Scaling The Blockchain
Abstract:
Scaling blockchain is the core problem today in the industry. There are many attempts to solve it on layer 0, layer 1, layer 2.
Commentary:
Given the amount of sheer talent going into blockchain scalability, we should see a lot of solid attempts to solve scalability in the next 1–2 years. My take is we’ll start to see the blockchain industry consolidate around a few core concepts, whether it’s sharding or otherwise.
Notes:
Intro
The key is consensus of the network
A network can only go as fast as the slowest person (node) can go
In a public blockchain such as Bitcoin, extra effort must be spent to create trust
Hyperledger Fabric, as a permission blockchain, has better scalability
Significant shortage of tools and human capital
We are a long way off from being able to talk about standards
People have been sold a dream, but the ecosystem is nowhere near enough
If Venezuela switched to bitcoin, then each adult can only go to the store every 36 days
Why is Visa the comparison point? 2,000 tps is nothing
We should surpass it
Scaling for 10 billion people in the future
50,000 if not 100,000 production level of scaling
Critical scaling problem
At the end of the day, can you bring mass adoption
What applications excite you
We need to do scale just to show that we can do scale
There’s perception that blockchain is just slower database
We need at least 100,000 tps to test out applications
There are a lot of trusted read applications that won’t need write
Maintenance and control of your identity
Fundamental human right to control your identity, security of your identity
There doesn’t need to be a killer app
The Internet killer app was messaging and email
Blockchain applications don’t have to be fancy, just sending money, tokens for land records, so important for non-first-world countries
Insurance — look at how tall their buildings are and how little value they provide, it’s inherently a peer to peer transaction
There are 8 dapps that have 300 or more users
Splend 200 million CCTV deal in China
Once you get the users, the killer apps will come in
Layer 0 underneath the consensus protocol bloxroute
Looking at how to make data transmitted on the blockchain really fast
Avalanche — a new way to reach consensus, don’t need mining, gets ride of expenditure of energy
Sharding approach
How language design
Once we solve layer 0 and 1, applications will flow in
It’s important to recognize the market opportunity
Typically, the first instances of a technology is not the winner
Tradeoff of decentralization versus performance
EOS 21 block producers, if I go down to 1, I get great performance
AWS on 1 extreme
I worry about these tradeoffs
You can scale without tradeoffs
Not the best is going to win
Simplicity is going to rule the day
The simpler it is, the easier it is to monetize it
What happens in 5 years
Scalability, we need to collaborate
Blockchain is decentralized, we are all tackling the same problem
What is the application that 1 billion users use that they don’t use today
AI data marketplace or data privacy
Each data point has no value, but it’s about millions of users
Great consolidation, we have 1800 coins, many have zero value
We will see most of them disappear
Avalanche is able to deliver the dream and will eradicate most of the coins
then we need innovation at the network layer
There will be solutions for people who transact frequently
it’s very disruptive period of time, every day there’s something new
We will be able to make payments at 10x the speed of visa, we’ll have a stock market, bond market, prediction market, identity
The big thing will be that the payments thing has taken over
Having a modular architecture
