01
Pearl in an hour
The whole story in plain English: ledger, keys, blocks and matrix mining. No hex.
13 pages Start the path “Pearl in an hour”
The technical guide to Pearl
Pearl, explained from the grain up.
Keys, hashes, transactions, blocks and the matrix math that mines them, byte by byte, in plain English. With tools you can touch and games you can win.
- Verified against pearl v1.5.2
- Real mainnet bytes
The network now
Snapshot of Oct 20, 2026
- Block height
- 130,827
- blocks since genesis
- Difficulty
- 40.16 M
- retuned every block
- Average block
- 174.3 s
- last 144 · target 194 s
- Reward per block
- 2,238.33 PRL
- shrinks a little each block
- PRL issued
- 16.75 % · 351.8 M PRL
- of 2.1 billion
Four ways in
Pick a door.
New to all of this? Start with the beginner guide. Know Bitcoin already? Jump into the codex.
- 01 Beginners ≈ 53 min · 13 chapters The whole story in plain English. No hex, no jargon left undefined. Enter
- 02 Codex 12 groups · 83 pages Byte by byte: keys, transactions, the 108-byte header and matrix mining. Enter
- 03 Tools 22 tools Decode, convert and simulate in your browser. Nothing leaves it. Enter
- 04 Arcade 5 games Five-minute games that drill one idea each, with real Pearl data. Enter
Pearl vs Bitcoin
Same roots, different engine.
Pearl reuses Bitcoin's hashes, Merkle trees and signatures. Then it changes the parts that matter: how blocks are mined, how often, and what a header holds.
All 16 differencesTouch the bytes
A real block header, all 108 bytes.
Hover or tab through the hex: each color is one field. No nonce at the end; a 32-byte ProofCommitment points at the mining certificate instead.
- Size
- 108 bytes
- Fields
- 6
- Nonce
- none
Block 130,827 · header 108 bytes
00000020 999c961b04d94b8b21134e862dc31d5fa56cf9d1f027adb2a0cf95c6525c55eb 6389faa36bd9daffdefc800dea88ac3ef5af1198f7d7179ef3b904420c1cc2c6 1a96d76a a6f36a17 4d52a3fd32160cb032e22edf76912f67dfb1b88946a215281f203836c77ae649
| Field | Bytes | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Version header.version | 4 @0 | 0x20000000 int32 LE. BIP-9 style 0x20000000 since block 1; no consensus meaning in Pearl. |
| Previous block header.prevBlock | 32 @4 | eb555c52c695cfa0b2ad27f0d1f96ca55f1dc32d864e13218b4bd9041b969c99 Hash of the parent block, stored byte-reversed; shown in display order. |
| Merkle root header.merkleRoot | 32 @36 | c6c21c0c4204b9f39e17d7f79811aff53eac88ea0d80fcdeffdad96ba3fa8963 Root of the SHA256d Merkle tree of this block’s txids, stored byte-reversed. |
| Time header.timestamp | 4 @68 | 1792513562 (2026-10-20 16:26:02 UTC) uint32 LE Unix seconds. Must be at least 1 s after the parent and at most 5 min in the future. |
| Bits header.bits | 4 @72 | 0x176af3a6 Compact target. Difficulty 40157376.49334089. The certificate's jackpot hash (not this header's hash) must meet it. |
| Proof commitment header.proofCommitment | 32 @76 | 49e67ac73638201f2815a24689b8b1df672f9176df2ee232b00c1632fda3524d SHA256d(LE32(certificate version) ‖ public data). Replaces Bitcoin’s nonce: Pearl headers have no nonce. |
The codex
Twelve groups, from hex to hashrate.
- § 01
Bytes & numbers
Hex, bytes, byte order and the little length prefixes everything uses.5 pages - § 02
Cryptography
Hash functions, Merkle trees, elliptic curves, signatures and zero-knowledge proofs.8 pages - § 03
Matrix math
The arithmetic AI runs on, and the reason Pearl can mine with it.7 pages - § 04
Keys & addresses
From a random number to a prl1 address, and the 12 words that back it up.9 pages - § 05
Transactions
Inputs, outputs, witnesses and fees, read byte by byte.10 pages - § 06
Script
The tiny language that locks every coin: Taproot, P2MR and OP_RETURN.6 pages - § 07
Blocks
The 108-byte header, its proof commitment and the certificate that rides in front.9 pages - § 08
Mining
Proof of useful work: matrices, noise, tickets and the target.9 pages - § 09
Difficulty
Targets, bits and WTEMA, the rule that retunes after every block.4 pages - § 10
Emission
How 2.1 billion PRL are issued on a smooth curve, with no halvings.3 pages - § 11
Blockchain
Heights, the most-work chain, reorganizations, forks and checkpoints.6 pages - § 12
Networking
Nodes, peers, magic bytes, messages and light clients.7 pages
Learning paths
Or follow a path.
Six short reading lists across the guide and the codex. Each page shows your step and what comes next.
-
- 02
Bytes to blocks
From hex digits to a full transaction and the 108-byte header, byte by byte.
24 pages Start the path “Bytes to blocks” - 03
Keys and coins
From a random number to an address and a signed spend, and the post-quantum option.
13 pages Start the path “Keys and coins” - 04
The useful work
Matrix math, tickets and the target, the 194-second rhythm and where new PRL comes from.
23 pages Start the path “The useful work” -
- 06
Script smith
The tiny language that locks every coin: opcodes, Taproot, P2MR and OP_RETURN.
6 pages Start the path “Script smith”
Learn by doing
Tools you can touch, games you can win.
Arcade
All 5 games- Easy · 8 min Byte Detective Name every byte of a real block header, then catch the tampered one Play
- Medium · 6 min Ticket Hunter Race a rival miner to three blocks with Pearl's real mining steps, shrunk to toy size Play
- Medium · 8 min Difficulty Pilot Keep Pearl's 194-second heartbeat steady through hashrate shocks Play
Why trust it
Checked like a reference.
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Verified against v1.5.2
Every Pearl claim was checked in Pearl's source code at tag v1.5.2 and on the live chain. Where the whitepaper and the code disagree, the code wins.
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Real mainnet bytes
Headers, transactions and certificates are real blocks, decoded at build time by the same parsers the tools use, and their hashes are checked.
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Independent
Not affiliated with Pearl Research Labs. No tracking, no ads, no price talk. Educational content only.
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Every page cites sources
Each page lists its sources and links the exact source files that implement it, so you can check anything yourself.
Source: github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl @ v1.5.2 · commit 024e475