> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.pearlswap.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.pearlswap.ai/introduction/pearl.md).

# What Pearl is

The chain PRL lives on, and what makes it unusual.

Pearl is a layer-1 blockchain with its own coin, **PRL**. Two things about it are worth knowing before you use anything here.

### Mining does something useful

Most proof-of-work chains spend their electricity on a puzzle whose only purpose is to be hard. Pearl's mining is, in the project's own words, "a by-product of arbitrary matrix multiplication": the work miners do is the kind of computation that machine learning runs on, so securing the chain and doing useful computation are the same act. Pearl calls this **Proof of Useful Work**.

### It is built for a post-quantum world

Pearl's transactions and addresses come from the Bitcoin family: the same script rules, the same Taproot-style addresses. On top of that it adds **XMSS**, a signature scheme designed to hold up against quantum computers, and address types that commit to those keys.

That has one consequence you will meet in practice: **only Pearl's own wallets can make a Pearl address correctly**. No other tool, ours included, can derive one for you, which is why Pearl Swap asks you to paste an address rather than making one.

### The pieces

|               |                                                                                                |
| ------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **PRL**       | The coin itself, on Pearl                                                                      |
| **Addresses** | Start with `prl1p`. Test networks use `tprl` and `rprl`                                        |
| **Wallets**   | Pearl Wallet (desktop), a web wallet, and Oyster, the wallet daemon that runs alongside a node |
| **Node**      | `pearld`, a full node. Anyone can run one; Pearl Swap's guardians each run their own           |

Pearl's own repository and research paper are the place for the detail: [github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl](https://github.com/pearl-research-labs/pearl).

### Where Pearl Swap fits

A coin on its own chain has two problems that look separate and are not: it is hard to get, and hard to trade. Pearl Swap is our answer to both. [What Pearl Swap is](/introduction/pearl-swap.md) explains how.


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