The Blockchain myth: Scaling. Who needs it? And for what exactly?
#Lightning, #Raiden, #Plasma, #Sharding, #Proof-of-Somethings, #DAGs, etc.
All of the above try to solve the issue of scaling in different approaches. Some mainly exactly this challenge, while others solve it by their chosen overall design or by accident. Raiden and Lightning are both live in their respective main networks (#Ethereum & #Bitcoin). Plasma and sharding are both, at least in the Ethereum universe, to come. And Ethereum also is still looking to introduce #Proof-of-Stake as a successor of the #Proof-of-Work consensus.
So — are we then through? All solved? Here comes mass adoption?
Other projects like #EOS or #Cardano are looking to solve scaling issues by very different designs and stake driven consensus solutions, while completely other … ledger technologies … such as #DAGs like #Byteball, #IOTA and now #Hashgraph’s #Hedera solve it by redefining the priorities of other aspects such as Sybill attack vectors or any Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (only Hashgraph is addressing all of them it seems to me).
So in 2018 we have many solutions for scaling. Lots of them. And many like Raiden, Proof-of-Stake/Proof-of-Delegated-Stake and DAGs like Byteball and IOTA have been ready and live for months, even years.
What is being done with coins/tokens, right now, 2018, 9 yrs after the Nakamoto WhitePaper?
But we could also be honest, at least to each other as non #Crypto believer have left this document by now.
This is something that is often neglected. We can of course always refer to the 2008 #WhitePaper, when it comes to Blockchain technology, and especially Bitcoin, being a method for payments.
And we can also always refer to the reality, that it’s the markets that decided freely, Bitcoin is better as an asset than a currency or just payment method.
And we could then discuss or maybe even agree, that a very high percentage of all transactions on Blockchains such as Bitcoin and/or other “no VM” blockchains are transactions between addresses of the same user — from desktop wallet to hardware wallet, but even more so from own wallets to exchange wallets. From exchange to exchange and all of the mentioned again. Not to speak of all the bot or arbitrage trading induced transactions.
So we could agree, that solving the scaling issue in so many different ways did not really solve the pains for those transacting between their wallets and trading on exchanges. Or we could agree, that maybe there was no pain to begin with?
And if you disagree and believe/can prove, that most transactions are not user internal transfers or trading related transactions and scaling is not solving pains for it, but for mass adoption.
Why is it, that we have no mass adoption kicking in on the systems, that provide the scaling solutions for more than 12 months?
M aybe you expect, Lightning, which went live early 2018 on the Bitcoin will do it? Of course — I do not, although it’s my last straw of hope for being wrong…
Scaling will be important, but only once we actually reach true use cases beyond trading and get into trouble with these use cases.
Our issue is not scaling.
Its meaning.
Creating an impact on reality.
Through benefits for target groups, not egos and stats.
Really. In the 2000s, people talked a lot of the potential regarding the new technology called the Internet (it started in the mid 90ies, but…was more or less totally geek, back then). But to be honest, I think, not even nerds discussed the deeper layers so intensively, or at least I do not recall such heated debates about TCP/IP, HTTP, FTP, WWW or SMTP and POP.
Maybe they were earlier on (and we are still in that earlier on phase) or discussed in places like the UseNet…
I think, they talked about other stuff. Like the impact this technology would have. Anyone being able to share information globally. An instant free press, we thought. And many other thoughts occurred.
And these thoughts shaped what we today see as the Internet’s value to us. Access to information, interpretation, comments and images and videos of peers.
But in the Cryptosphere we still seem to lack these things. Creating a meaningful solution for everyone. Concentrating on benefits. Actually impacting lives, rather than charts and transaction counter.
Search engines to dig through the infinite seeming amount of websites. We got tools to communicate, tools to offer our products and services, tools to measure, and so on.
The Internet kicked off, once there were all these tools and solutions offering us benefits, such as information portals, trading/purchasing opportunities and work — but also technically solutions for the challenges the Internet caused.
I truly believe, Crypto as a whole and probably Blockchain as the leading technology within, will change the face of this planet as it will change the economical interactions between all of us.
It has challenges. Many.
But our greatest is not scaling.
Then, and probably only then, will we start needing scaling ;-)
It’s creating meaning, not for ourselves, but for the people needing solutions to their challenges.
So at the next Crypto or Blockchain conference. Ask every fanboy, bashing around which chain shall rule them all, what benefits he sees for his non-tech friends. How impact can be achieved now. And ask every ICO aiming Startup how they solve ordinary people not using any of this, yet.
#MayTheProofChangeLivesNotCharts #ToTheSun #TheSunProtocol
<THE SUN PROTOCOL> in a nutshell:
Energy. Blockchain. Economy.
Creating a sustainable & self-determined crypto-economy through energy and real benefits.
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on May 30, 2018.
