Scaling for Blockchain Interoperability

Interoperability is a very forward-thinking topic in cryptocurrencies as they face a more immediate and pressing need for improved scalability. However, interoperability and scalability are closely tied to each other, and many scalability solutions have profound effects on the future interoperability of blockchains.

Multiple platforms are taking varied approaches to both scalability and interoperability. Some of them focus on layer 2 solutions, others on open protocols, and some on even more abstract multi-chain frameworks and cloud computing architectures.

Sara Technologies believes scalability and interoperability are closely related. The future landscape of the Internet will be heavily dependent on interoperable blockchains and decentralized constructs. We’re here to help guide you through the evolving ecosystem and assist you in building forward-thinking solutions for your business.

What is Interoperability?

The future of blockchain interoperability is challenging to predict, but there have been some early and insightful signs of what the future might hold.

Open protocols are the foundation of the modern Internet and are a powerful and robust foundation. Some critical developments in open protocols have and are being built in the cryptocurrency realm. Particularly when evaluating atomic swaps, decentralized storage, and public cloud computing networks.

While different than the original open protocols that laid the foundation of the Internet, the underlying technology of platforms like Interledger, DFINITY, and IPFS are early signs of a potential future Internet landscape.

Besides open protocols, there has been a rising excitement around projects such as Cosmos and Polkadot that function as multi-chain frameworks. These platforms provide a robust yet flexible environment for different blockchains to plug into and participate in a standardized communication and — in the case of Polkadot — consensus protocol.

The general theme in blockchain interoperability is standardized communication for transaction schemes, smart contracts, and other components of blockchain networks such as consensus. If accomplished though, the new decentralized Internet ecosystem could be comprised of seamlessly communicating and interacting distributed ledgers across disparate industries and payment channels.

Many of the platforms facilitating this future are in their early stages, and their potential is purely speculation at this point. However, the transparency and communication afforded to us by the modern Internet were not available when the Internet was first being built, so perhaps this time we may have a better overall picture of what the future Internet might look like.

Interoperable Platforms & Their Solutions

Many of the established cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are working on layer 2 scaling solutions at the moment. Some newer platforms focus specifically on both scalability and interoperability, offering some unique technologies and concepts to achieve this.

Some of the most intriguing and accessible projects — that are either live or in development — represent the innovation on the interoperability front.

DFINITY

DFINITY has a lot of excitement behind it from both the broader community and the high-profile VC firms that are backing it like Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital. DFINITY pegs itself as the “Internet Computer” and is a distributed, blockchain-based cloud computing platform.

The technology behind DFINITY centers around its Threshold Relay chain predicated on BLS-generated randomness. It functions as an unbounded and highly scalable computing network for both private and public blockchains, IT systems, and enterprises to plug into and leverage its resources.

The result is a decentralized and highly scalable computing network available to the public for much more powerful cloud computing than current iterations.

Cosmos

Cosmos is an exciting multi-chain framework platform built on the Tendermint BFT consensus engine. Cosmos acts as a blockchain hub with a standardized communication protocol for facilitating value exchange across disparate transaction schemes.

Various types of blockchains can plug into Cosmos and communicate with each other without having to forfeit their individual consensus models. Large cryptocurrency networks like Ethereum can even build bridges to the Cosmos network and interact with the blockchains connected to it.

Polkadot

Polkadot is another multi-chain framework similar to Cosmos but with two critical distinctions. Blockchains that plug into Polkadot have to forfeit their consensus in favor of the overall Polkadot proof of stake (PoS) consensus model, and the platform focuses on standardized communication for both transactions and smart contracts.

The form of interoperability that Polkadot is offering would provide the ability for execution of smart contracts and transferring of their conditions to different blockchains. The potential market for this is enormous as developers and users could optimize which blockchains their smart contracts run and not be limited to individual choices.

Zilliqa

Zilliqa is an up and coming high-throughput platform predicated on a hybrid practical BFT (pBFT) and proof of work consensus model. It focuses on computational sharding and is designed to scale to thousands of transactions per second (TPS).

Zilliqa has been gaining momentum recently as gas costs on Ethereum have become prohibitively high for many dapps. Dapps running on Zilliqa are much more scalable at the moment, and the network employs its own smart contract language Scilla that has formal verification.

Wanchain

Wanchain focuses on cross-chain smart contract compatibility, secure multi-part computing, and privacy implementations. Wanchain 2.0 is currently live, and the platform has a unique architecture that facilitates the exchange of digital assets across chains without sacrificing privacy controls.

The primary goal of Wanchain is to function as the decentralized infrastructure for the financial industry, allowing banking applications and digital assets to be created on the platform.

Hyperledger

Hyperledger is not specifically built for interoperability, but more as a collaborative environment for developers and enterprises. Some exciting developments are sure to continue coming from the Hyperledger Project, such as Hyperledger Quilt.

Hyperledger Quilt is an enterprise-grade implementation of the Interledger Protocol (ILP) for atomic swaps and may eventually become the go-to tool for interoperability in its framework environments. Open-source collaboration has significant potential to increase innovation and Hyperledger offers an exceedingly useful tool for developers and enterprises to learn more about distributed ledgers and interoperability.

Looking Ahead

The future landscape of the Internet is difficult to predict. Recent trends have shown a higher propensity for decentralization and the removal of rent-seeking intermediaries. The future Web 3.0 technology stack will assuredly be heavily tied to blockchains and their accompanying technologies.

At Sara Technologies, we continually seek to understand new developments in scalability and interoperability because we know it’s the future. Our expertise can help you build the enterprise solutions that will be part of the future decentralized economy.

Reach out for more information!

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info@saratechnologies.com

Sara Technologies Inc.

Written by

Sara Technologies, a US-based IT firm located in San Diego, Oakland, and Albuquerque. We are experts in creating industry-specific blockchain solutions.