Vertically Scaling with Dymension
tl;dr: We introduce a new scaling Dymension: a modular settlement layer specialized in supporting enshrined rollups; enabling turn-key deployment with Dymension RDK (rollup development kit).
While the Cosmos ecosystem is designed to be horizontally scalable from the outset, a slew of use-cases still cannot be unlocked due to the high TPS demand and computational complexity they inherently require. Cosmos refers to horizontal scaling as follows:
“Even if the consensus engine and the application are highly optimized, at some point the transaction throughput of a single chain inevitably hits a wall it cannot surpass.”
While this quote addresses general-purpose L1’s, it also applies to application-specific chains, which themselves cannot support intensive use cases without hitting a wall. Dymension introduces a scaling paradigm shift, enabling a future where metaverse apps, games and other ultra-TPS services can reside on the blockchain by easily deploying dedicated rollups customized for their needs.
Scaling the Y Axis
Let’s briefly jump into what roll ups are and how they relate to vertical scaling (if you’re well informed about rollups, L2s and scaling solutions you can consider skipping this paragraph). In traditional software engineering, vertical scaling means adding more resources to a single node, e.g by adding additional CPU, RAM, and DISK to cope with an increasing workload. In the blockchain context, horizontal scaling means creating more chains while vertically means increasing the blockchain throughput. Rollups increase the blockchain throughput by focusing on transaction execution while delegating settlement and data availability to other layers.
What is Dymension?
In a nutshell, Dymension is to rollups as Cosmos is to blockchains. Dymension will provide all the tools and infrastructure needed to easily build, launch and run autonomous enshrined rollups as part of the Cosmos ecosystem. Using our Rollup Development Kit (RDK) and a specialized settlement layer, developers can focus on their business logic needs and easily deploy application specific rollups while benefiting from IRC (Inter-Rollup Communication), shared security and data availability.
What are enshrined rollups and why they require a specialized settlement layer?
The current prevalent blockchain environment is one that is referred to as “monolithic”. The monolithic blockchain encompasses various functionalities, some of which could be abstracted as the following:
- Execution — transaction computation
- Settlement — Security and objective finality
- Data Availability — making sure that when a new block is produced, all of the data in that block was actually published
These functionalities are also known as the 3 layers of a modular blockchain. A modular blockchain is an approach towards scaling which decomposes the monolithic work done into 3 separate task-forces.
Dymension focuses on the execution and settlement layers and thus able to provide “enshrined rollups” — incorporating the rollup logic into the protocol. In other words, the Dymension chain is “aware” of rollups on top of it and is optimized mainly for maintaining rollup states, verifications proofs and fraud proofs while accepting only rollup transactions and basic transfers.
There are clear advantages for a dedicated enshrined rollup:
- Increased security — avoiding smart contracts bugs, use of bridges and malicious governance upgrades.
- Reduced fees and increased scale — no compete for gas with non-rollup transactions and protocol embedded rollup logic.
Using our RDK, one can easily deploy their own rollup enshrined on top of our specialized settlement layer and focus solely on their business logic needs.
What about data availability layer?
We focus our efforts on enshrining the execution and settlement layer while looking into various modular data availability solutions. We will share more details on the DA aspect in the near future.
So what’s next?
We know this announcement will inevitably raise a lot of questions — including timelines, technical details, and how to get involved as a community member!
We will share many more details in the near future. In the meantime, you can join our channels and our community as we embark on our journey to a new Dymension!
⌘ Website: https://www.dymension.xyz/
⌘ Twitter: https://twitter.com/dymension
⌘ Telegram: https://t.me/dYmensionXYZ
⌘ Discord: https://discord.gg/dymension
