# Overview

#### Introducing ZChains <a href="#credit-smart-chain" id="credit-smart-chain"></a>

An interoperable L1 network driven by its ecosystem and focused in delivering experience-based services.\
\
ZChains is a modular and extensible framework for building Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, sidechains, and general scaling solutions.

Its primary use is to bootstrap a new blockchain network while providing full compatibility with Ethereum smart contracts and transactions. It uses IBFT (Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerant) consensus mechanism, supported in one flavour as [PoS (proof of stake)](/zchains-whitepaper/consensus/pos-stake-unstake.md).

ZChains also supports communication with multiple blockchain networks, enabling transfers of both [ERC-20](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-20/) and [ERC-721](https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/standards/tokens/erc-721) tokens, by utilising the centralised bridge solution.

Industry standard wallets can be used to interact with ZChains through the [JSON-RPC](/zchains-whitepaper/architecture/modules/json-rpc.md) endpoints and node operators can perform various actions on the nodes through the [gRPC](/zchains-whitepaper/working-with-node/query-operator-info.md) protocol.

To find out more about ZChains, visit the:\
\
[**Official Website**](https://www.zchains.com/)

[**GitHub**](https://github.com/ZChain-168168)\
\
[**Telegram**](https://t.me/zchains_io)\
\
[**X (Twitter)**](https://twitter.com/zchains_io)\
\
[**Instagram**](https://www.instagram.com/zchains.io/)\
\
[**Discord**](https://discord.gg/HgTVFcqPcg)\
\
**---**

**CAUTION**

This is a work in progress so architectural changes may happen in the future, so please contact the ZChains team if you would like to use it in production.

To get started by running a `polygon-edge` network locally, please read: [Installation](/zchains-whitepaper/get-started/installation.md) and [Local Setup](/zchains-whitepaper/get-started/set-up-ibft-locally.md).


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://zchains.gitbook.io/zchains-whitepaper/readme.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.