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The blockchain is diversifying and thriving, but it is no longer possible to ignore the elephant in the room: scalability.
Scalability in the blockchain industry is a problem that needs to be addressed when talking about the future of technology. At the moment, the Bitcoin blockchain processes between 3 and 7 transactions per second; Ethereum manages about 15 transactions per second.
However, if the blockchain has to compete against VisaNet, which processes an average of 150 million transactions a day and over 24,000 transactions per second, it is obvious that developers must find ways to bring it to fruition.
On-chain or off-chain
This does not mean that development on the improvement of technology is not done. Several fields are creating their own solutions, be they level one or chain or second level solutions, off-chain.
The online chain is the first layer of technology, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, because transactions are processed on the blockchain. Secondary chains are second-level solutions, such as Lightning Network or Plasma, which transfer value to the outside of the blockchain, thus freeing up space on the network.
But does technology have to resort to second-level solutions to adapt it? Or is it possible to find a solution with level one?
Blockchain Laboratory
To find out, a two-day seminar (free!) Will be held in Primalbase, Amsterdam, from 17 to 18 November. The event will see over 14 developers, researchers and industry experts from around the world discussing a range of blockchain scaling solutions.
The Master Workshop: Layer I solutions is organized by Binary District. The program offers help with DAG-based cryptovalve frameworks, improving Bitcoin security and performance with strong coherence through collective signing, OmniLedger, PolyShard, as well as roundtables and workshops.
Some of the speakers include Yue Guo, a PhD student at Cornell University; Greg Scullard Lead Developer Advocate at Hashgraph; Roman Oliynikov, researcher at Input Output HK (IOHK); Yoad Lewenberg, researcher at DAGLabs; Sarah Azouvi, PhD researcher at UCL; and Zhijie Ren, postdoctoral researcher at Delft University of Technology.
The workshop is the second in the BDJ series of two-day Master Workshops examining blockchain scaling solutions. This is followed by his "Out of the chain" event, which saw the participation of over 25 experts including Patrick McCorry and Liam Horne in Berlin.
Crowded network
In the 10 years in which the cryptocurrency market has been around, 2017 has proved a monumental year for this. With the growing interest of retail investors and the growing use of initial coin offerings (ICOs) as a means of raising funds to launch various projects, the market has prospered.
At the same time, however, it highlighted the congestion on the network. In December, for example, the deadline for sending a payment increased to such an extent that the costs of Bitcoin transactions exceeded $ 40. This is compared to almost $ 0.31 in January 2017, according to CoinMetrics. At the moment, commissions are pegged at $ 0.42.
In the case of Ethereum, the launch of the dApp of CryptoKitties showed that Ethereum's blockchain is not immune to downsizing problems. Launched in 2017, the virtual game that allows players to buy, breed, collect and sell different types of virtual cats with Ether, was initially thought to be a playful experiment in the early stages of the blockchain. However, it quickly turned into a viral sensation with prices for some kittens listed in the six figures.
Short or long-term corrections?
Of course, while it has captured the imagination of those living in the community and beyond, the network has recorded an increase of six times the number of transactions of Ethereum, according to Etherscan, occupying a significant amount of space on the network.
However, if one of the nearly 1,100 dApps created on the Ethereum blockchain were to acquire a considerable market share, then Ethereum will have to solve its downsizing problems.
The goal of the next seminar is to look at the proposed solutions. Those presented by layer one and layer two are feasible? In that case, do they provide short or long-term corrections? What about level three solutions? Four or five? And what does the future hold for this nascent industry?
At the moment there are more questions than answers, but if technology wants to be the answer to the needs of many, it must find a solution to downsizing.
