Aug 16, 2019
The Future is Multichain
Interoperability Creates Positive-Sum Games Among Blockchain Networks
An ancient Greek myth tells of a fallen king who, as a punishment for his deceitfulness, was condemned to repeat the process of rolling a gigantic boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down immediately. Day in and day out he rolls the boulder, and each time it seems he succeeds, he must begin again.
Nowadays, it is developers who endure unnecessary repetition as they face the Sisyphean task of rebuilding their application and services on various, mutually-incompatible platforms.
The practice of developing a version of software for each operating system should be a relic of the closed-source paradigm of the past. Yet builders on the blockchain find themselves having to learn the intricacies of every base-layer network on which they wish to deploy code, costing them both time and money when building their dApps.
A more effective strategy would be to build each component only once, on a single chain, and link the components together through robust interblockchain communication to form multichain applications.
LiquidLink provides developers with the necessary communication protocol to build a single version of software that works on multiple blockchains.
Rebuilding Again and Again
Building software can be a tedious exercise. In order to ensure maximum functionality, teams need to replicate their product across a range of incompatible operating systems. In addition to the initial expense of developing a version for Windows, Mac, and Linux, changes to the underlying operating system necessitate constant upgrades to the application’s software. Building apps for various gaming consoles, mobile devices, and web browsers results in the same difficulties.
Even though they seek to advance the virtues of open-source development, blockchain developers are not immune to the repetitive, inefficient development processes plaguing centralized technologies.
In a recent example, Tether’s US dollar-pegged stablecoin, USDT, went live on its third blockchain, adding TRON to the list that previously included Ethereum and Bitcoin’s Omni Layer. Web oracle providers such as Provable and Chainlink are also faced with the time-wasting endeavor of having to build different adapters of their service for each chain. Applications rely on these services in order to source data trustlessly from within their smart contracts. Those teams currently residing only on the Ethereum blockchain, for example, have to spend significant resources to master the intricacies of other base-layer networks when they wish to expand their offering.
The Foundations of a Global Economy
The blockchain economy could look to its real-world counterparts for examples. Nation-states have discovered that some games exist which are not zero sum. In international trade, for example, all parties can benefit.
Nation-states have reaped the benefits of interoperability for decades. Instead of having to manufacture everything themselves, they specialize in areas where they can find a competitive advantage and create efficiencies by trading with one another.
Before the introduction of trade pacts, the global economy consisted of a fragmented group of markets, each with its own infrastructure, economy, and set of services. These modern trade agreements are responsible for regulating trade between nations and promoting the free-flow of goods and services across a global marketplace. Today’s economy is an interconnected web of marketplaces through which value can flow freely.
Much like international interoperability adds value to individual economies by enabling each to specialize in a selection of products and trade freely with its partners, blockchain interoperability can do the same for digital goods & services. Networks can accelerate both their own expansion and the adoption of dApps as a whole by communicating value and rich data sets with one another.
A Trade Pact for The Blockchain
The blockchain industry needs its own set of standards that enable interoperability between partners in a global network.
For an industry that lives by an open-source ethos, it is quite contradictory that the blockchain landscape consists of various mainnets, side-chains, and forks, each a walled garden unable to communicate with one another. Without secure communication services, value remains confined in isolated silos, placing a ceiling on the growth of individual networks and the blockchain economy as a whole. Those services must be trustless, as well, in order to retain the principles and advantages of using blockchains in the first place. LiquidLink is breaking down the barriers that exist between chains. Multichain applications can finally emerge, connecting superior components from various base-layer networks, using an end-to-end, decentralized, trustless solution.
LiquidLink is breaking down the barriers that exist between chains. Multichain applications can finally emerge, connecting superior components from various base-layer networks, using an end-to-end, decentralized, trustless solution.
In 1944, as the second World War was drawing to a close, 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations got together to eliminate trade barriers between countries. The resulting interoperability between individual economies was one of the major engines driving 20th-century economic growth.
Today, LiquidLink is doing for the blockchain ecosystem what free trade did for the global economy. By solving the ‘how’ of interblockchain communication, dApp developers can now devise creative ways to merge independent blockchains.
