The growth of blockchain ecosystems is often hindered by data fragmentation, complex cross-chain transactions, and security risks. Current multi-chain solutions lack seamless interoperability, making asset transfers and data management inefficient. Additionally, trust in cross-chain transactions remains limited, posing risks to users and developers. To address these challenges, a scalable and secure infrastructure is needed—one that enables unified data access, privacy-preserving transactions, and developer-friendly tools. By integrating advanced cross-chain technologies and identity aggregation, Heima (HEI) provides a comprehensive solution for seamless blockchain interactions, improving security, efficiency, and usability across decentralized networks.

What is Heima (HEI)?

Heima (HEI) emerged as the successor to Litentry, rebranding to expand its vision beyond decentralized identity solutions into a broader multi-chain infrastructure. The transition was announced in early 2024, marking a strategic pivot toward building a privacy-focused, interoperable Web3 ecosystem. While retaining Litentry’s foundational services and technical expertise, Heima integrates AI-driven tools, cross-chain solutions, and decentralized identity aggregation to solve key blockchain challenges such as data fragmentation and security risks.

Litentry was initially founded by Hanwen Chen, Fei Liu, and Han Zhao, who led the development of decentralized identity solutions. Under their leadership, the project created a secure, interoperable framework, enabling users to verify and manage identities across multiple blockchains. As blockchain adoption grew, the team recognized the need for broader interoperability and enhanced privacy, leading to the evolution of Heima Network.

By mid-2024, Heima expanded its infrastructure beyond identity aggregation, introducing AI-powered predictive analytics, chain abstraction technologies, and cross-chain bridges to simplify blockchain interactions and enhance security. These innovations positioned Heima as a key player in DeFi, cross-chain asset trading, and decentralized identity verification.

By Q4 2024, Heima had completed its chain abstraction infrastructure, enabling users to connect once and access all chains seamlessly. In Q1 2025, Heima launched its flagship product, allowing users to conduct multi-chain transactions through an omni account. Moving into Q2 2025, the platform will introduce bridging, swapping, lending, and trading services, eliminating the need for users to switch networks or manage multiple wallets. By Q3 2025, more dApp products will integrate into the Heima Network, leading to its ultimate goal in Q4 2025—achieving full-chain and full-intent recognition, creating a fully interoperable Web3 experience.

As of early 2025, Heima continues to develop its ecosystem, fostering a community-driven governance model, supporting DEX platforms, and enhancing cross-chain liquidity solutions. With multi-chain compatibility and a strong focus on user privacy, Heima (HEI) aims to shape the future of decentralized identity and blockchain innovation.

How Does Heima Work? Parachain and Network Overview

Heima (HEI) operates as a substrate-based, EVM-compatible blockchain, leveraging a parachain structure to provide shared security, interoperability, and decentralized identity solutions. A parachain is an independent Layer-1 blockchain that connects to a Relay Chain (such as Polkadot), benefiting from a secure validator set and a shared ecosystem. This architecture allows Heima to scale efficiently while maintaining security and decentralization, making it an ideal infrastructure for identity aggregation, privacy protection, and cross-chain applications.

Heima’s parachain was launched on July 4, 2022, under its previous brand, Litentry, before rebranding to Heima in 2024. Unlike standalone blockchains that rely on their own consensus mechanisms, Heima benefits from the Relay Chain’s robust security model, reducing the risk of 51% attacks and network vulnerabilities. Its heterogeneous sharding model also enables each parachain to be optimized for specific use cases, ensuring that identity verification, credential issuance, and decentralized finance (DeFi) interactions operate seamlessly.

A key component of Heima’s parachain is its Verifiable Credential Management Pallet (VCMP), which facilitates the creation, issuance, verification, and management of digital credentials. These verifiable credentials (VCs) are stored in JSON format, allowing users to securely manage and selectively disclose personal data without compromising privacy. The VC registry, an on-chain storage system, ensures that credentials remain verifiable while protecting user identity. It only stores essential metadata, such as the credential’s issuer, status, and cryptographic hash, ensuring that original data remains private while still allowing validation.

The identity verification process on Heima’s parachain follows a structured flow:

1. Credential Issuance – An entity issues a verifiable credential (VC) to a user, embedding attestation metadata about the issuer’s enclave security.
2. Credential Transfer and Presentation – The user can store, transfer, or selectively disclose credentials while maintaining control over their data.
3. Credential Verification – A verifier checks the authenticity of the VC using the VC registry and the issuer’s signature proof, ensuring that it has not been tampered with or revoked.

Source: docs.heima.network

This decentralized credentialing system is integrated with Heima’s IdentityHub (IDHub), a feature that provides secure storage, authentication, and audit logging, further enhancing trust and security in identity management.

To ensure scalability and efficiency, Heima’s parachain architecture incorporates advanced cryptographic techniques, such as zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and Blake2_256 hashing, to protect user credentials while allowing trustless verification. Assertions, written in Domain-Specific Language (DSL), standardize data validation and facilitate automated credential verification.

Another essential element of Heima’s parachain is its runtime logic, which includes enclave management and staking mechanisms to ensure efficient governance and network participation. Heima also serves as the parent chain of the identity-worker, a TEE-based sidechain designed for secure identity aggregation and credential issuance without compromising privacy. The platform’s ability to abstract complex blockchain interactions allows developers to build decentralized identity applications with improved security and interoperability.

Identity Management Pallet (IMP)

The Identity Management Pallet (IMP) in Heima is a decentralized identity framework designed to enable secure identity verification, cross-chain identity linking, and verifiable credential management. It operates in two distinct layers: one on the parachain and another within the Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). This structure ensures privacy, security, and efficient identity verification while maintaining user control over their data.

The parachain-based IMP acts as a user portal that facilitates identity interactions without storing data. All identity-related transactions, including requests for identity linking (Web2 <> Web3), verifiable credential issuance, and wallet authentication, are encrypted using the user’s shielding key before being processed. The TEE-based IMP handles data storage, credential verification, and advanced privacy operations. By executing identity processes within an isolated and cryptographically secure environment, Heima ensures that no external entity, including system administrators, can access users’ sensitive information.

A key function of the IMP is its integration with the Heima IdentityHub (IDHub), which facilitates secure storage, authentication, and identity credentialing. This system enables cross-chain wallet linking, ensuring users can verify and manage their identities across multiple blockchains without exposing private data. Additionally, Heima uses Verifiable Credential Management Pallet (VCMP) to issue tamper-proof digital credentials, stored in JSON format, which can be selectively disclosed based on user preferences.

The Teebag Pallet is crucial in remote attestation and verification within the IMP. It acts as a registry for SGX enclaves, ensuring that identity verification services operate within trusted hardware environments. By leveraging Intel’s Data Center Attestation Primitives (DCAP) and remote attestation mechanisms, the Teebag Pallet guarantees that identity verification processes remain secure and verifiable.

Network Overview

Heima Network is a substrate-based, EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain that prioritizes privacy, interoperability, and scalability. It evolved from Litentry, inheriting its identity management framework and decentralized infrastructure. By integrating chain abstraction technology, Heima allows users to seamlessly manage assets and identities across multiple blockchains without requiring manual network switching.

The HEI token is Heima Network’s native asset, replacing LIT through a token migration mechanism that enables users to swap their ERC-20 LIT tokens for HEI. The network supports token transfers, staking, governance, and cross-chain interactions, making it a versatile blockchain ecosystem.

At the core of Heima’s network security and transaction validation are collators, which play a critical role in maintaining block production and network stability. Collators are responsible for aggregating transactions, executing smart contracts, and relaying data to the relay chain for finalization. Unlike traditional validators, collators do not directly participate in relay chain consensus but instead focus on maintaining parachain operations.

Heima employs a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) model, allowing users to vote for collators by staking HEI tokens. Collator selection occurs through a five-phase rollout, gradually expanding the collator set size to enhance decentralization and network efficiency. Stakers receive 30% of network gas fees as rewards, ensuring an incentivized staking ecosystem.

Additionally, Heima provides RPC nodes, which serve as public access points for querying blockchain data, executing transactions, and interacting with smart contracts. These non-block-producing nodes enable developers and users to access Heima’s blockchain infrastructure without running a full node.

Through its collator model, cross-chain capabilities, and identity verification solutions, Heima is building a secure and interoperable blockchain network, designed to support Web3 applications, DeFi, and decentralized identity solutions.

Source: heima.network

Heima Use Cases

By simplifying cross-chain transactions, securing sensitive data, and enhancing user experience, Heima provides a scalable foundation for Web3 services. Below are three key use cases powered by Heima.

• Seamless Cross-Chain Trading: Heima enables frictionless multi-chain trading by abstracting network complexities and ensuring privacy-preserving transactions. Platforms like PumpX leverage Heima’s cross-chain execution layer, allowing users to trade assets across different blockchains without switching wallets or manually managing transactions.
• Decentralized Identity and Privacy Solutions: Heima’s identity management framework provides secure, verifiable credentials for individuals and organizations. By utilizing Trusted Execution Environments (TEE), Heima ensures user identity verification without exposing personal data. This is especially valuable for DeFi platforms, KYC verification services, and digital identity management, where privacy and security are essential.
• On-Chain Lending and DeFi Infrastructure: Heima supports lending protocols and decentralized financial services by enabling efficient multi-chain asset management. Users can borrow, lend, and stake assets across multiple blockchains while benefiting from low transaction fees and privacy-enhanced financial interactions. The platform’s intent-based execution model optimizes liquidity provisioning and smart contract automation, ensuring seamless, efficient DeFi operations.

Heima Main Features

Verifiable Credential Solidity Contract

Heima introduces a Verifiable Credential Solidity Contract, allowing third-party developers to create, verify, and manage decentralized identities. This feature enables custom identity solutions, where smart contracts execute within Heima’s Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) to ensure privacy and security. Developers can test Solidity contracts locally before deploying them on the Heima parachain, integrating identity-based verification into dApps, DeFi platforms, and Web3 services.

The Identity Verification Process follows a structured flow: smart contracts retrieve identity-related data from public, private, or blockchain-based sources, validate credentials using Heima’s runtime logic, and return verifiable results. By leveraging TEE security, all identity-related operations remain confidential and protected from external manipulation. Additionally, developers can call external APIs within contracts, enabling real-time identity validation and credential issuance.

This system provides a standardized and trustless mechanism for KYC processes, credit scoring, and decentralized authentication, improving identity security while maintaining user privacy.

Token Bridge

To facilitate interoperability, Heima deploys a Token Bridge, enabling users to transfer HEI tokens between Ethereum (ERC-20) and the Heima Network. This feature is crucial for migrating LIT holders to HEI, ensuring a smooth transition with no new token issuance.

The bridge is powered by ChainBridge, a modular blockchain bridge developed by ChainSafe, supporting multi-directional token transfers across Ethereum, Polkadot, and Substrate-based chains. The process involves locking HEI on Ethereum, generating a proof, and minting the equivalent amount on Heima Network. Transactions are verified through a secure relay system, preventing double-spending or fraudulent activities.

The Token Bridge allows users to move liquidity across multiple ecosystems, enabling seamless DeFi participation, staking, and cross-chain asset management. Future iterations will enhance bridge efficiency, reduce transaction costs, and expand support for additional digital assets.

Source: apps.heima.network

Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)

The TEE framework ensures secure and confidential execution of identity-related operations, acting as an isolated processing unit where sensitive data is protected from external threats. Unlike traditional blockchain environments, where all transactions are publicly visible, TEE provides hardware-based encryption to guarantee confidential data execution.

Heima’s TEE-based sidechain stores user credentials, credit scores, and Web3 identity data, ensuring that only authorized entities can access encrypted information. It supports privacy-preserving computations, such as identity aggregation, risk scoring, and decentralized KYC verification, without exposing sensitive personal details.

Source: docs.heima.network

Heima dApps

PumpX

PumpX is an all-in-one on-chain trading platform that allows users to purchase and trade tokens across multiple blockchains without needing manual cross-chain transactions. By leveraging Heima’s chain abstraction technology, PumpX enables users to execute trades using a single interface, eliminating the complexities of switching networks and managing multiple wallets.

Through Trusted Execution Environments (TEE), PumpX ensures privacy-preserving trading, securing user data and trading strategies. Additionally, its unified portfolio management system allows users to easily rebalance assets, stake tokens, and conduct advanced trading operations. With a frictionless and highly efficient user experience, PumpX is redefining how traders interact with multi-chain asset markets.

Source: pumpx.ai

IdentityHub

IdentityHub is a decentralized identity management dApp that helps users aggregate and manage their Web3 identities across multiple blockchains. By linking wallets, assets, and accounts, IdentityHub provides users with a unified identity framework, allowing them to verify credentials, manage token holdings, and participate in social interactions seamlessly.

The platform also features a mission-based reward system, where users can earn points for daily check-ins, referrals, and social media engagement. Additionally, IdentityHub tracks token holdings across different ecosystems, providing users with verifiable credentials based on their on-chain activity and asset ownership. This gamified and incentivized identity platform enhances community engagement and long-term user participation within Heima.

Source: idhub.heima.network

Supercharged Otter

Supercharged Otter is a Telegram mini-game that combines entertainment with blockchain-based rewards. Players earn points through simple clicking mechanics, leveling up their otters to unlock various in-game rewards. As Heima’s official mascot, the otter represents community engagement and playful interaction within the ecosystem.

By participating in Supercharged Otter, users can gain rewards while staying connected to the Heima community. This interactive dApp not only promotes engagement and retention but also serves as a bridge between gaming, social activity, and blockchain rewards, reinforcing Heima’s commitment to user-friendly decentralized experiences.

Source: heima.network

What is the HEI Coin?

HEI is Heima’s native token, used for governance, staking, transactions, and identity verification. Its maximum supply is 100 million units, of which 70.45 million (70.45%) are already in circulation (March 2025).

Initially issued as an ERC-20 and BEP-20 token, HEI has transitioned to the Heima parachain, maintaining an initial supply of 100,000,000 HEI. To preserve its tokenomics, a portion of ERC-20 HEI will be burned, with an equivalent amount minted on the parachain. A token bridge facilitates seamless migration between Ethereum and Heima, ensuring full interoperability.

On February 13, 2025, the Litentry Network officially upgraded to Heima, with all LIT tokens automatically converted to HEI on most centralized exchanges. Holders of old LIT tokens can swap them manually through Heima’s swap portal. As a governance token, HEI allows users to vote on network proposals via the Heima Governance Portal. It also functions as gas for transactions, supporting staking, security, and network maintenance.

HEI’s distribution ensures long-term ecosystem sustainability, with 66.45% allocated for circulation, 24.1% for the ecosystem fund, 5% for DeFi liquidity reserves, 3.2% for the foundation fund, and 1.25% for the development team. The ecosystem wallet supports staking, liquidity provision, and network security, while the foundation wallet funds exchange listings and community initiatives. With progressive unlock schedules, HEI is structured to drive sustainable growth within the Heima ecosystem.

Source: heima-network.medium.com

Is HEI a Good Investment?

HEI has strong utility within the Heima Network, serving as a governance, staking, and transaction token with multi-chain interoperability. Its chain abstraction technology simplifies cross-chain identity management and asset transfers, making it a valuable infrastructure for Web3 applications. However, its long-term success depends on ecosystem adoption—if Heima fails to attract dApp developers and users, HEI’s utility and demand may decline. Additionally, token unlock schedules could impact market stability, affecting HEI’s price dynamics over time.

How to Own HEI?

To own HEI, you can use the services of a centralized crypto exchange. Start by creating a Gate.io account, and get it verified and funded. Then you are ready to go through the steps to buy HEI.

News on Heima

As reported on 14 March 2025, on the official Medium channel, Heima Network has unveiled its 2025 roadmap, highlighting major advancements in cross-chain interoperability and decentralized identity. In Q1, Heima will finalize its cross-chain trade feature and integrate multi-chain account permissions. Q2 introduces support for Hyperliquid, Sui, and Unichain, alongside a Layer 2 trading network. By Q3, Heima will launch a native liquidity pool to enhance staking rewards. Q4 focuses on security upgrades, implementing adaptive security and cryptographic enforcement, solidifying Heima’s position as a leader in blockchain interoperability.

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