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

As the professor gave us clear concepts on sidechains being “Alternative routes” which are built to reduce the workload of mainnet or main chain i.e. it is ultimately connected to its main blockchain connect through two-way pegging with main blockchain also known as primary blockchain whereas sidechains are also known as a secondary chain. The purpose of this concept is to reduce traffic on congested blockchain keeping transaction fees low for small traders.

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ZK-Rollups or zero-knowledge rollups solve the scalability issues of the second layer. Now the question arises are they sidechains? Well, I would say they are sidechains as they solve scalability issues for layer 2 of the Ethereum network which allows transactions with less gas fee and validation achieved through tough computation.

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Zk-Rollups are built on Ethereum network security, hence are almost the second layer of this network. The transaction here is done by two kinds of individuals or users i.e. transactors and relayers. The transactors generate transfers and show them on the main network whereas relayers create a roll-up by piling up a large number of transactions to utilize proof of SNARK mechanism which is hash that depicts the delta of the blockchain.

With time the rollups usage is taking lead and familiarity among traders and investors and is considered as the road to success for blocks being developed with different names.

Explain the Liquid Network side chain

The liquid network is bitcoin’s mainnet sidechain co-founded by at least 10 according to information provided on Wikipedia however they importantly by Adam Black. Ever since its announcement in 2015, it was officially launched in 2018. Let’s first have a look at members of this platform

The Liquid Network was designed to reduce meet the needs of traders of the crypto world. Since its Bitcoin’s sidechain hence it primarily focuses on speeding up the time taking transaction of bitcoin more securely and privately. Hopefully, we are all clear on these sides and the main chains being connected. The link between the two is possible due to the Liquid network being Element code based utilizes the federation technology of Blockstream.

Now coming to how this communication or interoperability between the two networks is made possible. The main and side chains are two ways pegged. The bitcoins on the Liquid Network are labeled as Liquid BTC or L-BTC hence for users who want to transfer their BTC into L-BTC they first have to lock up their BTC which will be then acknowledged by Liquid Network which then provides the L-BTC equivalent to the one they froze. However, in case of needing BTC back, the users then have to give they back to the Liquid network on which the original BTC is generated and given to their owners. This conversion of BTC into L-BTC is called peg-in completing in two minutes whereas the reverse process is called Peg-out completing in 17-35 min.

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The Liquid Network with the quick speed of transactions also keeps the number of tokens transferred private and gives the opportunity of interoperability between different assets of the same standard. Users here can generate themselves new issued assets or security digital assets. The completion of transactions is made possible in two minutes. Let’s understand these features through the picture below

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Following are the assets which are supported on this network

The network is operated by its own member whose list is posted on screenshot above. Blocks on liquid are generated through block signing. The use of federation although reduces the need for proof of work mechanism. It has an emergency key that helps them to fix the shutdown issues of a network issue although there are alternative paths like a collection of your assets after confirmation that will be a problem.

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

Connecting wallet of Metamask and Polygon network is no complicated science but pretty simple which will be explained in the following steps

Go to the Polygon website and select its wallet from it whereupon tapping Polygon wallet

You will be directed to following page where we will be clicking on the Metamask option.

When you’ll click on metamask the sign-in request if wallet comes up asking you to sign the signature request on behalf of your wallet.

Once clicked on the Sign button you will be directed to the main page of the polygon network and symbol or metamask in corner of the polygon network which confirms the connection of the two.

According to the polygonscan block explorer, when will the 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.

According to the Polygonscan block explorer, the countdown for the 25000000 blocks has started and the block will be generated in 126 days i.e. there is still a difference of 4376843 blocks for creating 25000000 one.

The information can be seen clearly in the screenshot below

Now for the 12000000 block click on the same search, you did earlier and enter the block required to. Here in the screenshot below, you can see all the data regarding the 12000000 block

Since we are to find the Matic price at that time specifically so in the following screenshot price of magic can be seen

Matic Price: $0.38

Apart from matic price, there’s almost every data required to search on crypto-assets such as hash, size, timestamp, reward, etc., and much more.

Conclusion

Sidechains are great initiative in terms of solving scalability of main blockchains and also helps users with more efficiency of it. As we discussed above the transaction in liquid are quicker therefore it saves the users’ time too. They are also called side blockchain, daughter blockchain, small blockchain and many other words to their main blockchain. These sidechains are connected to their main networks through two way pegging.

As much as sidechains are beneficial for blockchain but they make the matter very complex and hard tounderstand. Although this can be solved with proper management.