An interactive, structure-faithful visualization of Chia's Proof of Space and Time (PoST) — the timelord's three VDF chains, the farmer's proof of space, the block "lock", and transaction blocks — run at a tiny k = 8 toy scale so the entire consensus dance fits on screen and runs live in the browser.

▶ Open the live demo

The trick is the scale: at k=8 a plot is 7 tables of ~256 entries (drawable), a sub-slot is a few hundred VDF squarings (steppable), and a proof is 64 leaves you can walk one match at a time. The structure and formulas are the real Chia ones; only the magnitudes are shrunk.

It's all driven by one scrubbable timeline, with deep-dive modals reachable from the controls:

• Timeline — the three chains (Challenge / Infused Challenge / Reward) advancing as binary-quadratic-form VDFs, with signage points, infusion points, the deficit/ICC lifecycle, challenge folding, transaction-block rails, and a live "Now / Next slot change" readout.
• ⏱ Proof of Time — step the sequential class-group squarings g → g² → … → g^(2^T), watch the form (a,b,c) change while b² − 4ac = Δ stays invariant, and see the O(1) n-wesolowski check.
• 🔍 Plot scan — every plot at a signage point: the plot-filter leading-zero bits vs the threshold, and the required_iters meter showing which quality is small enough to win.
• 🌳 Plot — the whole 7-table forest the proof lives in, in bucketed strips; hover a bucket to see its matches; the winning proof path is lit up. Keys → plot_id → F1 seeds it all.
• 🧬 Proof of space — the 64-leaf proof tree, steppable table-by-table, match-by-match, and down to the inner m-search of a single match; plus the cheap verification recipe and the memory⇄time tradeoff.
• 🔒 Puzzle — how a block is locked by nested plot-key / pool-key signatures, with a tamper toggle that breaks the foliage signature when you rewrite the reward address.
• 💸 Transaction blocks — the two rails (prev_block_hash for every block, prev_transaction_block_hash for the sparse tx chain), the is_transaction_block rule, and reward settlement.
• 📖 Textbook — the concepts and a "Key formulas" reference, all typeset with KaTeX.

Faithful in structure and formulas, scaled in magnitude, ported from the real Chia sources:

• VDF (Time) — a real class-group VDF: repeated squaring of binary quadratic forms with a discriminant derived from the challenge (no trusted setup), certified by an n-wesolowski proof. Ported from chiavdf (nucomp.h, vdf_new.h, create_discriminant.h).
• Proof of space — the real chiapos 7-table forward propagation: F1, the adjacent-bucket matching with the (2m+parity)² quadratic, Fx, the 64-leaf proof and quality. Ported in shape from chiapos. Constants are decoupled/shrunk so the forest is healthy at k=8 (the real kBC=15113, kExtraBits=6 need k≥18 — which is exactly why chiapos can't plot k=8).
• Signatures — real BLS12-381 (@noble/curves) for plot, farmer, and pool keys.
• Consensus rules — iteration math, the deficit/ICC rules, and is_transaction_block are ported from chia-blockchain (pot_iterations.py, deficit.py, prev_transaction_block.py, block_creation.py).

Stand-ins, clearly labeled in the UI: ChaCha8/BLAKE3 → SHA-256 for F1/Fx, and the plotting "phases" (sort/compress) are not modeled — it's the forward-propagation forest, not a real plot file.

A deterministic, seeded, headless simulation core emits a typed event stream that a React + Canvas UI scrubs over. Cryptographic primitives sit behind interfaces.

src/
  sim/          headless, deterministic, seeded — the brain
    constants.ts     toy k=8 consensus constants (mainnet values quoted)
    iterations.ts    required_iters / sp_iters / ip_iters  (pot_iterations.py)
    timelord.ts      forward pass: 3 chains, deficit/ICC, tx rule  (timelord.py + deficit.py)
    plot.ts          BLS plot keys, plot_id, the plot filter
    proofofspace.ts  the chiapos-style 7-table forest, proof + quality
    farmer.ts        real proof-of-space block production
    events.ts        the typed event stream the UI consumes
  crypto/       real primitives behind interfaces
    classgroup.ts    binary quadratic form class group (chiavdf)
    wesolowski.ts    single + n-wesolowski VDF proofs
    vdf.ts / bls.ts / hash.ts / rng.ts
  ui/           React + Canvas + KaTeX
    TimelineCanvas, Inspector, and the modals above, Math (KaTeX), Textbook

The core is covered by 40 tests (group axioms, proof round-trips, deficit transitions, the farmer pipeline).

npm install
npm run dev      # dev server
npm test         # sim-core tests (vitest)
npm run build    # typecheck + production build

Deployed to GitHub Pages from main via .github/workflows/deploy.yml.

Built as a learning tool; not affiliated with the Chia Network. Mechanics cross-checked against the upstream chia-blockchain, chiavdf, and chiapos repositories.