PAID DApp and Ecosystem: A look into Layer 2 and Substrate Solutions
At PAID Network, we are constantly exploring the ever-evolving landscape of blockchain tools, platforms, and protocols to see which can be integrated within our network to provide additional value to our users and unlock additional capabilities within the PAID DApp.
Layer 2 solutions are among the most intriguing options. These are essentially novel protocols that operate on top of existing blockchain base layers to expand their functionality — such as adding support for smart contracts, improving privacy, or most commonly, boosting scalability.
Likewise, Parity Technologies’ Substrate platform has recently emerged as a promising alternative to layer 2 technologies, since it provides a layer 1 base chain that natively incorporates many of the features added by layer 2 solutions. This is widely considered to be one of the most capable layer 1 platforms, thanks to its highly efficient consensus mechanism, forkless upgrades, and support for multiple smart contract platforms and development languages, including the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) and Rust respectively.
Before we get into how we’ll be utilizing these technologies, let’s first take a look at how layer 2 technologies and Substrate are already being used by some of our partners throughout the PAID Network ecosystem.
How Our Partners Leverage the Latest Technologies
As it stands, there are dozens of different layer 2 solutions being developed, many of which are now fully operational. If you are familiar with the PAID Network ecosystem, then you may have already seen that some of our partners are beginning to leverage these technologies to expand their own capabilities.
Earlier this month, we partnered with the Ethereum-based layer 2 solution Metis, whose team is building a platform that dramatically reduces transaction costs and confirmation times through the use of Optimistic Rollups. We plan to leverage Metis’ technology to dramatically improve the efficiency of the Ignition and Apollo-X launchpad platforms in the coming months.
Likewise, AllianceBlock — billed as the “world’s first decentralized capital market” — is set to provide a second layer that connects traditional and decentralized financial infrastructure. As our partner, we’ll be using AllianceBlock’s Liquidity Mining as a Service (LMaaS) technology as well as its borrowing/lending solution to bolster our ecosystem.
Other partners in our ecosystem, however, choose to build on the highly flexible and efficient blockchain platform known as Substrate. Despite common misconceptions, Substrate is not a layer 2 solution. Instead, it is a base chain that developers can use to create purpose-built blockchains that benefit from its massive speed, scalability, and plug-and-play modules. When integrated with the Polkadot network, Substrate-based blockchains also get plugged into a wider interoperable ecosystem of blockchains — each of which has its own capabilities and purpose.
A wide range of our partners are already building on the platform, these include DefiCliq, Litentry, Astar Network, and Kylin Network — all of which are set to leverage the capabilities of Substrate within their main products.
Current state of the PAID DApp
At PAID Network, we understand that in order for the PAID DApp to achieve maximum uptake, it needs to be not only highly accessible and intuitive, but also highly capable.
Unfortunately, while producing an intuitive application on the Ethereum platform is certainly possible, ensuring it is fast, economical, and capable is less of a simple task due to Ethereum’s current limitations. Nonetheless, to maximize development speed, we will be launching PAID DApp 2.0 on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain — leveraging the capabilities of both chains to provide an optimal user experience.
Once PAID 2.0 is launched, we will then be focusing on building the next iteration of the PAID DApp on the Substrate platform. We believe this will help streamline the development process to make implementing improvements and updates more efficient, while enabling a range of new opportunities for our partners and end-users.
A Move Towards Substrate
In order to make SMART Agreements as accessible as possible, we need to break down some of the challenges to their adoption. As it stands, this includes high transaction fees, network congestion, and transaction delays — all of which are problems faced by the Ethereum network.
Though these will be somewhat mitigated by Binance Smart Chain version of the PAID 2.0 DApp, we believe that the additional capabilities offered by Substrate make it a suitable platform for the development of the next PAID DApp iteration.
Substrate brings to the table a range of features that make it perfectly suited for the PAID DApp. For one, it’s dramatically faster and cheaper to use than both Ethereum and BSC, making it perfectly suited for SMART Agreements and decentralized lending/borrowing. It also supports decentralized identity (DID) through our Substrate-based DID pallet (in development), and every other feature highlighted in our roadmap.
Substrate is also incredibly simple to build on, since it supports a wide variety of programming languages (anything that can be compiled to WebAssembly). This will reduce the burden on our developers, who will be able to develop in their preferred language to increase both the rate of development and the quality of the code. Practically, this means faster updates, more features, and fewer bugs.
Arguably the biggest boon to substrate is its direct interconnectivity with the Polkadot ecosystem — which has picked up considerable momentum in recent years. With a Substrate-based PAID DApp, we will be able to begin connecting with the broader blockchain landscape via Polkadot bridges and parachains — thereby dramatically expanding the capabilities of the DApp.
Ensuring PAID DApp Accessibility Agnostically
All of this will be achieved without sacrificing absolute accessibility. All PAID DApp smart contracts will be easily accessible to our partners — regardless of whether they build on a Substrate-based chain, another L1 chain, or L2 — thanks to a simple to use bridge solution, which will also go into development together with the substrate based PAID DApp. This means decentralized identity, SMART agreement negotiations, payment escrow, dispute resolution, decentralized insurance, and the full range of PAID DApp capabilities will be available to any firm, irrespective of the platform they choose to build on.
Nonetheless, as the blockchain landscape continues to be fleshed out with ever-more capable platforms and solutions, PAID Network will be ready to welcome those that can provide additional value to our users, partners, and the ecosystem as a whole. Our main goal is to provide a service that is fast, reliable, and highly scalable — using the very best of available technologies to ensure everybody can #GETPAID.
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About PAID
PAID Network seeks to redefine the current business contract, litigation, and settlement processes by providing a simple, attorney-free, and cost-friendly DApp for users and businesses to ensure they #GetPAID wherever they are in the world.
PAID technology leverages Plasm to operate on both Ethereum and Polkadot ecosystems. PAID makes businesses exponentially more efficient by building SMART Agreements through smart contracts in order to execute DeFi transactions and business agreements seamlessly.
PAID streamlines backend legal operations with SMART Agreements, so that projects can focus on making their brand bigger and better.
For any questions for the PAID network, please feel free to reach out to us on:
Website: PAIDNetwork.com
Telegram: @PaidNetwork
Twitter: @PAID_Network
