Blockchain Trilemma - Crypto Academy / S5W2 - Homework post for nane15.
Hello everyone 🤗
I hope we are all in good health.
I have gone through the lesson by professor @nane15 and so today I will be working on the assignment.
Please enjoy.
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sourceTo start with,it is important to understand what the word "Trilemma" means in real sense.
TRILEMMA is an unfavourable condition or situation caused by having to pick or make a choice between 3 alternative things that are of equal Importance and cannot co-exist together.
Having elucidated what a Trilemma is,we can now easily decipher what the blockchain trilemma is.
Blockchain Trilemma is the difficulty or issues experienced by developers during choice making process when building a blockchain.
Just as we know that for a blockchain to be complete and effective,it has to possess 3 main features which are
-scalability
-decentralization
-security
the usefulness of one cannot outweigh the other and so this leaves the developers in a tight spot, because they have to pick 2 at most and let go of one.
To solves this issue, alot of work has been done,but most times the result afterward has always been the same "futile".
Just like in economics, Alternative forgone has proven to be the only the only way of solving this trilemma,which is the picking of one and letting go of the other.
Developers have result to solving the issues by picking two of the component they seem fit and perfect for their blockchain and letting go of the remaining one since that is the only way out,as the 3 necessary components can't co-exist together in a blockchain.
Why it is called a blockchain trilemma is because the 3 thing are of great importance but a developer is put in a tight spot to pick and focus on only 2 at most to build a blockchain and this has always been an issue to deal with.
To makes things more clear,here is a life application.
Let us liken scalability, security and decentralization to food,shelter and clothing..
we all know how important this 3 things are to we humans,they are considered the basics of needs of humans.
Now,a person is now demanded to only pick two at most among this 3 basic needs.
This is when a person is left in the trilemma of having to pick between 3 necessity.
As a person,would you rather forgo shelter and go with food and clothing or forgo clothing and go with food and shelter??
That is the idea behind TRILEMMA
So in a nutshell, blockchain Trilemma is a difficult situation developers find themselves when building blockchain due to the bitter fact that they can only focus on 2 at most from the 3 most important component require by a blockchain to be most effective, base on the fact that the 3 Importance component cannot co-exist together.
Of cause yes.It is a TRILEMMA
The fact that developers have to pick and focus on only 2 among 3 necessity in building a blockchain makes it a trilemma.
A developer cannot solve the 3 problem at a time,it is either they decide to pick and focus on only two component out of the 3 or just leave the 3,because there is no way the 3 issues can be solve at a time,the developer has to pick two and then focus on it.
Why it is really a trilemma is because the 3 aspect are very important in building a blockchain since
decentralization- is the creation of a society where control power doesn't lie at a point or in the center.
security- is the strong defense and resistance against bad actors and hackers.
And scalability- is the uninterrupted flow of large amount of data transaction me participate.
And now a developer is required to only pick two out of these 3 aforementioned things,will they rather forgo security and risk losing funds and data or forgo scalability and experience impediment and delay in transactions,so they are caught up in the trilemma since all are of great importance.
The bitter fact that they can only pick two aspect and let go of one since the three can't co-exist is enough reason to make it a trilemma.
So without any iota of doubt and fear of contradiction,I strong believe that blockchain trilemma is really a trilemma.
DECENTRALIZATION
To make it simple,Decentralization is simply the delegation or distribution of controlling power from a centralized region or point down to a level of individualism whereby empowering individual to be in charge and take responsibility for every of their action.
This is one of the trilemma of blockchain technology.
A decentralized blockchain operates on a peer-to-peer transaction network and most times execute trade using smart contract.In actual fact, decentralization is one of the major reason why blockchain is popular and considered the future technology revolution.
The decentralization aspect or feature comes with alot of goodies and advantages which most developers would love to incorporate into building their blockchain,so inorder to have this aspect on one's blockchain,a developer has to pick one other aspect and let go of the remaining one which most times is really difficult.
SCALABILITY
Scalability just like decentralization is a very important aspect when building blockchain, making it one of the trilemma of blockchain.
Scalability can be defined as the ability of a platform or network to support increase in transaction load as well as influx of large number of nodes or participants into the network.It can be said to be the uninterrupted flow of large number of transaction and participants in the network.
It is the ability to accommodate higher work load and still perform/function normally without breaking down or crashing and also without increment in fee.
The issue of scalability has always been the most difficult and tasking thing to solve, some projects such as Bitcoin which is the mother of all coins claim to have solve it to a considerable extent, but truth is, it is still a problem that hasn't been completely solved yet.
SECURITY
Security can easily be said to be the backbone of blockchain technology which create a kind of shield/blockage or resistance against external forces such as bad actors and hackers from gaining access to the network or disrupting the network as well as controlling major portion of node.
It goes without saying that security is no doubt an important aspect when it comes to building blockchain,which is the more reason why it is among the blockchain trilemma.
Imagine blockchain without security, absolutely useless.Security is the ability to withstand attack/fraud and hostile threat such as 51 attack.
The solution to the blockchain trilemma is divide into 2 layer.
-LAYER1
-LAYER2
LAYER1
During my course of research,I discovered that layer 1 deals with blockchain such as ethereum,litecoin and the likes which operates
under a decentralized system.
So to solve the block trilemma under this category we can utilise the Sharding method to solve the problem.
Sharding
Sharding is a very popular method in the layer one category.It involves the splitting or dividing of single data or transaction into smaller unit known as "shard" and then distribute it among mutilple machines whereby allowing the network to process this smaller unit of data known as shards to increase scalability.
Layer 2
These second layer solution deals with network that operates on top of an underlying blockchain consensus mechanism.
To improve the blockchain effectiveness and solve the trilemma under this category,we can make use of Side chain.
Side chain is a way of solving the trilemma and it requires a utility token to transfer data as part of the mechanism between two chain.
It is a side blockchain that is linked or connected to a main blockchain via a two-way peg.
it main function is to provide security on the blockchain.
The side chain is also a transaction chain which operates or work with a blockchain and can be use to validate bulk transaction.
The side chain make use of an entirely difference consensus mechanism from the main chain which it operates from,it is also effective in scalability which speeden up transaction rate.
The blockchain Trilemma is a difficult situation developers find themselves when building blockchain due to the bitter fact that they can only pick and focus on only 2 at most from the 3 most important component require by a blockchain to be most effective, base on the fact that the 3 Importance component cannot co-exist together.
The 3 component are very important and the Importance of one cannot outweigh the other.
Project like Bitcoin have claim to have solve the problem of scalability to a considerable extent but the problem hasn't been solve completely because most of this project that claim to have solve the issue cannot support increasing user base.
To solve the blockchain trilemma,sharding and side chain are some of the solution to tackle the trilemma just like I mentioned above in my writeup
I won't fail on my part to acknowledge professor @nane15 for this wonderful and eye opening lesson.
Thanks for reading🤗
Assignment by @dibie