Sidechains: TRON’s Sun Network, when compared with aelf, loses it’s sparkle
On Aug 11, TRON network announced a sidechain scaling solution, titled the Sun Network. It is said to improve security, efficiency and reduce energy consumption. The Sun Network was due for release in early August, but now is expected in mid-September. A number of the features appear similar to aelf, so let’s see how aelf stacks up to this new upgrade.
What is the Sun Network
This network will incorporate a number of scaling solutions such as DAppChain, an application focused sidechain and cross-chain communication. According to the TRON blog, this upgrade has two notable features.
“Firstly, it supports smart contract transactions, focusing on improving the TPS of the smart contract transactions on the MainNet, as well as lowering the transaction fee. Secondly, the side chain can support more customizable requirements, such as setting side chain incentives, transaction rates, transaction confirmation speed and other parameters, catering to the needs of different developer groups.”
The DAppchain feature is said to be able to provide unlimited scaling capacity. It will use DPoS Consensus and will allow cross-chain communication through the MainChain Gateway.
How does this compare to aelf
In 2017, the aelf whitepaper was released describing the technical structure and components of the blockchain ecosystem to be developed. An initial overview of the project can be found in chapter two of the document which discusses the key objectives of aelf.
It lists 5 objectives, the first being highly customizable OS for commercial use. The design incorporates a basic aelf Kernal which includes fundamental functions of a blockchain system — the minimum viable blockchain system. Clients can then customize the basic blockchain to suit their specific needs, benefiting from a modular design to increase ease of change. According to the technical documentation, the second feature of TRON’s DAppChain, is a ‘Highly Customizable Sidechain’. The only further other thing explained in this section is that this differs from the TRON main-chain.
The Second objective for aelf is regarding Cross-Chain Interaction. As the whitepaper states:
“Aelf can interact with Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other Blockchain systems.”
This is in addition to interoperability between each side chain on the aelf ecosystem. The interoperability of the aelf blockchain, not only allows reading of data from other sidechains, but it also allows one action on a specific blockchain to trigger another action or smart contract on an alternate blockchain.
Contrary to this, the TRON DAppChain appears to only have the ability for sidechains to interact with the mainchain, and even then, only to transfer assets between them.
The third objective of aelf discusses the improved performance the aelf model will bring to the blockchain ecosystem. Aelf has used a few approaches to improve the overall performance of the blockchain, including parallel processing, cluster nodes, and database separation. This brought the TPS up to 15,000.
TRON has peaked their TPS at 2,000. According to the Sun Network Documentation, the addition of the DAppChain allows an increase in the TPS infinitely:
“The whole TRON ecosystem TPS can reach 2000*SideChainNum with the increasing of sidechains numbers.”
This is simply illogical as each sidechain is still only capable of achieving only 2,000 TPS. The core element to take note of is that each sidechain will have its own application who can utilise the full 2,000 transactions.
If we compare this flawed logic to aelf, 10 sidechains on TRON can each achieve 2,000 times 10 or 20,000 transactions, however, on aelf this number will be 15,000 times 10 or 150,000 transactions.
These are the core elements of the Sun Network, and although there are other features mentioned, they are what would be expected in any blockchain project. But this is not the end for aelf. There are still two other unique objectives on the aelf blockchain.
Protocol Update is a feature which ensures the longevity of the network by allowing the network to include new features, update or even upgrade the Consensus Protocol, avoiding impasses and Protocol disputes.
The Private Chain Module allows clients to create their own sidechain with complete privacy, control and ownership. This is a critical feature that must be available for enterprise adoption due to the sensitivity of data, processes and strategies. Currently the Sun Network makes no mention of this feature or an equivalent.
After looking through the Sun Network DAppChain upgrade and comparing with aelf’s technology, it appears like aelf holds well, providing similar features in addition to some unique ones not mentioned by TRON. Every feature that is developed in this new upgrade has been in the aelf whitepaper from over 2 years ago and has seen years of development from our technical team.
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