An Introduction to the Laser Network; the SWIFT of Blockchain

Welcome to Laser — Blockchain without borders.

It is common knowledge in the cryptocurrency world that there is a considerable amount of value held in various coins and tokens that are on blockchains. It is also common knowledge that there are more than 1,500 different cryptocurrencies on the market. This can create a problem if a user of one cryptocurrency wants to send a payment to someone who only uses another cryptocurrency. As such, it can limit people to prefer only using big-name cryptocurrencies, since it’s more likely that they’ll be accepted.

Let’s get a little more specific. Most everyone has heard of Bitcoin and Ethereum, right? But what about MonaCoin or Elastos? Chances are, you haven’t heard of those cryptocurrencies, since they’re not as popular as Bitcoin or Ethereum are. From this, you might assume that MonaCoin and Elastos are difficult to spend, since there are fewer people who use them — which is why you might accept Bitcoin for payment, but not necessarily MonaCoin.

Hold that thought for a second, though. Most everyone has heard of US dollars and Euros, right? But what about Peruvian sol, or Moldovan leu? Chances are that you haven’t heard of these currencies either — since they’re not as popular as US dollars and Euros are. But does that mean that they are difficult to use? Absolutely not. There are 180 currencies around the world that are recognized by the United Nations. They all coexist with one another thanks to cross-platform protocols such as SWIFT, which allow for different currencies and different banking systems to smoothly transact with each other. This means that if you wanted to send US dollars to somebody in Peru, you could do it — since the banking infrastructure is in place to accommodate cross-border transactions.

Currently, no similar system exists for cryptocurrencies. Laser’s mission is to change that. Laser is a network that operates parallel to an existing blockchain network (such as Bitcoin’s blockchain). As it runs parallel, it is able to translate unique attributes of clients and nodes on each blockchain (such as the wallet ID number) into a “generic” code that can be understood by all blockchains that run with Laser. This “generic” code effectively enables blockchains to speak the same language to each other. The result of this is that a user of Cryptocurrency A can send money to the Cryptocurrency B wallet of their recipient. Instead of being restricted to just their own cryptocurrency (e.g. only A > A, not A > B), Laser eliminates the borders of the blockchain world through a parallel Servicenode layer, much like how SWIFT eliminated the borders of the banking world.

Aside from enabling blockchains to interoperate, Laser also adds other key same-blockchain functions that address current shortcomings of blockchain networks. For example, using an overlay protocol, transactions can be completed near-instantly (as opposed to taking several minutes or hours). Laser also offers an anonymity service, which scrambles coins of multiple transactions to prevent ownership of a given coin unit being traced through a public blockchain.

Many of the world’s currencies and banking systems operated in isolation before SWIFT came along. It would appear that cryptocurrencies faced the same limitation — though thanks to Laser, this limitation will be eliminated.

In our next post, you’ll learn how you can join the Laser revolution by staking your own Laser Servicenode.

Until then, follow us on Twitter to get the latest news and check out our explainer video to see a more in-depth analysis of how Laser works. You can also read about it in greater detail by checking out our whitepaper.