What is Sidechain?
A separate chain with its own rules, pegged to Bitcoin so coins can move between them under a trust or security assumption.
Sidechains let features be tried without changing Bitcoin's consensus rules. The peg is the hard part: moving coins across generally relies on a federation or another mechanism weaker than base-layer security.
A sidechain is not the base layer, and coins on one carry the sidechain's assumptions rather than Bitcoin's.
Related terms
Lightning Network
A network of payment channels built on Bitcoin that settles small payments off-chain, using the base layer…
Lightning & scalingOn-chain
A transaction recorded in a Bitcoin block, as opposed to one settled off-chain in a channel or inside a…
NetworkConsensus rules
The validity conditions every node enforces: issuance schedule, signature validity, block weight, and…
This definition is part of the Bitcoin Logical glossary. For the fuller explanation, start with Learn, or see the live numbers on The Bitcoin Signal.