What is Most Scalable Blockchain – The Blockchain Scalability Trilemma
What is the most scalable blockchain in regards to the blockchain scalability trilemma ?
A trilemma is a difficult choice from three options, each of which is (or appears) unacceptable or unfavourable. Many observe that blockchains have their own trilemma – one that is preventing mass adoption. If anything makes blockchains infeasible, this trilemma is it. Here are some roadblocks that prevent these problems from being solved.
Scale – The Blockchain Scalability Trilemma
Perhaps the most important issue with blockchains is that they are often pretty slow. Whenever I sent cryptocurrency to a friend, for instance, it takes a while for the transaction to go through. Imagine if millions of people try to send millions of bitcoin to different people at the same time. Transactions would take hours to go through. So blockchains are looking to solve this problem.
Scale, simply means how fast a blockchain can be.
In for cryptocurrencies to be used at a worldwide scale , they must be able to process transactions fast. How can blockchains compete with current financial systems if they are too slow?
Security – We have security meaning how consistent the data is and we have decentralization referring to how many people can validate the transactions and how open it is. So this is the big determinant of value. An example of projects that are decentralized and really secure are Ethereum, and Bitcoin and Ethereum are working to get scalability. But their new software upgrade for security is not scheduled until 2019. So some examples of products are really fast and secure are Zilliqa, Matrix, and EOS So many are observing projects like these are very fast and secure but may struggle.
Decentralization – Some factors that relate to decentralization are:
1. Even Token Distribution. The more unbalanced token distribution is, the more price manipulation can happen (by “whales”).
2. Permissionlessness. If some authority gives “permission” for a node to run, it isn’t really decentralized. A lot of projects used permissioned nodes meaning that they give access only certain people to validate transactions on their network.
3. The number of Voting Nodes. A high number of computers that can vote (aka voting nodes). Ex: Bitcoin and Ethereum have about 10,000 nodes, so they’re not bad, but NEO, Icon and XRP have only a handful. Yikes.
4. Mining/Staking Pools. When miners (nodes who validate transactions) group together, they combine their processing power over a network, making it more centralized.
Next, we look into decentralization and scale and so some projects that are really decentralized and fast are Nano and IOTA
Put the catch is a lot of these projects don’t need the entire network to validate transactions. So these products don’t use everybody on the networks
to validate transactions but for their use cases, this may be fine.
Projects Fighting the Trilemma
The following projects are making headway in solving this “blockchain scalability trilemma” problem. Arguably the best and most scalable blockchain is scalable without giving up security and decentralization.
NANO – Most Scalable Blockchain (2019)
Nano is a currency-focused project that is technically not a blockchain. It has a “block-lattice”. The “block-lattice” makes it possible for people to have near-instant transactions. It is known for its high scalability.
It has good scalability but is working on improving decentralization.
IOTA – Most Scalable Blockchain (2019)
Iota uses an alternative to blockchain technology called the “tangle.” The tangle makes quick, no-fee transactions possible. Iota is very scalable but uses confidence scores since not all computers validate transactions.
Quarkchain – Most Scalable Blockchain (2019)
Quarkchain and Matrix have some similarities. Quarkchain directly aims to address the trillemma. QuarkChain uses sharding with a focus on keeping the experience of the users smooth. Quarkchain can theoretically upgrade to infinite scaling with idea network configurations.
Zilliqa – One of the Fastest Blockchains 2018
Zilliqa is a project that prides itself on becoming one of the fastest and most scalable blockchains.
Zilliqa uses “sharding” to achieve a such a high transaction time.
Zilliqa sometimes is criticized for some centralization aspects.
EOS – One of the Fastest Blockchains 2018
EOS is by far, one of the fastest and most scalable blockchains. EOS can reportedly scale to millions of transactions per second with no user fees. EOS is often criticized for its lack of decentralization.
Raiden Network – One of the Fastest Blockchains 2018
Raiden network is a project that is working to improve Ethereum’s transaction time.
Many see Raiden Network Ethereum’s equivalent to Bitcoin’s “lightning network”, but a more decentralized version. “Micro Raiden”, an early version of Raiden Network is for machine-to-machine transactions.
Matrix – One of the Fastest Blockchains 2018
Matrix is a scalable blockchain that helps people build projects without coding (thanks to artificial intelligence). Matrix is building the One Road, One Belt Initiative.
In addition to great transaction speeds, Matrix makes it possible for individuals without programming expertise to build projects on the blockchain. It is also
This article by Natu Myers was originally published at freestartupkits.com: