2019 blockchain technology trend analysis and outlook blue book

Abstract: When the industry's enthusiasm for the all-around public chain declines, what kind of transformation and fission is being experienced in the blockchain technology field? Industry big coffee will bring you together to recognize the trend of blockchain technology.

It is not easy for the blockchain to move from the "underlying technology era" to the "product era."

So far, no blockchain platform has really set off the banner of “blockchain bottom highway”, and several of the blockchain application platforms are constantly exposed in terms of scalability, privacy and interoperability. Various issues have forced more new projects and developers to continue to explore blockchain technology boundaries and new technology solutions.

In 2017-2018, the trend of public chain chasing has gradually retreated, and the diversified technology system has been extended. The technological solutions such as capacity expansion, chain expansion, DAG, cross-chain and privacy coins have been rising.

• Does Buffett still have enough bitcoin? I have already written annoyed.
• Inventory: A-share blockchain concept stocks are over 70% profit, less than the overall performance of listed companies
• Want to get a strategic investment in a public-chain eco-fund, what do developers need to know?

In this context, Scallion Research Institute based on long-term tracking and research on the blockchain industry, exclusively created the "2019 blockchain technology trend analysis and outlook blue book", and on April 25 "see NEXT · Shallots closed door sharing session "Before the release.

The "Blue Book" surveyed and analyzed 118 blockchain projects, and finally included 62 representative projects. The following main contents were presented to the readers around the survey data: 1. What are the blockchain industries in 2019? Important technology trends? 2. Why are these technical trends important and urgent? 3. What technical solutions have been developed for various technology trends? 4. What are the representative blockchain projects corresponding to various technical solutions? 5. What is the progress of the development of each representative project, and what is expected in 2019?

At the end of the article, there will also be head exchanges such as Binance and Firecoin, Ontology, TRON, NEO, Vechain, ArcBlock, and Bytom. Waiting for the head block chain project side, as well as the message from the first-line capitalists such as BlockVC and Draper Dragon for this report, it can also be seen that the blockchain practitioners from various fields have developed the blockchain technology in 2019. Judgment, thinking and future deployment.

introduction

The emergence of programmable currency represented by bitcoin has brought blockchain technology into the public's field of vision. Subsequently, the advent of the intelligent contract platform represented by Ethereum set the starting point for the commercialization of blockchain technology, based on the underlying platform of blockchain. The decentralized application is becoming more and more abundant, and a large number of developers are pouring in and actively deploying.

At the same time, however, the existing blockchain technology can not support the construction of large-scale commercial applications, and several of the blockchain platforms continue to expose various problems in terms of scalability, privacy and interoperability. Force more new projects and developers to continue to explore blockchain technology boundaries and new technology solutions.

In the final analysis, the cornerstone for promoting the development of the blockchain industry is always the underlying technology. In the future, the survival, development and fission of the entire industry will continue to rely on the evolution and innovation of blockchain technology.

This report will analyze and summarize the three technical trends of the current blockchain industry research urgency and heat, and analyze the 60+ blockchain projects around the three major technology trends and 10+ technology directions. The design plan and development progress, trying to make a more comprehensive and systematic analysis of the current technological development and development status of the blockchain industry.

1. Three major technology trends in the blockchain industry

We aspire to the uninterrupted global service provided by the open chain public network, but the existing blockchain technology architecture is difficult to support the construction of large-scale commercial applications. According to the comprehensive analysis of the development history and current situation of the blockchain industry, Shallot believes that The technical constraints that limit the application of blockchain scale are mainly in three major blocks: scalability, interoperability, and privacy.

Insufficient scalability limits the practical performance of a single blockchain platform. Insufficient interoperability leads to value "islands" between the various blockchains. Value interconnection is difficult to implement, and privacy protection is insufficient for openness and transparency. The blockchain network has been put into commercial use and buried many security risks. Therefore, the market urgently needs new solutions to break through the above technical bottlenecks and application limitations, and build a truly secure, reliable and practical blockchain value network.

1.1 scalability

Security, decentralization and scalability are the long-standing "three-dimensional paradox" in the blockchain field. The early design of broadcast, storage, verification and contention accounting for the whole network was based on the security and decentralization of the blockchain, but it also made the overall performance of the whole network limited by the processing performance of a single node, and added The more nodes, the higher the complexity of communication and the seriousness of scalability.

The existing blockchain platform is indistinguishable from the traditional centralized trading platform Visa (24,000 TPS) and Alipay (peak 30+ million TPS) in transaction throughput and latency. The transaction throughput and delay rate are the key to the commercial application. Therefore, the scalability improvement is the first major barrier for the blockchain technology to go to the Internet scale, and it is also the next important research direction.

Focusing on the scalability of blockchain, blockchain developers have proposed various solutions such as fragmentation, DAG, state channel, and sidechain. In general, they are actually developed from Layer 1 and layer2. Improvement and innovation.

(1) Innovation of the infrastructure of the blockchain (Layer1)

Technical solutions to improve scalability by improving or innovating the underlying blockchain include: innovation consensus mechanisms, introduction of fragmentation design, and development of new distributed ledgers such as DAG.

Innovation of consensus mechanism

Due to the inefficiency of the original POW (workload proof) mechanism and the waste of resources, blockchain developers have developed consensus mechanisms such as POS (Professional Equity), DPOS (Proxy Equity Proof) and BFT (Byzantine Fault Tolerance). Try to improve node verification efficiency. However, in terms of actual results, after the introduction of a new consensus mechanism by blockchain platforms such as Bitshares, Steemit, EOS, TRON, and NEO, the overall performance of the blockchain has improved, but it is still difficult to meet large-scale commercial needs.

Introduction of fragmentation design

The blockchain project introduces the concept of “divide and conquer” into the blockchain architecture design, and divides the blockchain into multiple independent zones. It is designed by concurrent operation of transactions (transaction fragmentation) or storage data (storage fragmentation). Blockchain expansion. The typical projects are Sharding, Zilliqa, Emotiq, Quarkchain, etc., which are being done by Ethereum 2.0. It is also one of the hottest expansion technologies for today's topics.

DAG account book exploration

A blockchain is essentially a distributed ledger technology, but distributed ledger technology is not equivalent to a blockchain. Because the current blockchain technology faces a three-difficult choice in terms of security, decentralization, and scalability, a group of projects represented by IOTA, ByteBall, Nano, TrustNote, Hycon, etc., attempt to pass technologies outside the blockchain. Set up the bottom of the distributed ledger to break through the bottleneck of scalability.

(2) Design of the expansion scheme of the upper layer of the blockchain (Layer2).

Most of the expansion schemes for rebuilding the blockchain underlying architecture are costly, long-term, complex, and have compatibility problems with the existing basic public chain. Therefore, many development teams advocate direct improvement based on existing public-chain facilities, on Layer 2 Solve the problem of expansion. As Eitafang founder Vitalik said, “As the blockchain becomes more mature, the underlying network will inevitably stabilize, and the second layer (layer 2) network will assume more and more continuous innovation and change burden. ".

The basic idea of ​​the Layer 2 expansion solution is that the main chain (Layer1) does not move, but transfers most of the chain transactions to the upper-level agreement with smaller consensus but better performance, and ensures that the participants of the upper-layer agreement can always be in dispute. Returning to the main chain for a referendum, thereby reducing the burden on the main chain while ensuring overall security.

There are mainly two types of solutions: sidechain and state channel. The recent hot bitcoin lightning network, Ethereum Plasma, lightning network and Trinity of the small ant, and Loom network all belong to the second layer expansion scheme.

1.2 Interoperability refers to the ability of different computer systems, networks, and operating systems and applications to work together and share information.

The interoperability of blockchains refers to the interoperability between the various blockchains. The performance limitation of a single blockchain affects the scale of the blockchain, and the interoperability barrier between each chain also greatly limits the application space of the blockchain.

The main track in 2018 is the basic public chain. The whole industry has high hopes for the public chain of Cardano, AE, Ethereum, Bitshares, etc., but these "blockchain 3.0" projects are either slow or the effect is not up to the public expectations, EOS Although the new public chain platform such as TRX has attracted a lot of applications, it is still difficult to play the “bottom highway” of the blockchain.

In addition, the current new and old public chain projects have different technical structures and different ecological developments. Most of them can only interact with their own internal internal low-cost applications, and cannot achieve efficient communication with other blockchain ecosystems. Public chains and a large number of alliance chains and private companies. Assets in the chain are also not freely transferable, and the issue of value islands is highlighted.

From a technical point of view, the blockchain is a decentralized database and a distributed ledger. From a commercial perspective, the blockchain is a value network. The more effective nodes are connected to the network, the wider the distribution, and the possible value superposition. It will be bigger. If the blockchain really wants to realize the value interconnection and is applied on a large scale, it must accommodate diversity like the Internet and connect and expand between different blockchains. Therefore, the development of cross-chain technology becomes the discussion of the current blockchain. The vents.

Blockchain projects represented by Polkadot, Cosmos, ArcBlock, Wanchain, Aion, Zipper, etc. have tried to solve the problems of cross-chain asset conversion, atomic exchange, information coordination, cross-chain reading and verification.

1.3 Data privacy Blockchain system, all interactive information and process uplink, the entire network data is open, transparent, traceable, each node can obtain the system ledger, which undoubtedly brings great risks to users' privacy or commercial information leakage. Hidden dangers, if not in the early stage of a protection program, will have an indelible negative impact. Therefore, privacy protection is also the first issue to be considered in the process of promoting the blockchain.

Early digital books were very easy to track, and digital currency represented by bitcoin was difficult to achieve cash-like anonymity, and the process of money exchange between individuals or entities became transparent and easy to control.

Therefore, how to realize the traceability and verifiability of the blockchain under the protection of user privacy (hidden transaction information) has become a hot field of cryptography research, and blockchain developers have proposed zero-knowledge proof (Zero-Knowledge). Various technical solutions such as Proof), Ring Signature, Stealth Address, and Coin are trying to improve the privacy of the blockchain.

In fact, the demand for data privacy in the blockchain field seems to have a long history. The most influential ones are Monero, ZCash, Komodo, Dash, Verge and other early veteran projects, and the emerging Mimblewimble-based privacy currency in 2019. The entry of the project Grin and Beam added a fire to the outbreak of the privacy coin project. No matter which digital currency wants to be truly interoperable and popular, privacy protection and anonymity are technical difficulties that cannot be avoided.

If the advent of Bitcoin is an outbreak of the concept of blockchain and digital currency, the advent of the Ethereum smart contract platform is an explosion of digital currency applications, and now, countless blockchain project parties are applying for blockchain. The landing broke out to accumulate strength.

Of course, the path of the blockchain from the "underlying technology era" to the "product era" is not easy. So far, no blockchain platform has really set off the banner of “blockchain bottom highway”, but there are more and more developer teams on the road of this technical experiment. They are researching and summarizing. Based on past experience, we try to promote the upgrading and breakthrough of the functional and practicality of the current blockchain infrastructure from different technical perspectives. As mentioned above, the first chapter of this report proposes scalability and cross-chain interoperability. Sex and data privacy are the three urgency and hottest trends in the current blockchain.

On this basis, we have also sorted out the main blockchain projects that have been researched around these three major technological trends, and in the second, third and fourth chapters below, respectively explain the technical solutions and zones corresponding to various technological trends. Blockchain project, comparative analysis of the similarities and differences of each project in the technical direction, program design, implementation mechanism and development path, in order to allow readers to have more comprehensive control over the latest technological progress in the blockchain field and future expected results.

Click on the link https://wallstreetcn.com/shop/item/1000113 for the full version of the research report.

At the end of the article, there were more than ten blockchains, which were invited by the Scallion Research Institute to leave a message on the status quo and future trends of blockchain technology in 2019.

Big coffee message list

For the digital currency industry, 2018 is a tough year and a year of technology precipitation. So in 2019, I saw many excellent products and projects appearing on the market. I also believe that many blockchain technologies, such as cross-chain technology, sidechain technology, and lightning network, will have a breakthrough in 2019.

In 2019, the company also expanded the French currency channel in Singapore, Jersey and other countries, and released the currency chain and the decentralized exchange Binance DEX, further improving the ecosystem of the currency security. As a blockchain believer, I firmly believe that the industry is ready for more challenges and achievements.

——Zhao Changpeng, CEO of Coin

Since 2019, under the bear market, blockchain technology has not stopped. Whether it is a more mature cross-chain technology, a side chain, a sub-chain of the mainstream public chain, or an emerging project with a cross-chain bottom layer, it is constantly inspiring the industry. With regard to blockchain technology, we can see a more worthwhile future.

—— Weng Xiaoqi, CEO of Firecoin Global Station

From transaction information to decentralized applications, the blockchain will carry more and more content, and will provide a reliable and accessible network of value networks for a wide range of digital information. Under the premise of protecting the rights, let more value flow. The blockchain will become a social infrastructure to build an orderly digital economy.

——Xu Kun, Vice President of OK Strategy

2019 will be a year of blockchain technology, DApp will be a good entry point, so it is more important to improve the performance of DApp, the most important is two points: First, support smart contract transactions, focus on Improve the TPS of the main network smart contract transaction and reduce the transaction cost of the main network smart contract; Second, the side chain supports more customizable requirements.

——Sun Yuchen, founder of Wave Field (TRON)

2019 is a year of large-scale commercial application exploration on the blockchain. The development of technologies such as distributed file storage systems and decentralized digital identity is of great significance to the realization of the smart economy vision. In the future, the multi-chain interoperable chain network system will put forward higher requirements for the technology and ecology of the existing public chain, and the entire industry must be prepared to meet the challenge.

— NEO founder and core developer Zhang Yiwen

The next stage of the public chain is not a single point of concept breakthrough in technology development, but provides full support for the performance and scalability of the actual application, so in the underlying infrastructure, the public chain needs to have multiple dimensions of scalability, such as Fragmentation, cross-chaining and multi-layering. Only the blockchain infrastructure is far from enough, and there are a series of supporting facilities such as distributed identity, distributed data exchange, distributed reputation evaluation and distributed electronic signature service as the bridge to communicate with the physical business under the chain. This part should not be repeated by the application side and should be the standard for public chain construction.

——Li Jun, founder of Ontology

In 2019, blockchain technology and industry entered a period of rapid development, and technological innovations around blockchain applications, privacy security, and scalability continued to emerge. VeChain will continue to target commercial applications, continue to enhance the security and scalability of products and solutions while accelerating compliance, and accelerate the development of blockchain technology and the real economy. Deep integration.

— Lu Yang, founder of Vechain

In 2019, technologies such as fragmentation, cross-chain and online governance will mature, and the competition of the bottom-level project of blockchain will shift from concept verification to technology integration. How to better serve DAPP will be the focus of the public chain. DAPP's target user expansion will shift from blockchain investors to ordinary users, and more professional organizations outside the blockchain industry will enter the DAPP field. Blockchain consulting will also have a lot of room for development. Large companies will also actively invest in the public chain of investment. Aelf will become the next-generation blockchain system for commercial-grade secure transactions through an efficient cross-chain communication mechanism, combined with blockchain technology such as cloud nodes and parallel processing.

——Aelf founder and CEO Ma Yibo

Despite the cold winter in the investment trading market, the technology development and commercial expansion of the public chain have not stopped. In 2019, there are two major development plans than the original chain (Bytom): on the one hand, the new main side chain hybrid architecture Bystack is constructed to serve the development and deployment of large-scale commercial applications; in addition, the entire labor will be run on the cooperative mine pool. The intelligent and friendly Tensority algorithm example scenario allows POW to be used for artificial intelligence acceleration services, not just energy consumption.

– than the original chain (Bytom) founder Duan Xinxing

Blockchain technology will become the next important technological innovation force in the process of human civilization. The regulation of national standardization has gradually made the positive effects of the blockchain industry more prominent. The blockchain is big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, mobile internet, etc. The role of the next generation of information technology to provide the underlying technical support has also received increasing attention. Blockchain technology has unique advantages in the use of data and the efficient transmission of value, and has been increasingly used in government agencies and large Internet companies. In addition to the financial sector, in the fields of public welfare, supply chain, government affairs, etc., blockchain technology has begun to reflect its unique value, and various innovative blockchain application models are gradually coming. The blockchain is rapidly integrating with various industries with its openness, transparency and non-tamperability, and will give these industries a new vitality and vitality.

– Bit Continental

 

Entering 2019, based on the decentralized autonomous user identity (DID) and cloud computing, the chain network architecture formed by multiple interconnected blockchains will become the mainstream of technology: applications will run in different zones as needed. On the blockchain, break the boundaries of the past public/private chain/union chain, weave the chain into a network, and interconnect and form a new information society infrastructure.

——ArcBlock founder and CEO

In 2019, the implementation of blockchain technology is probably an extension of existing technology systems, such as cross-chain, DAG, fragmentation, distributed storage, and VRF POS. 2019 is the first year of the cross-chain platform in the true sense of the word, one-stop blockchain deployment or become a new favorite, cross-chain interoperability will promote the diversity of blockchain landing; 2019 will also be the year of Web3.0 arrival This is inseparable from the distributed storage, network communication capabilities and the improvement of the underlying technology of the blockchain.

——Block Group Partner Xu Yingkai

The blockchain is the most amazing technology I've ever seen. The magic is that it combines some seemingly ordinary techniques to create a vibrant, new, trust-based ecosystem. Numerous technical attempts and business explorations have taken place in the past decade, and in 2019 we will be delighted to witness the amazing and inspiring technologies. As a key part of blockchain technology, safety is always an important cornerstone that cannot be ignored. Contract errors, privacy leaks, protocol loopholes, etc., may be obstacles to the development of blockchain. In 2019, Ambi Lab will continue to explore the challenges in the field of blockchain security, and also try to use blockchain technology to solve the security problems in the digital world.

——Guo Yu, founder of SECBIT Lab

There is a huge gap between the technical realization of the current blockchain industry and the actual business problems. There is a lack of user-approved landing cases that can solve practical business problems. The blockchain project team should not blindly build the ecology, but should be committed to launching The killer application has made both inside and outside the industry aware of the huge potential of blockchain innovation in business models.

——DraperDragen Managing Partner Larry

The public chain has gradually stepped out of the blind pursuit of TPS and turned to solve the real painful scene. In terms of technology implementation, it is probably an extension of existing technology systems, such as cross-chain, DAG, fragmentation, distributed storage, VRF POS, and so on. At the same time, 2019 is the first year of the real-world cross-chain platform. One-stop blockchain deployment or becoming a new favorite, cross-chain interoperability will promote the diversity of blockchain landing. In 2019, it will be the year of Web3.0, which is inseparable from the distributed storage, network communication capabilities and the improvement of the underlying technology of the blockchain.

—— BlockVC

Source: Scallion Research Institute, please indicate the source

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