Network Overview

Goliath Network Architecture

Goliath follows a layered architecture where write-path consensus and read-path indexing are separated for performance and reliability.

This page uses canonical component names used in the platform:

• Core Ledger Node (ledger-core)

• EVM Gateway (evm-gateway)

• Stream Fetcher (stream-fetcher)

• Observer Ingestor (observer-ingestor)

• Ledger Index DB (ledger-index-db)

• Observer REST API (observer-rest)

• Observer gRPC API (observer-grpc)

• EVM Indexer API (evm-indexer-api)

Architecture Map (ASCII)

+======================================================================================================+
|                                         GOLIATH ARCHITECTURE                                         |
+======================================================================================================+
| USER LAYER                                                                                           |
|                                                                                                      |
|   [ Wallets ]                     [ dApps ]                     [ Enterprise Apps ]                  |
+-----------------------------------------+----------------------------------------------------------------+
                                          |
                                          | tx submit / state reads / event subscriptions
                                          v
+======================================================================================================+
| API LAYER                                                                                            |
|                                                                                                      |
|  +-------------------------------+  +------------------------------+  +----------------------------+  |
|  | EVM Gateway                   |  | Observer REST API            |  | Observer gRPC API          |  |
|  | (evm-gateway)                 |  | (observer-rest)              |  | (observer-grpc)            |  |
|  | write + EVM-compatible reads  |  | indexed query interface      |  | stream + bulk query API    |  |
|  +---------------+---------------+  +---------------^--------------+  +--------------^-------------+  |
+------------------|----------------------------------|-------------------------------|-------------------+
                   |                                  |                               |
                   | submit tx                        | indexed history/query models   | indexed streams
                   v                                  |                               |
+======================================================================================================+
| CORE NETWORK LAYER                                                                                   |
|                                                                                                      |
|  +--------------------------------------+       gossip + consensus       +-------------------------+  |
|  | Core Ledger Node                     | <----------------------------> | Core Ledger Node       |  |
|  | (ledger-core)                        |                                | (ledger-core)          |  |
|  | - validate tx                        |                                | - order tx             |  |
|  | - execute state transitions          |                                | - finalize records     |  |
|  +--------------------+-----------------+                                +------------+------------+  |
|                       \                                                             /                |
|                        \_________ event streams + record files (canonical) ________/                 |
+-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------------------------------+
                                                |
                                                v
+======================================================================================================+
| MIRROR NODE LAYER                                                                                    |
|                                                                                                      |
|  +-----------------------------+   +-----------------------------+   +-----------------------------+ |
|  | Stream Fetcher              |-->| Observer Ingestor           |-->| Ledger Index DB            | |
|  | (stream-fetcher)            |   | (observer-ingestor)         |   | (ledger-index-db)          | |
|  | pull + verify stream files  |   | decode + normalize records  |   | canonical indexed storage  | |
|  +-----------------------------+   +--------------+--------------+   +--------------+--------------+ |
|                                                   |                                 |                |
|                                                   v                                 v                |
|                                        +---------------------+          +-------------------------+   |
|                                        | EVM Indexer API     |          | Explorer / Analytics   |   |
|                                        | (evm-indexer-api)   |          | / external services    |   |
|                                        | EVM-focused models  |          | query + dashboards     |   |
|                                        +---------------------+          +-------------------------+   |
+======================================================================================================+

Core Components

1. Core Ledger Node (ledger-core)

The consensus execution engine of the network.

• Validates and orders transactions

• Executes state transitions

• Produces canonical event streams and records

• Provides finalized write-path state

2. EVM Gateway (evm-gateway)

Ethereum-compatible ingress and query interface.

• Exposes JSON-RPC for wallets and dApps

• Accepts EVM transactions and routes them to consensus

• Supports EVM toolchain compatibility

3. Stream Fetcher (stream-fetcher)

Mirror-side stream acquisition service.

• Pulls event stream and record files from consensus outputs

• Verifies integrity before ingestion

• Buffers data for deterministic processing

4. Observer Ingestor (observer-ingestor)

Canonical record ingestion pipeline.

• Parses and validates record payloads

• Normalizes entities (accounts, tx, contracts, logs, tokens)

• Writes structured data into index storage

5. Ledger Index DB (ledger-index-db)

Primary indexed data store for read APIs and analytics.

• Stores normalized historical records

• Supports high-throughput querying

• Powers explorer and programmatic read paths

6. Observer APIs (observer-rest, observer-grpc)

Read APIs for applications and infrastructure tooling.

• REST for standard query workflows

• gRPC for streaming and bulk query patterns

• Query indexed data without loading consensus nodes

7. EVM Indexer API (evm-indexer-api)

EVM-focused indexed query surface.

• Contract/event/log-oriented queries

• Token and account activity views

• dApp-friendly EVM read models

End-to-End Data Flow

1. Wallets/dApps submit EVM transactions through evm-gateway.

2. ledger-core nodes validate, order, and execute transactions.

3. Consensus output is emitted as event streams and records.

4. stream-fetcher acquires and verifies these stream artifacts.

5. observer-ingestor decodes and normalizes records.

6. Data is persisted in ledger-index-db and exposed by observer/EVM index APIs.

Why the Indexer Layer Matters

The indexer layer turns consensus artifacts into developer-usable data products.

• Converts low-level records into query-ready entities

• Enables historical and analytical queries at scale

• Keeps read-heavy workloads off consensus infrastructure

• Supports explorer, dashboards, and external integrations with low latency