Cementing Manifesto: Avoid Decentralization Maximization, Cementing Centralization Technology

Translation order

Please consider a question: if there is no centralized exchange, what is the total market value of crypto assets today? In my personal opinion, it may be one thousandth of the present value, or it may be zero, so it is best not to look forward to burning in the prison where the centralized transaction is located. The crypto world is not a parallel world. The centralized exchange is the bridge between the crypto network and the traditional financial network, which is the "glue" described below.

Coin speculation is currently the only application on the blockchain. What is the next application (if any)? I do not know. If I have to guess, I would rather choose the "out of breath" STO than the current DeFi, because STO is still at least angry.

As a blockchain practitioner, I certainly believe in the potential of decentralized technology, and believe that it is a cure for the structural defects of the modern financial system. But to realize the potential of decentralized technology, don't put it against centralized technology. Rather, it is better to do more research on each one's strengths and integrate development. I hope this article will give you some inspiration.

Decentralized maximism

The network economy ecosystem has been running for decades based on centralized technologies such as email, API, CRM, e-commerce, ERP, SQL database, and cloud computing. Then decentralized technology emerged, enabling anyone to interact economically. You don't need to know each other, you just need to believe in technology, how amazing! Sometimes we love this new paradigm so much that we strive to conceive a new parallel world where everything is decentralized, because "centralization" is evil, and we must avoid it at any cost.

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We focus on a completely decentralized solution, which is not bad because it eliminates all points of trust. However, such an extreme approach does not always allow us to reach an acceptable compromise, which makes the system easy to use, efficient, and widely involved. What ways can we realize the full potential of decentralized technology? It is based on the close interaction of decentralized and centralized components to design economic systems, allowing developers and companies to make wise and prudent decisions based on whether components require trust to determine how to mix and use.

The third way

We believe that the binary opposition between centralized custodian technology and decentralized / blockchain technology will soon pass. The third path is emerging.

Following the classic framework of God V, consider the following types of technology: logically, architecturally, and governanceally centralized, just like traditional IT. but:

No custodian. Although centralized, it cannot steal your money;

Can be replaced at any time;

Allow failure. Because multiple systems are running at the same time and can be replaced with each other, failing one is not a big deal, as long as one can work. Or simply put: low failure rates are acceptable.

In the end, this type of technology—adhesives—doesn't need to be perfect, trusted, or fault-tolerant, as long as it works. The reliability of the system does not depend on a single component, but the sum of multiple components, that is, the component that minimizes trust, plus multiple adhesives and the centralized technology you recognize.

Adhesives: Overview

In simple terms, the adhesive is responsible for reading the signed statement from the decentralized system and forwarding it to the centralized system, or vice versa. Here are a few examples:

Repeaters: They are not custodians. They simply forward your instructions (ie signing a statement). For example, a 0x protocol Mesh network node, or a state channel transaction repeater, is allowed to fail and can be replaced. No need to worry, because you rely on the network as a whole. So the repeater is the adhesive.

Predictor Connector: Decentralized smart contract oracles rely on multiple centralized oracle connector to send a smart contract a signing statement describing the state of the off-chain world. Any of these oracle connectors are allowed to fail, be replaceable and not the custodian … they are all adhesives.

Watchtowers: They read the signing statement (Ethereum status) and send transactions to the main chain, launching disputes to protect the interests of users. You can hire as many watchtowers as you want, and failing one is harmless and can be substituted. They are adhesives.

Gas Station Network: They forward your signed statement and pay you for the transaction gas. You don't need to trust a single repeater, because you can switch to another at any time, or use multiple at the same time.

Zero-knowledge proof transaction aggregator: In a two-layer network using zero-knowledge proof, any aggregator node that knows the previous state can aggregate a signed statement (transaction), create a new state of zero-knowledge proof, and submit it to the chain. Validating smart contracts … is an alternative, failing glue.

Order Matcher: The more you send orders to the off-chain order matcher, the better, as the chance of finding a matching order increases. The order matcher does not act as custodian and therefore allows failure. As long as at least one order matcher works honestly. They can be seen as adhesives.

State connector (this will be the big guy!): The basic version is a "if so, then that" tool that reads data from the blockchain, and if the trigger conditions are matched, forwards it to the centralized system-API, email , Database, e-commerce, that is, on-chain-> traditional centralized system. The advanced version of the "if so, then that" tool supports on-chain-> on-chain processes, or even any traditional off-chain repeater chain on-chain traditional centralized system processes. The square of the adhesive!

declaration

Our declaration:

1. Centralization is not evil if it is replaceable and does not act as custodian;

2. Let's focus on how decentralization and centralization work together, rather than who beats them;

3. Let's put centralization and decentralization into a unified technical picture, and soon the developer community will merge into one;

4. Traditional developers are our friends! Let's spend more time developing tools to help non-cryptographic developers access the decentralized world without fully understanding it. 99% of web developers don't understand the principle of HTTP, we need something similar to expand Ethereum;

5. Let's name the adhesive technology. They are efficient, safe, replaceable … and needed;

6. It's better than perfect, landing is better than 100% decentralization. Let us avoid decentralized maximization;

7. Let's do it!

February 10, 2020

Author: Marco De Rossi translation: Liu Yi Original: https: //link.medium.com/VQCpdHTro4

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