Wanchain strengthens the blockchain space through interoperability (Part 1)
Are companies using Blockchain?
Yes! They are. 2017 was the year of the ICO, the altcoin market boom. Project “value” rose too quickly, and companies were deterred from getting involved with these projects because there was too much noise. 2018 was the #buidl year; the start of #defi on Ethereum and 2019 was the year that companies started to be public about their Blockchain involvement: announcing pilots, releasing PoCs, and announcements regarding collaboration with private and public chains.
So how does all of this relate to Wanchain? Well, in many ways. Let’s take one step back and explain the main differences between private and public blockchains. For starters, Wanchain is an open platform, which means that anyone is free to use the platform. There is no limitation to who and how you send and receive value. If someone wants to create a decentralized marketplace using WBTC, WETH, and WAN, they can do so without the support from the Wanchain Foundation. Anyone can issue dApps and tools that can be further improved by the community of developers.
When you look at economics, a public good is a commodity or service that is provided to a particular society without profit. This is done by the government, private individual, or institution. A public chain is offered to the community without profit. Excess value is distributed across a network of miners (e.g., Proof of Work) or validators (e.g., Proof of Stake). You give up electricity, “a stake in the network,” or computing power in return for this token or asset of value.
A private chain, however, is a permissioned network that places restrictions on the participants. There is absolute control over who can write data to the blockchain. Both types of blockchains are necessary. Public chains are distributed (a scattered network of miners or validators secure the network), immutable (transactions cannot be reverted — although in some cases through governance, you can), and transactions can easily be verified by anyone (thanks to block explorers). Private chains can choose their consensus and can easily change the state, economic conditions, and permissions for users. Transactions are faster (fewer nodes needed) and can be adapted depending on compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR compliant). There is a tendency towards believing that private and public chains are competitors when they are compatible.
Lanchains and Wanchains — Bridging the traditional financial world to the new digital economy
Wanchain has two development arms, one for its proof of stake-consensus public chain and one for private chains. Although resources are put mainly towards the development of the Wanchain public chain, we do have a dedicated team of developers that provide PoCs and develop Lanchains for enterprises. As Adam Ludwin, CEO of Chain, puts it: “Over time there will be more of a convergence of what’s happening in the enterprise and what’s happening on the open Internet to create this future of value over IP.” The blockchain space requires standardization when it comes to intra and extra-communication (flow of data & value within and outside of the ecosystem).
To better understand why private and public chains are needed, you can look at the internet. Companies connect to the public domains on the internet but still use private networks for storing files and using it as a medium of communication between employees. Companies that need to share information with partners, governments, regulators, or any other third parties will need to connect to the outside world. Various interoperability standards are being proposed, but the only tested and secure, scalable solution is a combination of atomic swap technology and secure multiparty computation (sMPC). You need wider-community acceptance before distributing such technology to the masses. There needs to trust in the technology before there is a trustless bridge. Wanchain is working on several initiatives outside of its ecosystem to gain brand awareness and, ultimately, a comprehensive understanding of its technologies and services by enterprises in different industries. Weijia Zhang, VP of Engineering, is working closely with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance on interoperability standards, and we are joining forces with several top consortia in the space to help set these standards.
We will continue to work on enterprise and public chain use cases and provide our community with consistent updates on what we’re working on, what it all implies, and how all our technologies and partners work in synergy.
Expect a lot more news as we continue to bridge the traditional financial world to the new digital economy.
Wanchain is a blockchain platform that enables the decentralized transfer of value between blockchains. The Wanchain infrastructure enables the creation of distributed financial applications for individuals and organizations. Wanchain currently enables cross-chain transactions with Ethereum, and today’s product launch will allow the same functionalities with Bitcoin. Going forward, we will continue to bridge blockchains and bring cross-chain finance functionality to companies in the industry. Wanchain has employees globally with offices in Beijing (China), Austin (USA), and London (UK).
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Published at Wed, 18 Dec 2019 15:18:36 +0000
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