DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph)

A DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) is a graph data structure where connections between nodes have direction and no path leads back to the starting node (no cycles). In cryptocurrency, some blockchains use a DAG structure instead of a traditional linear chain to process multiple blocks or transactions simultaneously.

DAG vs traditional blockchain

	Linear blockchain	DAG-based
Structure	Single chain of blocks	Graph of interconnected blocks/transactions
Throughput	Limited by block time	Higher — parallel processing
Examples	Bitcoin, Litecoin	Kaspa, Alephium, IOTA

DAG in mining

Several actively mined coins use DAG-based architectures:

• Kaspa (KAS) — uses GHOSTDAG / BlockDAG, producing multiple blocks per second
• Alephium (ALPH) — uses sharded DAG with BlockFlow
• Conflux (CFX) — uses tree-graph structure

The DAG structure allows these networks to achieve much faster confirmation times than Bitcoin while maintaining Proof of Work security.

See also

• BlockDAG
• Algorithm
• Block time
• Proof of Work