Greetings from the PARAMETA Team,

As the number of blockchain services grows along with the number of users, the industry is making various efforts to secure scalability in order to respond faster and handle transaction volumes. The recent Ethereum 2.0 upgrade is also highly anticipated in terms of future scalability. However, there are also concerns that scalability can hinder decentralization and security, which is the trilemma of blockchain.

In this article, we will take a look at how blockchains are trying to secure scalability while maintaining security, and how ICON and Parameta Framework with PARAMETA’s blockchain technology is responding.

Blockchain Scalability

​In the early days, projects were mainly focused on building a separate mainnet utilizing PBFT (Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance) or POA (Proof of Authority) to secure scalability, and representative examples include EOS and TRON. However, it has been pointed out over and over again that the same problems arise when building separate mainnets, such as decentralization issues, instability due to hard forks, and bottlenecks that cannot be solved by a single blockchain.

Ethereum

Ethereum has been working on a concept called Layer 2 (L2), which separates the computation of the network so that it can be executed while maintaining security. With the recent Ethereum 2.0 upgrade, Layer 2 projects such as Polygon, Bitrum, Optimism, Starkx, and Metis are gaining traction with the expectation that Ethereum will become more scalable, and the total value of Layer 2 deposits (TVL) is now over 3,600,000ETH.

l2beat.com, Sum of all funds locked on Ethereum converted to USD, Oct 2022

Let’s take a look at how Ethereum’s Layer 2 is scaling. There are several scaling solutions for scaling Ethereum, including Plasma and Rollup (Optimistic, ZK).

In the case of Plasma, transactions on Ethereum can be minimized by bundling transactions processed on Layer 2 and delivering only the result to Ethereum for confirmation, which has the effect of lowering the cost of hatching and GAS to the network. However, since only the result is delivered without the detailed transaction history, there is a risk of DA (Data Availability) issues on whether the transaction that occurred on Layer 2 is normal.

On the other hand, to solve the DA problem of Plasma, rollups can upload transaction data from Layer 2 to verify that the data is okay.

During rollup, optimal rollup has the disadvantage that it takes about 7 days for challenging after verification. To avoid this time, ZK (Zero-Knowledge) rollups, where the proof of correctness is sent to Ethereum, are expected to be the ultimate L2 solution, but there are still many technical challenges to be solved.

thereum will also introduce sharding with this Ethereum 2.0 upgrade. Sharding is the division of the main chain into multiple shards, each of which divides and solves the entire transaction, and while rollups handle the execution part, sharded chains handle the storage part, and research is being conducted in the direction of securing scalability while maintaining the existing security by dividing the part that Ethereum handles alone.

In conclusion, in Ethereum, in order to secure scalability, research is being conducted in the direction of securing scalability while maintaining existing security by dividing and handling the parts that were handled by the existing Ethereum alone.

COSMOS

delphidigital.io The Cosmos Ecosystem Has Arrived, Sep 2021

Cosmos is an application-specific blockchain that allows one application to be small on one blockchain and utilizes the Cosmos Hub’s belly data to ensure security for blockchain mainnets based on the Cosmos SDK. In other words, Cosmos has a strategy of separating each application into a separate mainnet to prevent overloading of the network to secure scalability, and to secure security by connecting the separated network to the Cosmos Hub.

As we have seen above, blockchains are changing to modular blockchains that divide the execution, settlement, consensus and data availability that existed in a single monolithic blockchain to ensure scalability and security at the same time.

coinyuppie.com, Read the Ethereum era of “modularity” in one article, Oct 2021

ICON

ICON, a global interchain project that PARAMETA is providing technical support for, is designed from the ground up to be scalable and secure in a similar way to modular blockchains. ICON uses PARAMETA’s loopchain’s multi-channel technology to configure the consensus and data availability layer (DA Layer) through the main validators (ICON’s P-Reps), the settlement layer using the interchain technology ‘BTP (Blockchain Transmission Protocol)’, and some validators as the execution layer, thus securing high scalability and reliability as each function of the blockchain can be divided and processed.

Source : PARAMETA (parametacorp.com/en)

Parameta Framework

Developed by PARAMETA, Parameta Framework is a full-stack blockchain framework that allows you to build a blockchain mainnet optimized for the desired business environment, from the blockchain mainnet to protocols, applications, developer environments, and support programs.

Source : PARAMETA (parametacorp.com/en)

Parameta Framework not only supports the construction and development of Layer 1 (L1) mainnets, such as ICON, but also enables the construction of Layer 2 (L2) blockchain networks that are connected to L1, which serves as a blockchain hub. When building a mainnet in Layer 2, it is possible to run services through an independent execution layer while maintaining security through block generation and verification using ICON’s P-Rep. This not only minimizes costs by utilizing the Layer 1 mainnet for resources such as Validator, Wallet, and Explorer required for mainnet construction, but also prevents overloading of the Layer 1 mainnet as services run independently on Layer 2.

Source : PARAMETA (parametacorp.com/en)

In this article, we looked at blockchain projects from the perspective of modular blockchains, which decentralize the functions of the mainnet in an effort to make blockchains more scalable and secure.

It has been pointed out that modular blockchains are relatively less secure than monolithic blockchains because the functions of the existing mainnet are distributed to a separate network. However, considering the scalability issues of blockchains due to increasing usage, it is an area that is expected to continue to grow in the future, so it will be interesting to see how it can be further developed.