Greetings to everyone. I’m pleased to submit my entry on the homework task given to us by professor @nane15 on the topic Blockchain Trilemma. Indeed it was really a great lecture and I have gotten a lot from it. Below is my entry to the homework task.
To begin with answering the questions I think it is very necessary for us to understand what a blockchain is before going further in answering the respective questions.
A blockchain is simply a shared database that is distributed among the nodes of a digital system. It is a database because it saves information electronically in a computerize form. The blockchain system has made a huge impact on the cryptocurrency systems and it has gained popularity by playing this crucial role in the system.
It helps in keeping a secure and decentralized facts of transactions of cryptocurremcies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and many others. The blockchain system is a great innovation which guarantees security and loyalty of records and also creates trust without involving any third party.
The only difference between a typical database and a blockchain is how data is arranged in the system. In blockchain, information is gathered together in groups and this groups is known as blocks. These groups known as blocks have certain storage space and when they get filled up, they will be closed and linked to the previously filled block forming a chain of data known as a blockchain. Newly added information is compiled into a newly formed block which will also be added to the chain once it is filled up.
Question 1
Upon all these merits and great impact of the blockchain system, it still have some challenges it also faces just like any other thing in the world. There are challenges with respect to processing data, storing data and many other things. But when all these problems are fixed, the blockchain system will be accepted by many countries in the world making people to give more attention to it and diverting people from using the centralized way of handling things to the decentralized way.
The blockchain system is made up of three different features. These three features comes together to form the Blockchain Trilemma. These three features include decentralization, scalability and security. Vitalik Buterin the founder of Ethereum was responsible for the idea of blockchain trilemma. This term simply means the difficulty for a single system to carry out all these three main features at the same time.
As i mentioned earlier, the blockchain trilemma is a concept innovated by Vitalik Buterin which proposes the three main features decentralization, scalability and security. Developers faces these three features when developing blockchains, making them to finally sacrifice one aspect for as a trade-off to enable use the other two. It is well known that a decentralized system can only give two of the three features at anytime. Moreover, ongoing projects across the decentralized system has led to a wide range of layers and solutions that will overcome these challenges to solve the trilemma once and for all with respect to the following;
Decentralization: Instead of being managed by a single person, blockchain shares control over the system to all users.
Security: Blockchain system should possess tight defense to prevent malicious organizations from taking over.
Scalability: Blockchain should agree with a vast number of transactions and clients without delay by increasing charges and the number of transactions.
Many organizations believe that achieving all these three features is impossible and there is no way it will ever be achieved, maybe not in the near future. Although, there are determined developers who have the belief that the blockchain system can achieve all the three.
Question 2
Since trilemma is considered as three essential things that have been seen to be very difficult to occur or operate under one system at the same time. I think there is still some chances in the blockchain system that can be use for improvement. Blockchain systems are coming up day by day and most of these new innovations are very close to overcome the problems with respect to applying the three features together to their systems. Although, there is no proven fact that agrees with the blockchain trilemma theory.
With what I have been seeing and hearing about the blockchain system, I think the blockchain trilemma can be solved maybe not now but in the future. Though there is no current blockchain system that has been successful with all these three features. I think it is being referred to as trilemma because they want indicate how important these three features are to the blockchain system and how hard it is for them to function together at the same time under one blockchain system.
So I don’t think the blockchain trilemma is really a trilemma since ambitious developers still believe they can come out with a blockchain system with all the three essential features operating at the same time. I said this because an actual trilemma will be very hard to solve but Algorand which is a cryptocurrency project
is touting that they getting a solution to the blockchain trilemma concept.
Question 3
The primary issue of a blockchain system is decentralization. It shares an equal opportunity in decision making from a central body to all clients in the blockchain system. Decentralization has made the blockchain system transparent in every aspect of it and also makes it secure without any public organization interfering in it. With decentralization a user has full control over his assets and every transaction made within the system is record down and can be seen by anybody at anytime.
With the rapid growth and adoption of the blockchain system by people across the globe, it indicates that the workload on the blockchain system increases day-in-day-out. With scalability the blockchain system can operate smoothly and efficiently when demand increases. Scalability simple has to do with the ability of a system to either increase or decrease in it’s cost and how it operates with reap to various ways In it’s processing demand and applications.
Scalability is an essential feature of the blockchain system. It has to do with the performance of the system’s speed when it comes to transactions verification. A scalable system has a higher number of transactions per second based on the type of consensus mechanism being used. Validation and verification of transactions on a decentralized system sometimes takes a long period of time to be processed due to different nodes action in verification as compared to a centralized system.
Blockchain security is how vulnerable the system is to attacks. Many crypto investors have faced a lot of hack cases in the crypto market and all these happens due to lack of tight security in some of the blockchain systems. Security is one of the essential features of the blockchain system and should be given much attention to in all blockchain systems. I strong security sometimes depends on the type of consensus mechanism being used and the coding as well. There are several cases of attacks that have occurred due to code directing, showing that it is very necessary for a blockchain project’s code to be kept privately just to avoid being managed. Consensus mechanisms are also used in the blockchain systems to tell how blocks are validated in the system.
Question 4
Below are some of the viable solutions i think will be necessary to consider in solving the problems posed by the blockchain trilemma;
Algorand Service: A blockchain can be secured with the use of Algorand services. Silvio Micali is a well known person in the field of information security and cryptography. He in cooperation with his cartel solved the blockchain trilemma by inventing the proof of stake with regards to security issues. Anonymity is one thing they take very serious with respect to their users. Moreover, through the proof of stake that they brought up has issues of high level of credible security since no member of their team is known by the general public.
Sharding: Another way to solve the issue of blockchain trilemma is sharding. Sharding involves dividing the blockchain system into shards, just to keep transactions separately but in a dispense way. With this, scalability will be increased without having any problem doing with decentralization and security.
Sidechains: Developing sidechains in addition to the main chain is another way to help solve the blockchain trilemma. With sidechains , transactions will remain public to the public and will be used to certify transactions. It should be developed in such a way that, the main chain will not be affected if there is a security violation in the sidechain. The main chain will only be targeted on decentralization and security.
Blockchain has been a great and nice innovative. It has make everything look simple and easy with all its astonishing features making transactions and other things to occur very fast. With time i think blockchain trilemma will come to past since new projects are being under development with the ultimate goal of solving the problems that the previous or existing blockchains are facing.
To conclude with, I will like to extend my best regards to professor @nane15 for giving us this great lecture. Indeed I have really generated a lot from this lecture and I will be looking forward to participate in your upcoming lectures.
Thank You!!
Link to my old post
https://steemit.com/hive-108451/@suglo100/blockchain-trilemma-crypto-academy-s5w2-homework-post-for-nane15
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