Sidechains - Crypto Academy / S4W8 - Homework post for pelon53.

Greetings everyone,

Welcome once again to another wonderful episode in the crypto Academy community. Before I present my homework post, I would like to acknowledge the professors and the crypto Academy community for making such an educative lecture possible. Today the topic is very technical Sidechains.

Without wasting enough time I would present my homework post systematically based on the questions from the professor @pelon53

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1.- Explain in detail the Sidechains with the use of ZK-Rollups.

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Sidechains are blockchain technology which serves as a solution to some blockchains platforms. The problems of other blockchains are addressed with the invention of the sidechains. These sidechains seems enhance on-chain activities. It solves the scalability problems and readily speeds up transactions as well. The sidechains has also improved the security with blockchains. Although the sidechains seem to regulate their own blockchain, It requires other blockchains to function.

Sidechains works like a secondary blockchain to the main blockchain. That's they function perfectly alongside the main blockchain. They behave like a catalyst to the main blockchain which focus on enhancing the activities of the blockchain. Assets are transferred from the main blockchain freely without any charges to a special address on the sidechain. This ensures maximum security between different blockchains.

The ZK-Rollups means Zero knowledge rollups. It is a second layer technology which was built to specifically enhance the Ethereum blockchain network. It acts like a sidechain to the Ethereum blockchain network. Talking of the High gas fees and the scalability problems on the Ethereum blockchain network, the ZK-Rollups seems to solve the scalability problems with regards to the Ethereum network.

As I said earlier, Sidechains were introduce to strengthen the activities on other blockchain. As such, the main Objectives of the ZK-Rollups to the Ethereum blockchain are ;

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• Improve Scalability
• Reduce the gas fee on the Ethereum blockchain
• Enhance Security.

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These are the primary reasons for the project of the ZK-Rollups on the Ethereum blockchain.

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How it works

As I said Earlier, the ZK-Rollups is a seconds layer technology that works alongside the Ethereum blockchain. The transactions involved with the Ethereum blockchain are executed on the second layer technology that's the ZK-Rollups but the transaction are recorded on the main blockchain that's the Ethereum blockchain. This is basically to enhance the transaction on the Ethereum network.

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2.- Explain the Liquid Network side chain

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_{screenshot from blockstream}

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The Liquid Network sidechain is a new innovation which was build by Blockstream Platform basically to enhance the bitcoin network transaction. Unlike many other sidechains which are built to solve specific purpose of the main blockchain, the Liquid network futher enhance the transactions of other digital assets as well.

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_{screenshot from blockstream}

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To initiate the BTC transaction with the Liquid network, we need to understand these two terms;
Peg-in and Peg-out

• Peg-in: This is a term used to describe the process of transferring the BTC to the Liquid network. During this process, the BTC is transferred from the user to the special address of the Liquid network. The Peg-in transaction would be created since the the user has sent the BTC to the address. An equal amount of L-BTC would be received by the user.

• Peg-out: Contrary to the peg-in process, the peg-out is the reverse process of the Peg-in process. The process is used to convert the L-BTC back to BTC. The process takes a maximum of 17 mins to complete the transaction. That means the peg-out process requires more time than the peg-in process which is completed within a maximum of 2mins.

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Exploring the platform

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The Liquid federation members

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_{screenshot from blockstream}

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Features

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_{screenshot from blockstream}

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• Rapid Transfers
• Issue new assets
• Confidential transactions
• Secure trading

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The Block explorer

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The block explorer is used to check the current blocks to know the details of any transaction on the blockchain network. Every blockchain has a corresponding explorer to view the transaction records.

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_{screenshot from blockstream}

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3 - Describe the steps to connect the Metamask wallet and the Polygon network wallet. Show screenshots.

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Steps involved to link the Polygon to Metamask

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• Login to pologon to connect the polygon to metamask.
• click on use polygon and click on polygon wallet.

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• Click on polygon wallet as shown in the screenshot below.

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• Click on metamask from the next menu

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• Click on next to connect the wallet

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• Click on sign to complete the connection

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Wallet connected to metamask succesfully

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4 - According to the polygonscan block explorer, when will block 25,000,000 be generated? Show screenshot. Explore the 12,000,000 block, at that time, what was the price of the Matic? Show screenshots.

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• To know the time block 25,000,000 would be generated, login to Polygonscan
• Type the block number into the search button and search click enter to search. In this case we tpye 25,000,000

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• Time would be displayed as shown from the screenshot below

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To explorer block 12000000, type 12,000,000 from the search bar

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• Scroll down to display the price of the matic at the time of the assignment.

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Price of the matic at the time of the assignment was $0.38.

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CONCLUSION

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Another great lecture from @pelon53 on exploring more about blockchains. In my opinion these sidechain projects is really improving the primary blockchains. Talking of the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains, although they can be referred to as the pioneer blockchains, the problems about scalability and transaction fees were not solved by their main blockchain networks. And in that case, I would say these other blockchains have made great progress in solving these problems.

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Thanks for making such an educative lecture @pelon53.

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