Getting Started with Blockchain | Cross-chain: The Future You Want Without It

Thirty years ago, you asked your friends: What is the Internet? That might be a bunch of strange and tall terms.

In today's society 30 years later, when you ask "What is the Internet", the answer must not be a definition that seems to understand, but: WeChat, Baidu, online shopping, e-sports … one familiar application in the Internet era .

Therefore, the real science must not be a definition, but tell all ordinary people "a possible imagination of the future."

What do you expect from the future?

For people working across regions, from Shanghai to Hangzhou and from Beijing to Tianjin, a subway app can achieve unobstructed traffic, and services and automatic checkout will be reasonably allocated to each city;

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For comics fans, mobile phones no longer need to install N + 1 comics apps. One application and one membership can see all the comics that they want to watch, and even this application can extend the entire two-dimensional ecology;

For housewives, every pound of pork and potatoes bought at the vegetable market has a track record of production, processing, transportation, distribution, and retail. Every penny spent by consumers in any shopping state is worth the money;

For sick people, checking one medical record at a time can link to the best treatment plan. Patients are in Shanxi, experts are in the United States, and cross-domain medical resources are maximized to serve the people;

…

Seamless collaboration and rational distribution among people, machines, institutions, regions, cross-domain cooperation, interconnection, 5G, artificial intelligence, blockchain, Internet of Things, cloud computing, a new generation of disruptive information technology is building a digital economy, The new world of cross-border integration will be a contract society full of trust, extremely efficient and free circulation in the future.

This is not a science fiction blockbuster, this is a science fiction reality that concerns you and me!

At this moment, when someone asks you again, "What is a blockchain?", Are those professional answers that you don't explain clearly important? You should describe to him a "beautiful new world" beyond the imagination under the blockchain technology.

How far are we from the imaginary world?

Jiang Guofei, vice president of Ant Financial Services, said in an external speech: In the electrical age, our electricity consumption is a sign of prosperity of the era. In the Internet era, the number of users online is a sign. In today's digital economy era, the amount of chain will be an important indicator of the digital economy. On this basis, the entire ecology can better promote the development of the industry.

There are huge technical challenges behind thousands of daily uploads: ensuring data security and privacy issues; cross-chain link issues; large-scale network performance; computing costs …

In 2019, a blockchain account system with a scale of 1 billion, and an ant blockchain with a daily transaction volume of 1 billion; a blockchain invoice system with an average daily output of 44,000 and a cumulative billing amount of 3.9 billion yuan.

However, each chain has its own enterprise cooperation, one chain is traced, one chain is bill, and each blockchain is an independent consensus network. Information isolation forms the value island effect of the blockchain, and information between each other. Cannot communicate.

Linked chains and chains, seamless cooperation, and interoperability are the foundations of "the future possible imagination."

This is Cross-Chain.

How to achieve cross-chain?

Cross-chain, progressive four miracles ↓

1. Transfer of assets between chains : Efficient exchange of digital cryptocurrencies to achieve unlimited, secure, real-time cross-chain payments.

2. Cross-chain interaction : Cross-chain technology is the infrastructure that opens up the value exchange between the two chains. Values ​​such as data and information flow between different chains.

3. Intra-chain and extra-chain resource interaction : build a bridge between the blockchain and the traditional Internet, based on the traditional Internet, better complete the connection of users, data, and usage scenarios, and build a larger and more prosperous business ecosystem .

4. Wanchain Interconnection : Blockchain will eventually become an infrastructure for daily life like transportation and energy. All application scenarios we can imagine in the future will be supported by cross-chain technology.

Generally speaking, each independent chain is a computer without a network. At this time, the computer's role is to store and process data and update internal information. You and my computer cannot interact. The improvement of computer network technology has made it possible for our computers to communicate with each other. This is the form of a globally interconnected network.

With the development of blockchain technology, the inter-chain interaction solution will become a "router" linking your computer and the "WeChat" of various business applets in the Internet era.

Many public chain-based projects and traditional Internet projects can realize the state of value interactions such as assets, data, and information through cross-chain systems, extending the Internet, spanning time and space, and forming a larger network.

This will certainly be the future trend, and at the same time, it will also become a major business opportunity.

2019 is called the "first year of cross-chain", and it is the birth of the Cosmos and Polkadot cross-chain projects that have been crowned the star project. However, at present, cross-chain technology is still in the initial stage of development, and all institutions and enterprises involved in cross-chain project research and development are in the exploration stage. As for how to implement cross-chain, all the existing mechanisms basically cannot achieve all the scenarios we imagine.

The picture below is a summary of the current cross-chain technology implementation methods by FinaceRun reporters. Currently, there are six types of cross-chain mechanisms. Which one is the road to Rome? Is there a road to "Rome"? These need practice to give answers. At present, we can only analyze and explore based on the status quo.

Interpretation ↓

Notary Public Mechanism : Establish a de-trusted notary (validator) between the two public chains, without the need for complicated workload or proof of equity, which is suitable for centralized and decentralized ledgers. Among them, the most critical issue is the trust of notary public. There is a risk of centralization.

Side chain anchoring mechanism : write a smart contract on one blockchain that can read another blockchain, establish a side chain, and belong to the main chain. In order to enable BTC to settle DAPP in the Ethereum network, Ethereum launched the BTC Relay project, which is currently not progressing smoothly.

Relay mechanism : An upgraded version of the side chain anchoring mechanism adopts the central radiation design, and the intermediate chain is mainly responsible for data transmission. At present, the star cross-chain project Cosmos uses a relay mechanism. Cosmos is responsible for receiving data, and data verification is on the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks.

Both the side chain anchoring mechanism and the relay mechanism need to cooperate with the original chain, which not only increases the difficulty of development, but also limits the operating efficiency.

Distributed private key control : Control the private keys of various assets through distributed nodes, and map the assets of the original chain to cross-chain. Although distributed private key storage reduces the risk of centralization, it is difficult to develop and has low operating efficiency.

Hash lock : It first appeared in Bitcoin's Lightning Network, and asset locking is at its core. Although it is easy to implement, it cannot move assets and data, and is only applicable to asset exchange.

Multi-mechanism : As the name implies, it is the integration, improvement and innovation of the above mechanisms. At present, Seal SC is a representative project. Recently, its popularity is relatively large, but it is still in the unrealized stage.

Above, what was discussed was how cross-chain links are linked to chains. Furthermore, how to realize the interaction between resources inside and outside the chain, and finally build a new world of Wanchain interconnection?

Oracle is a functional component that is mainly used for public chain verification and provides off-chain information. It is a bridge for data interaction between the blockchain and the real world. Without an oracle with strong applicability, credibility, and efficiency, it is impossible to achieve data interaction between on-chain and off-chain.

At present, the inability of the blockchain system to actively obtain off-chain data and to actively verify off-chain data are two core issues. Regardless of whether the data is provided by a trusted centralized organization, the data is provided by distributed nodes, or the data is provided by a trusted alliance chain, all are trying to obtain off-chain data and accessing off-chain data into the blockchain. To achieve blockchain technology to cover off-chain scenarios, gradually reduce the threshold of blockchain use, and allow more business scenarios and users to share blockchain technology.

In short, the oracle is the trust bond between the two systems (internal and external).

Recently, Yan Ying, General Manager of Ant Blockchain Technology, said in an external speech: 2020 will be cross-chain for the blockchain. In the future, the value network and enterprise network brought by the blockchain are unquestionable. Any enterprise in the world can circulate its assets through this network and allocate it more efficiently.

Zhao Zhenhua, a senior expert on Weizhong Bank's blockchain, said: There are two problems that the blockchain needs to solve at present, one is cross-chain, and the other is privacy protection. I believe there will be a good solution within six months.

The importance and urgency of cross-chain in the industry is already obvious, which is related to whether the blockchain can eventually become an extension of the Internet, build a global value Internet, and build a larger contract network?

Huxley said: You can't make a car without steel.

Maybe, without cross-chain technology, the blockchain is a seemingly tall island.

Do you think that the future you expect is still far away?

postscript:

If there is such a gentle sunshine after each storm, let the wild wind blow intentionally and wake up death. ——Huxley's "Beautiful New World"

These past few days, the lingering winter breeze swept past, looking up at the sky for miles? Or is there nothing left when turning around?

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