Plasma is an approach to scaling blockchains by moving most activity away from the main chain while still keeping it secure. You can think of it as a network of small, specialized blockchains that sit on top of a larger one like Ethereum. These smaller chains handle day to day transactions, leaving the main chain to act as the final source of truth.
At a basic level, Plasma works by creating child chains that process transactions much faster and at lower cost. Users interact with these child chains the same way they would with the main blockchain, but the heavy work never clogs the main network. Only the essential checkpoints or proofs are sent back to the main chain, which helps keep everything accountable and tamper resistant.
The core infrastructure behind Plasma revolves around three ideas. The first is off chain computation, where most transactions are handled in the child chain. The second is periodic commitments to the main chain, which act like snapshots proving that the child chain is behaving correctly. The third is secure exits. This mechanism lets users withdraw their funds back to the main chain if something goes wrong in the child chain.
Together, these components allow Plasma to offer higher throughput without sacrificing the security and reliability of the layer it is built on. This makes it a practical framework for applications that need speed and low fees while still benefiting from the protection of a major blockchain.
