Plasma Chains
Plain English
Child chains that periodically submit summaries to the main chain. Users can withdraw their funds to the main chain if problems occur. Like having a local branch bank that reports to headquarters but can operate independently day-to-day.
Technical
Layer 2 scaling framework creating hierarchical chains with periodic root chain commitments. Child chains process transactions independently and submit merkle roots to parent chains for finality. Users can exit to parent chains with fraud proofs if operators act maliciously. Plasma enables massive scaling but requires sophisticated exit mechanisms and data availability guarantees.