Is XChain "a faster blockchain"?

No. It is a tiered meta-blockchain foundation for thousands of apps and chains to build on. It separates data by value instead of racing one chain's speed.

Is the "1 billion TPS" real?

It is aggregate nominal throughput, mostly low-value data on a light, prunable tier — not a billion composable transactions over one global state. It is a design target, not a current measurement; the live network's real numbers are in Status & Live Network.

Do you use ZK proofs (SP1) yet?

The aggregation is real; the cryptographic prover is a swappable component, and ProofSystem.MOCK is rejected off-testnet. What the running network uses right now is a status question — see Status & Live Network.

Can I buy the X token / invest?

No. These are testnet coins with no value. No token sale, no mainnet, no investment. The way in is to use it, build on it, or help build it.

Why build on Cosmos instead of a new consensus?

Because of the principle: don't reinvent. Use proven parts and create value in the integration, Domain-splitting and tiering.

Who owns and controls XChain?

No company and no founding team — its community does. The code is open (Apache-2.0), anyone can run a node or contribute, and protocol changes ship through on-chain governance (x/gov). The founding team claims no permanent special status; the aim is for it to dissolve into the community it serves (Governance & Community).

Can the community change this whitepaper or the strategy?

That is the direction. Today the code and this document are open to contribution, and protocol decisions run through on-chain x/gov. Broadening that to community governance of the direction, strategy and this whitepaper is the roadmap's progressive decentralization — nothing here is permanently fixed by a founding team.

Glossary

Three terms carry the whole architecture — Domain, Layer, Tier — and they are three different things, not three words for one:

Term	Meaning
Domain (2)	The invariant security boundary: value-bearing vs value-free, enforced by UAC.
Layer (3)	The functional split: Settlement · Execution · Data.
Tier (5)	The fine grain, T0–T4: assurance and storage policy matched to data value.
DA / DAS	Data Availability / Data Availability Sampling.
PoP	Proof-of-Publication.
PSS	Partial Set Security.
ICQ / ICA	Interchain Queries / Interchain Accounts.
XMP	XChain Messaging Protocol.
Pessimistic proof	Guarantees a chain cannot withdraw more than it deposited (containment).
Security-class	The minimum security Tier bound to each asset: SOVEREIGN / SHARED / ZK_SECURED.
MVC	Minimum Viable Core.
VLC	Verifiable Log Commitment.
STC	State Transition Certificate.

Takeaway: the durable design is above; anything that changes over time is in the next two sections — first the concrete testnet, then the live state read straight from the chain.