Project Update Part II: A fresh perspective, the Blockchain Hype and the Pantos Mission
Have you ever wondered which conditions a tokenised blockchain asset can be moved from one blockchain to another under? Because we have been thinking very hard about this question. The world of blockchain as we know it started out as an open protocol that was intended to be trustless, permissionless and decentralised. We still believe this is what it should be, and we further believe that blockchain interaction should adhere to the same standards.
If there is one thing we have experienced in the past couple of years, over and over again, it is that blockchain projects still are novel and difficult to comprehend for the vast majority of people. The Bitcoin blockchain has given us a first decentralised database in the form of a sequence of blocks, complete with a rudimentary scripting language and incentive structure built on a Token intrinsic to the builtin consensus algorithm. The Ethereum blockchain shifted the focus to a more elaborate scripting language, among other things allowing a multitude of Tokens residing together on the same blockchain. Then, there was also and still is the DAO, DeFi, meme coins and the Metaverse crazes. One thing is for certain, there will be more bull runs, there will be more crashes, there will be more madness. We are very happy to see that cross-blockchain interaction is rapidly gaining momentum and awareness though.
Pantos is not about blockchain madness, but about reason. Our main goal is to allow independent blockchains to feature their synergies and connect to each other. Pantos is about informed and trustworthy blockchain interaction. Step by step, we are still investigating that novel realm. The asserted novelty illustrates why research and more specifically academic research always was and for the foreseeable future is going to be an integral part of the Pantos project. Assuming that trustlessness, permissionlessness and decentralisation are adamant features of our solution, while fully-functional interaction between independent ledgers as a task has not been fully solved yet.
The blockchain world in its current state can still be considered a form of “Wild West” of digitised assets. The very technology this world is going to be built upon is still in rapid development. One of the drawbacks of the Wild West attitude is that blockchain projects often compete with each other, and blockchains in particular are not compatible with each other out of the box. This is actually a reason we firmly believe in the Pantos project and believe that Pantos will play a vital role in allowing broad adoption of blockchain technologies. We do not intend to build a Pantos blockchain,nor do we intend to force other projects to adopt our solutions, but rather we build on the best and most established blockchains and add a layer 0 solution to them. Our goal is to allow smooth smart contract interaction across independent blockchains. We want other projects to adopt our solutions because we believe that we will provide the best opportunities in the sense of the most natural solutions to the problem of blockchain fragmentation.
Allowing blockchain technologies to extend their permissionless, trustless and decentralised principles across the competing consensus algorithms barrier.
With Pantos, we set out to bring different blockchains closer together. We want to first allow a true cross-blockchain transfer of assets and further allow independent ledgers to communicate and even interact with each other in the same trustless, permissionless and decentralised way as is possible on-chain for a single ledger. Security in this matter is of high importance, as once the blockchain has accepted a block, there is no reverting, and trustless smart contracts cannot be upgraded. Academic research is a process involving knowledgeable, smart people all over the world, reading, reviewing and discussing their detailed work in an open manner. While open source could also be considered a pillar of blockchain development, to allow a fair and exact analysis of attack vectors and possible shortcomings such open access procedures should even be considered a necessity.
Most projects in the crypto space set out with promises they are likely never going to deliver and soon need to follow up with monetisation plans that often contradict their prior promises. With Pantos, we have been very clear from the beginning that it would be a research-driven project. Very recently, with the first token transfer from one testnet blockchain to another we have come considerably closer to our goal. With this milestone, we also have some organisational adjustments coming up.
Research will continue playing a vital role, but our publications will broaden their scope in the sense of touching questions not directly related to cross-blockchain token transfer. At the same time, and from a research perspective, we will bring more focus to special questions such as possible applications in the lightning network. We will start 2022 by extending our Pantos-dedicated development team. This way, we can start working on a specific selection of development prototypes for the most promising blockchains and also up our game with regard to the required user interface questions. With the research becoming more academic and the in-house work becoming more technical, the role of our lead researcher will become more similar to that of a communicator between the fractions. He will remain an important part of the team, but will additionally venture into more projects in the future.
Luckily, Pantos as a project does not necessarily need to generate revenue, this gives us all the more freedom to focus on the ideals that trustworthy blockchain projects should be pledged to. In 2022, we will go live with the first Pantos Beta test in public test networks. We will also start working on adding more blockchains, especially focusing on blockchains that are not EVM-based. Of course, we will also make it as easy as possible for current and new partners to onboard and start testing or using Pantos. Furthermore, there is a chance that we will venture into more flexible cross-blockchain smart contract interaction in 2022. We are very excited about the coming year, so stay tuned, keep raising your questions and suggestions to us, your input is one of our most invaluable assets.
