Interchains - the future?
If blockchains all remain separate, we're heading into dystopia fast. But what if they can work together?
Making blockchains work together is the future
Blockchain technology is relatively new. It is open source, it brings a whole new world of opportunities and possibilities, and with the use of cryptocurrencies, there is a lot of money involved already.
There are several sorts of blockchain. From the beginning, it was usual to start your own blockchain, specific to your purpose. But as adaptability and functionality increased, the landscape changed.
Dapps appeared. Ethereum was founded. And later, in China, Neo came to life. These blockchains are different from traditional blockchains, if you can still call them that, as projects can now focus on the development of their application, functionality or solution without having to build and run their own blockchain. One of the advantages is availability, but also compatibility of the coins or tokens used.
Building a traditional blockchain usually means forking an existing one. In it’s core, these are all based on the original bitcoin blockchain, which was forked into others, which were forked into new ones, and so on. Popular choices currently are Dash and Monero.
But every time a project is built upon a blockchain, it is also limited in certain respects, e.g. interoperability is non existent. Of course, the option to start a sidechain has always been there, but that would still not mean interaction with other, existing, or even new blockchains. But that is all changing slowly.
An example is Blocknet.
Blocknet offers to bridge your blockchain to their network, making interoperability possible. This then allows for coins to be traded against eachother, but also functionalities that are developed separately to compliment each other. A wonderful development that could really lead to a revolution in tech and IT. The possibilities are endless. Where one solution has been built for a specific need, others can now connect to them and add functionality, possibly contributing to a larger solution than originally foreseen. This is true collaboration, just as the idea behind blockchains has always been. I think we will start to see blockchains launch with this interoperability in mind. A great future lies ahead.
Be well.