# Overview

## What is Plian (Previously PCHAIN)

Plian is setting out to take what they have learned through developing enterprise subchains for applications in a wide variety of fields and focus it into a highly scalable, multichain smart contract platform and decentralized finance (DeFi) toolset that satisfies all the requirements of public and enterprise DeFi while also simplifying integration. This strategy will be accomplished by developing tools for simplifying smart contract and DApp deployment, adding on-chain oracles as well as creating novel technologies for adding programmable liquidity to further simplify integrating with Plian.

As part of this new vision, Plian will be developing a familiar suite of tools that make testing, launching, and maintaining complex smart contracts simple with tools like Truffle and Waffle, while also releasing smart data and oracle mechanisms that increase the complexity of what is possible with smart contracts. Plian will also sponsor a community governed Decentralised Swap, Pizzap, to open the platform to cross-blockchain liquidity.

This tool suite and platform will transform Plian into a massively scalable, interoperable, Solidity programmable, and near-instant blockchain for public and enterprise DeFi needs.

Plian key innovative technologies include:

* The 1st native EVM multichain enables the interoperability of subchains and main chain. It can support 256 subchains and 180,000 TPS without added congestion on the main chain, supported by 1064 nodes globally. The TPS can be scaled linearly as the number of subchains increases.
* The patented PDBFT algorithm greatly reduces communication costs from N² to N comparing with traditional BFT algorithm. This effectively solves the scalability-decentralization problem as overhead scales linearly with an increase in nodes, lowering the impact on scalability.
* A new Oracle mechanism based on the knowledge graph makes it easier to encapsulate smart contracts. W3C compliant smart data effectively addresses the issue of non-intelligence in smart contracts
* Safe Delegation and Blind Bidding effectively avoid token transactions between delegators and candidates which reduces the risk of malicious validators. Also, the Blind Bidding mechanism enables the validator election to be conducted in a more fair and secure environment.
* Cross-chain capability. The smart contracts of Pchain can be easily invoked with other nonnative tokens (BTC, ERC20) by using the provided toolkit

## Becoming a Validator

#### Guides

If you are looking to hop right into what it takes to become a validator node on Plian, you can jump right to the [Validator Node Guides](using-the-blockchain/validator-node-guides) to get set up. There you will find everything you need to know on how to install, vote and reveal in order to become a validator.&#x20;

#### Protocol Overview

We highly recommend you get familiar with the protocol and mechanisms by which validators operate so that you will be successful. To get a good overview, start with understanding the [Multichain Framework](about-the-blockchain/multichain) and the [Consensus Mechanism](about-the-blockchain/pdbft) before you get to the section on [Validator Nodes](about-the-blockchain/validator-nodes), which will tell you all you need to know about Epochs in Plian and when to join.&#x20;

#### Codebase

And if you are looking to go deeper in understanding Plian, take a look at the Plian Github that houses Plian's core components and tools:

* [Plian](https://github.com/pchain-org/pchain) - Plian's public blockchain implementation
* [pWeb3](https://github.com/pchain-org/pweb3) - Pchain Javascript API
* [pTruffle](https://github.com/pchain-org/ptruffle) - Plian's implementation of the popular smart contract deployment tool

## Becoming a Delegator

If you have some PI token and want to help secure the network without running your own hardware, jump down to the [Delegating or Staking PI](using-the-blockchain/delegating-or-staking) section which details it out. Whether it is on mobile or desktop, you will need [PIwallet](using-the-blockchain/piwallet) to make this happen.&#x20;

