# Subspaces Subspaces are individual identities within a community Space. Examples of this hierarchical structure: * alice\@nostr * bob\@bitcoin * mike\@x Here, Alice, Bob, and Mike are *subspaces* or unique identities within their respective community spaces @nostr, @bitcoin, and @x. The Spaces protocol is being built in two stages. Initially, launch of the base layer on the Bitcoin mainnet, which includes on-chain auctions for the top-level spaces. Work on subspaces will begin after the mainnet launch and will be implemented as a soft fork. Subspaces are key to scalability as they enable the creation of millions of individual identities within each community space. They have a much lower on-chain footprint, making them more accessible and affordable for everyone! ### Key Benefits * Subspaces, unlike traditional domains, are sovereign and permissionless identities. * Once issued, they cannot be taken down by their respective community. * They can do 100% of their transactions on-chain if they wish treated the same as a parent space. * They are cost effective to maintain. ### How You Can Engage While we work towards implementation, you can: * Read the [paper](https://spacesprotocol.org/paper) for initial design notes on subspaces. * Experiment with [subspacer](https://github.com/spacesprotocol/subspacer), a tool that creates validity zk-proofs. These proofs attest that the subspaces trie was updated correctly, without revealing the individual changes. * Checkout [Fabric](https://github.com/spacesprotocol/fabric) for storing records for spaces & subspaces off-chain. * Join the Community: Contribute or discuss ideas, join our [Telegram group](https://t.me/spacesprotocol). --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.spacesprotocol.org/getting-started/subspaces.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.