Here's a translation of an article by Bart Wyatt, Director of Blockchain Architecture at Block.one, who explains how much the ...
Here's a translation of an article by Bart Wyatt, Director of Blockchain Architecture at Block.one, who explains how much the world needs interoperable blockchains and how this strategy is being implemented at his company.
The blockchain industry has been plagued by tribalism for years. Developers adhere to certain consensus protocols and protect their technologies, no matter how constrained they are. This deeply ingrained approach to technology slows down innovation that would facilitate blockchain scaling and widespread adoption.
Companies are just beginning to understand the promises of this technology, and they are difficult to implement precisely because blockchains cannot interact and collaborate with each other. Developers, companies and enthusiasts should not each be tied to their own blockchain, but should work on the compatibility of their applications and systems.
Yes, blockchain can bring transparency, security and new business models to the world as they are now badly needed. COVID has shown how fragmented supply chains are and how difficult it is to harmonize incentives to work effectively.
This is how the World Economic Forum sees the problem:
"This issue affects not only technology, but also governance, data ownership and commercial business models in terms of how much they encourage ecosystem participants to collaborate with each other."
The blockchain technology is quite capable of solving many problems in the world, since it is on it that transparent processes can be built that are also verifiable.
11 years have passed since the publication of the Bitcoin whitepaper, but the industry was not ready when the world was in dire need of its main technology. The reason lies in the same artificial barriers, like work on individual projects and tribalism, which lead to friction, misunderstanding and deadlock.
One of the most important lessons of 2020 comes down to the fact that the world should cooperate in everything, and it is unacceptable for everyone to sit in their own bunker. While some blockchain solutions have been proposed to address the pandemic, there has been no collective response yet.
The pandemic is not over yet, and events may await us in the future that will reveal other critical flaws in the systems on which we depend.
Again, the question may arise about the readiness of "different tribes" to prevent global threats and solve the most important tasks. Are we going to hide in our bunkers again and discuss the little things? If we see blockchain as an important transformative technology, then we need to seriously talk about its interoperability.
First steps
Interoperability is the ability of different blockchains with different consensus models and resource management to communicate with each other. It also means that a developer can enter data on one blockchain and influence users on another.
As for blockchains with smart contracts, which are necessary to solve complex problems, then developers should be able to choose from a variety of options: delegation of authority through PoS or PoW protocols; public or controlled blockchains; C ++ or Solidity, etc. Options are good, especially when it’s hard to figure out how to make a good choice; or, if the wrong choice can lead to a costly mistake. Many of these things are interconnected in such a way that they strive to spill out again into a system that will eventually be divorced from other platforms.
It shouldn't be like that. Code must be code. In fact, if a developer is familiar with Solidity or the nuances of Ethereum smart contracts, then he does not need to sacrifice his specific preferences in order to become part of another blockchain. Ensuring compatibility is about empowering other developers who have not settled on your preferred platform.
Block.one strives to encourage its community to do just that. The company challenged its community and developers to empower developers on other platforms. Block.one has encouraged developers to take a comprehensive look at the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As a result of this, public blockchains such as Telos began to offer support for Ethereum applications.
This was a necessary first step. Ethereum developers can now use familiar tools and languages, while also creating EVM bytecode that can be deployed on the Ethereum blockchain and placed seamlessly on EOSIO. Thus, the ability of Ethereum developers to take advantage of EOSIO is just a small example.
It's about time
Blockchain technology seems to be in the very real space race now. The developer communities are interested to see which platforms attract the most applications, process the most transactions per second, and which blockchain can position itself as a viable service for corporate and government customers.
Imagine what results could be achieved during a pandemic if key players pooled their resources to jointly tackle global challenges, including transforming outdated supply chains. Block.one, Telos, Binance, Ethereum and others have taken important first steps, but now it would be good to see the entire industry supporting the movement in this direction.
Blockchain is still on its way. We do not yet have a global application that takes advantage of the strengths of different blockchains by capitalizing on each of them. Large platforms and talented developers must work together to implement solutions that make technology easier for newbies to access. And then the blockchain industry would be able to realize its full potential.
