKALE is in a position to be the ideal home for agents, x402, and ERC-8004.

If you would like to build on SKALE, go to the developer docs, or join the SKALE builders group. 

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