Get to Know the Chain — æternity
With blockchain technology continuing to expand, developers can choose to look beyond the capabilities that Ethereum or EVM-compatible blockchains have on offer. Speaking of which, 80% of blockchains are EVM-compatible. So, there’s a select list of chains that have dared to go on their own when it comes to building infrastructure from the ground up.
For developers, this could all boil down to choosing between writing code in languages such as Solidity or Rust, where the latter is in a class of its own. So, it should come as no surprise that non-EVM compatible blockchains intend to carve out a niche for themselves, even if they rarely capture the spotlight when it comes to all things blockchain.
This brings us to the æternity platform that seeks to do its own thing as a non-EVM blockchain, after the launch of its Mainnet.
The æternity Platform — At First Glance
Existing first as an ERC-20 token — known as the AE token or the Aeon — on the Ethereum platform, it wouldn’t be long before building the æternity blockchain itself would become a reality. Of course, æternity’s founder, Yanislav Malahov, worked closely with Vitalik Buterin, on the conceptualization of Ethereum itself.
In serving as Buterin’s primary source of inspiration since 2013, Malahov calls himself the “Grandfather of Ethereum” even if he has moved on, due to differences that he had with Ethereum’s co-founder on the platform’s goals, philosophy and direction. Clearly, it was time to implement his own ideas of what blockchain technology should offer users.
That date with destiny would be November 27, 2018, when the Mainnet of æternity was launched and when the AE token would become the official cryptocurrency of the platform too. In fact, the AE tokens on Ethereum could now be swapped for AE tokens on the æternity blockchain itself. Only now, you can transact on the platform using these tokens while also trading with them as a good and proper cryptocurrency too.
However, the æternity blockchain offers much more than the Aeon now. Given that its architecture naturally supports scalability and the quick processing of transactions, æternity intends to go beyond the limitations of traditional blockchains in this respect. Currently, there are two prominent features in the form of side chains and state channels that facilitate this ability to scale infinitely while enabling higher throughput but at low fees.
With so much focus on building solutions that will increase scalability and interoperability, a couple of approaches to resolving these challenges include sidechains and state channels. In fact, one of æternity’s solutions — known as Hyperchains — will include the capability to build multiple side chains.
Hyperchains: Infinite Scalability & Interoperability at your Fingertips
So, what is a side chain?
Think of this blockchain as one that is connected to a larger blockchain such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, and which continues to grapple with scalability and low throughput. This smaller chain is sometimes referred to as a child chain or side chain while the larger chain that it is attached to is called the parent chain or the main chain.
Not only are these side chains designed to speed up the processing of transactions off of the parent chain but these chains can be used to test features prior to moving them onto the main net. Clearly, this increases scalability while also giving chains the opportunity to experiment with new use cases that would not be possible on the main chain.
Most of all, with the ability to stick to a more established blockchain, these chains, upon the improvement of security, promise much in the form of interoperability.
Until now, most blockchains have worked in silos, so to speak, and with the implementation of these side chains comes the opportunity for cross-chain integration as one continuous blockchain.
This is exactly what the Hyperchains feature intends to offer but with particular tweaks to the consensus mechanism — a hybrid of PoW and PoS. In fact, apart from the upgrade to the æternity Mainnet, just about anyone will be able to build their own side chain, with no necessity of permission.
Now, while this feature is still in development, the æternity blockchain has been engineered specifically to include another interesting Layer 2 scaling solution: state channels.
How æternity’s advanced state channels technology contributes to scalability
By definition, state channels permit individuals to conduct transactions off the blockchain that are usually carried out on it.
All they have to do is place a deposit with the blockchain and open a channel to perform transactions. Up until one of the participants wants to call it a day and “exit” the channel. At this point, both participants will submit a state update and the main chain will revert with the final balances of both parties.
So, why does this Layer 2 solution matter?
If only necessary transactions are conducted on the blockchain while the rest are conducted on state channels, this can radically speed up the processing of transactions while cutting down costs, in terms of fees.
As for æternity’s solution, its state channels allow the execution of smart contracts off-chain and only intervene by enforcing smart contract code if there is a dispute between parties. Clearly, this approach can prove to be groundbreaking as parties can conduct numerous transactions off-chain but in a secure manner.
As mentioned earlier, this solution provides developers with the opportunity to build Dapps that can run millions of transactions and which will not slow down the network or even cost an arm or a leg.
If this isn’t cool enough, æternity brings functional programming to smart contract development through its language designed for this single purpose: Sophia.
What Sets Sophia Apart from other Smart Contract languages
If there was a use case for functional programming, writing smart contracts would definitely be one of them. If you don’t know anything about functional programming languages, reading documentation about prominent languages such as Haskell and ML can help you break down how it works and particularly, how it differs from imperative programming languages like Java and Python.
Functional programming works well for projects with minimal lines of code. That’s why this family of languages work well, in the area of smart contract development. What also makes this group of languages apt is that they tend to take type safety seriously.
Not very differently, functional programming prevents the possibility of side effects taking place and it is this property of immutability that an append-only data structure like the blockchain might just fancy. Each contract, when written in a functional language, can be used in an isolated environment that retains its properties of being deterministic and remaining unchanged by external values.
So, how does Sophia measure up as a language for smart contracts?
Not only is it strongly typed but also has a restricted mutable state. While it cannot achieve the ideal of being a pure function, the possibility of altering the state is eliminated, which prevents certain programming errors from taking place.
Here’s a code snippet of the Sophia functional programming language:
One thing’s for sure: by virtue of writing smart contracts using Sophia, æternity is, without a doubt, a non-EVM chain. What makes this obvious is its easy-to-use programming environment called the FATE VM.
æternity: So what’s next?
Until now, we’ve looked at the main solutions that æternity offers that aid with interoperability and scalability such as Hyperchains and Advanced State Channels Technology,
In addition to its programming language for smart contracts, æternity’s implementation of blockchain oracles helps with collecting all sorts of information ranging from sports to financial trading to even the weather which can increase the number of use cases on its platform. In a decentralized manner.
That said, with the reboot of the Hyperchains Alpha Testnet in August 2022, it’s clear that the focus of æternity is on realizing the potential of their side chain implementation in the near future. You can read more about the changes associated with HC Alpha at this link.
So, what do you think of æternity’s Layer 2 solutions? Will they play a key role in impacting the direction of blockchain technology as a whole? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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