Quai at a glance.
Quai is a Proof of Work Layer 1 from Dominant Strategies that runs as a hierarchy of merge-mined chains rather than a single chain, which lets it process transactions in parallel for higher throughput. Its mainnet launched on January 29, 2025, and it uses a consensus mechanism called Proof of Entropy Minima. Here is how it works and what it is used for, not the price.
$97,282
Liquidity across DEX pools on Quai. Updated Jun 8, 2026. Source: GeckoTerminal.
QUAI
Used for fees and securing the network. See the live QUAI price.
How Quai works.
Quai uses Proof of Entropy Minima, a Proof of Work design based on Nakamoto consensus. Instead of picking the longest or heaviest chain, PoEM measures the intrinsic entropy each block removes from the hash space, which the project says removes the forking that happens when two miners find a block at once. The result is fast finality without the block contention of plain Proof of Work. Miners merge-mine across the chain hierarchy, with every miner securing the top-level Prime chain.
Quai uses Proof of Entropy Minima, a Proof of Work design based on Nakamoto consensus. Instead of picking the longest or heaviest chain, PoEM measures the intrinsic entropy each block removes from the hash space, which the project says removes the forking that happens when two miners find a block at once. The result is fast finality without the block contention of plain Proof of Work. Miners merge-mine across the chain hierarchy, with every miner securing the top-level Prime chain.
Multi-chain hierarchy
Quai is organized as one Prime chain, three Region chains, and nine Zone chains. The Prime chain is mined by every miner for security, while Region and Zone chains carry more throughput at lower difficulty.
Proof of Entropy Minima
PoEM is the consensus mechanism. It ranks blocks by the entropy they remove from the hash space rather than by chain length, which the project says eliminates block contention and gives fast finality.
QUAI and QI
Quai has two native assets. QUAI is the primary token used for gas and as a store of value, while QI is an energy-based unit emitted as a mining reward and designed to track the cost of producing it.
EVM compatibility
Quai supports Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contracts, so developers can deploy EVM applications, alongside UTXO-based transactions used for the QI asset.
What Quai is used for.
The ecosystem is built around Proof of Work mining, EVM applications, and the dual QUAI and QI asset model.
Mining
Quai is mined with Proof of Work. Miners merge-mine across the chain hierarchy and every miner secures the Prime chain, earning QUAI and QI as rewards.
Smart contract applications
Developers deploy Ethereum Virtual Machine contracts on Quai to build decentralized applications that settle on its multi-chain network.
Payments and transfers
QUAI is used to pay gas and move value across the network, with QI serving as an energy-based unit emitted through mining.
Hold, swap and spend QUAI.
Quai is integrated in Zypto App. Hold QUAI in self-custody, swap it to any supported asset, and use it across Zypto’s features.
Be the reason Quai ships next.
Quai isn’t in Zypto App yet. Post the request to your followers, chains with the most demand get prioritised.
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