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Iroha 3 vs. Iroha 2

The current workspace ships two deployment tracks from the same codebase:

  • Iroha 2 for self-hosted permissioned and consortium networks
  • Iroha 3 / SORA Nexus for the Nexus-oriented global deployment track

Iroha 3 is not a separate rewrite. It reuses the same core crates, the same Iroha Virtual Machine, the same Torii transport layer, and the same Norito codec.

What Stays the Same

  • irohad, iroha, and kagami remain the primary operator tools
  • smart contracts still target IVM
  • Torii remains the main API surface
  • Sumeragi remains the consensus engine
  • Norito remains the canonical wire format

What Changes in Iroha 3

AreaIroha 2Iroha 3
Deployment modelStandalone self-hosted networksNexus-oriented deployment track with SORA-specific profiles
Execution layoutSingle-lane worldviewMulti-lane execution with Nexus data spaces
RoutingOne network surfaceLane and data-space aware routing policies
Consensus profilePermissioned by defaultPermissioned or NPoS depending on the dataspace and profile
Operator configGeneric defaultsAdditional Nexus, SoraFS, streaming, and lane catalog settings
Genesis workflowStandard manifest and signed blockSame workflow, plus explicit consensus_mode, topology PoPs, and Nexus-oriented profiles

Migration Guidance

If you already know Iroha 2, the main operational differences in Iroha 3 are:

  • you should expect more configuration around Nexus lanes and data spaces
  • public SORA Nexus deployments use the --sora profile path
  • genesis manifests now carry more explicit consensus and crypto metadata
  • telemetry and Torii reference pages matter more during rollout because operator status endpoints are part of the day-to-day workflow

The shared codebase means many concepts stay familiar, but the deployment shape changes from "run your own isolated network" to "run the Nexus-oriented track with lane-aware configuration and tooling."