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

Hello friends, it's good to be here today as well participating in this week's lessons presented by respected Prof @pelon53.

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

The Cryptocurrency space has continued to evolve continuously as observed ways to ameliorate the drawbacks perceived by participants are identified. The Sidechains were developed to curb the already known limitations observed in the workability of existing Blockchain systems in the space.

Some of these limitations are observed to bother on *Scalability, **Network congestion/Saturation, *transaction throughput as well additional security on protocols. Since its emergence, the Sidechains has been an added advantage to the Blockchain especially the Ethereum Blockchain as transactions can now be routed through a second path.

Most interesting, they do not exist as an independent entity rather they are built on the Blockchain in which they represent. And Once this is done, all other network activities can now be routed through them.

Therefore Sidechains are solutions-driven which are user experience friendly deployed on the parent Blockchain Network which brings less resource requirement and a two-layer scalability patch. This is typical of the ZK-Rollups with the same developmental solutions and goal-driven.

Just from the preview above, the ZK-ROLLUPS is a Sidechains a two-layer protocol developed to increase and enhance Mass Transfer of data in a single transaction. The ZK-ROLLUPS Smart Contract in return is observed to unmask this mass data as well verify all single transactions held in as mass.

In it is an improved consensus mechanism by the name "Zero-Knowledge Proof" in use for validation of blocks in the Ethereum Blockchain. The Zero Knowledge Proof consensus mechanism requires less computing energy in block validation with ardent adherence to zero knowledge of entire data.

The ZK-ROLLUPS concept works with two types of users which include the Transactors and Relayers. They are both important users in ZK-ROLLUPS Sidechain as the Transactors are observed to create transfer data as well distribute same to the Network. Usually, we know in the Transactors there would be indexes From and To , transaction amount value, Network fee, and Nonce value. These transactions are recorded in the two (2) different Merkel trees with the address and transfer data recorded separately.

On the other hand, the Relayers are observed to create a large volume of transactions that creates a Rollup relative to generating a Snark proof which we see as an epicenter of Blockchain status representation. For simplicity, the Snark proof determines the state of the Blockchain before transfers are made and after they are made as well as relates the changes to its Mainnet.

The ZK-ROLLUPS relatively charges low transaction fees while executing in its protocol. Also requires some energy resources to execute its consensus mechanism via the Zero-Knowledge Proof

Benefits if the ZK-ROLLUPS Sidechain

• The ZK-ROLLUPS comes with relatively low transaction fees
• High transaction throughput and Scalability
• Maintains the essence of decentralization in its activities.

Limitations observed in ZK-ROLLUPS Sidechain

• Requires maximized data optimization while computing through the Zero Knowledge Proof consensus mechanism.
• Initial protocol launched promotes centralization.
• There is the assumption of unverified and security trust with anticipation of Blockchain hacks

2.- Explain the Liquid Network side chain

Just as I explained for the ZK-ROLLUPS Sidechain which is built on the Ethereum Blockchain, the Liquid Network is another Sidechain that is built on Bitcoin this time. From my introduction review, I mentioned that Sidechains are like enhances to a parent Blockchain Network which does not function independently on their own rather in the parent Blockchain in which it derived its full value and functionality.

Bitcoin Sidechains basically are known to speed up transfers of data from Mainnet into a two-way-peg. This takes into cognizance the amount of Bitcoin in circulation in Sidechains relative to locked coins in its Mainnet (Bitcoin Blockchain). On a ratio of 1:1 peg, information and data can be moved from either chain (the Bitcoin Blockchain and the Liquid Network Sidechain) to maintain its smart contracts agreement. This concept (Liquid Network Sidechain) was developed to enhance the efficacy of trading activities in the Cryptocurrency space.

Its development was based on some critical postulation that would help to facilitate a faster Bitcoin transaction in the ecosystem as well enhance privacy/confidentiality of Bitcoin activities which include the Removal of some intrinsic values and details during Bitcoin transactions. It also reiterates its smart contracts on any individual to create new assets on its Blockchain which includes digital collectibles, stablecoins and security coins, etc.

The Bitcoin Liquid network Sidechains has non-unitary control over the development of this protocol as this Sidechain is powered by the Liquid Federation which has a composition of leading Exchanges, wallet service providers, payment merchants, Trading desks, and financial institutions. This makes it a deviant from the centralized systems but rather a lot decentralized.

The Liquid Network Sidechain is powered by 15 Liquid Functionaries which are drivers of its signed transaction and validating transaction. These are high-tech and specialist hardware teams from the Liquid Network who are geographically dispersed and located.

Acquiring the Liquid- BTC, one may easily have access through P2P, BTC conversation to L-BTC, Exchanges, or Apple pay platforms. The Liquid Network is a permissionless one that anyone can verify information from the Liquid Nodes.

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

Step by Step Process (Metamask + Polygon Network Wallet)

I will be illustrating this step with an easy way for self-comprehension. This would be demonstrated with my already existing Metamask wallet on my device.

• Launch your Metamask wallet
• Click on the three (3) parallel lines on the top left screen of your device
• Click on the Browser option from the list of options
• From the displayed URL search box, enter the search word "Polygon Network Wallet" and search
• From the displayed options, choose from the first option from the list

• Click on the Metamask option (Since it's the scope of this post)
• Click on the connect button
• Click on the Sign Button
• We have successfully connected both wallets from the landing page in view.

All screenshots for this question from Metamask and Polygon's site

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

When will Block 25,000,000 be Generated

• To quickly execute this task, I will be visiting the polygon block explorer via https://ploygonscan.com
• From this interface, we can already see that this block has not been generated given to the displayed Lastest Block value
• But notwithstanding, from the landing page, enter the block 25,000,000 and click on Search.
• Details from the outcome of the search show that the block 25,000,000 would be generated in the next 108days 04hrs 55mins 35secs as at the time of this post (5:45 pm, 28-10-2021). The estimated date of this is, Tuesday, February 15th, 2022; 00.58:32 GMT +0100 (WAT).

Exploring Block 12,000,000

• From the same Search box, enter the Block 12,000,000 and search
• Details from this search shows that the given block has been generated.
  Timestamp: 229days 9hrs ago (Mar 24th 2021, 09:35:45am UTC)
  Transaction: 14 Transactions found in this block
  Validated: Validated in 6secs
  Block Reward: 0.00877199352MATIC
  Gas Used: 15.11% (3,022,128)
  Price of Matic: $0.38
  Other parameters like the Hash, Parent Hash, Nonce and Difficulty, can be found in the screenshot.

All screenshots from polygon site

Conclusion

The emergence of Sidechains was really an ideology created to ameliorate the limitations found in already existing Blockchains Networks in the Cryptocurrency space. They were primarily created to enhance Scalability, transaction throughput as well as serve as an additional security level to the Blockchain system.

They do not exist independently but rather build on already existing Blockchain systems like the Ethereum and Blockchain and hence serve as a two-way-peg for transfers done in the protocol.

Thank you professor @pelon53 for the lessons.