Shardchains
![Document image Document image](https://images.archbee.com/aXBlMgCoqwuCIKlp0m-6d/XVIawALmHDFtNSjbyzPgl_venom-7.png?format=webp)
Venom's Shardchains are separate processing units that have their own private memory space in which computations can be executed.
Definition
A shard is a partition of a blockchain. It holds information on a subset of accounts (smart contracts) that are running on the main blockchain.
Sharding is a scalability solution for decentralized networks allowing the parallel processing of transactions. This is made possible because each shard is organized by its own validator set, allowing validators to simultaneously validate multiple transactions.
Venom's Shardchains are smaller pieces of a blockchain that are solely responsible for a subset of smart contracts based on a defined range.
- A Shardchain is validated by validators that are responsible for processing a subset of transactions for a defined range.
- If the number of transactions overloads the Shardchain, the Venom network triggers a split event. The overloaded Shardchain is then divided into two Shardchains.
If the load on a Shardchain is too high, the Shardchain is divided until the load is appropriately distributed.
The following illustrates this process:
![Shardchain splitting Shardchain splitting](https://images.archbee.com/aXBlMgCoqwuCIKlp0m-6d/sbzMlRlzvxlHxd24arQI8_venom.png?format=webp)
Initially, Venom was launched with a single Shardchain. This Shardchain processes all transactions in the network. Once the Shardchain becomes overloaded by an above-average workload, an automatic shard split is triggered which divides the transactions amongst the two newly created Shardchains.
The split event divides the workload between the two new Shardchains that can process the blockchain's transactions in a fast and cost-efficient manner.
A Workchain can only support 2^60 shard chains.
More on Venom's dynamic sharding can be found here: