The latest development of the Ethereum Layer-2 protocol: Plasma and state channels go hand in hand

Welcome to the third article on the Ethereum Layer 2 extension solution. The first article in this series introduces and outlines Plasma and the status channel , while the second article introduces many related executive teams. Progress. This article will introduce the latest developments in Plasma and state channel research, as well as some interesting research updates.

Original author: ConsenSys Layer-2 technology researcher John Adler

The following is a translation:

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(Photo courtesy of Kevin Ku)

Ethereum expansion meeting

From June 5th to June 7th, Ethereum developers hosted the first Ethereum expansion seminar in Toronto, Canada, which focused exclusively on Ethereum's expansion efforts, including layer-1 and layer-2 technologies. , as well as decentralized Oracle and security analysis. During this three-day conference, the researchers discussed a number of related research papers . If you are looking for cutting-edge cryptocurrency research, then that's it!

See also:

1. Scaling Ethereum [ Twitter ] and organizer:
2. Eva Beylin [ Twitter ]
3. Mikerah Quintyne-Collins [ Twitter ]
4. Jinglan Wang [ Twitter ]

Research progress in Plasma

Plasma Group has introduced a new optimistic exit design that draws inspiration from rollups (including proof of validity and proof of fraud). The essence of this technology is to optimally execute the exit and checkpoint of the Plasma chain, and to minimize the data published on the chain, and to publish the necessary data as CallData only when needed, similar to rollups. Utilizing the capabilities of the current Ethereum chain, which supports hundreds of exits per second, developers are still actively studying the limitations and applicability of this technology.

To coordinate the Plasma study, plasma.build will serve as a Plasma-specific research center that complements the well-known ethresear.ch research forum. In addition to a series of interesting themes and improvements around Plasma, the site will also promote the standardization of Plasma variants and APIs and document progress and changes in the new "PLIP" format.

Due to network problems, LeapDAO's Plasma Leap test network was completely shut down in June because two physical validator machines with the same key signed two conflicting blocks. Lesson learned: If you are a verifier, don't use hot backup (yes, this also applies to ETH 2.0) !

The Plasma Chamber and predicate research at the Cryptoeconmoics Lab was presented at the Ethereum Extension Conference as an alternative to the Plasma Group's Plasma Cashflow, with interesting experimental features, including bulk passwords. Economic checkpoints and predicate support. In addition, their blog will also have the Plasma Science to translate relevant content to Japanese readers.

Earlier this month, Georgios Konstantopoulos from Loom conducted a tweet release storm on the difference between the sidechain and the Plasma chain. To make a long story short: the unqualified sidechains are not Layer-2 because they do not have the same security as the main chain and do not require a guarantee of trust. They can be viewed as separate blockchains and are therefore not a capacity expansion solution. Plasma and state channels, through their exit games, have these guarantees, so it can be said that they are the appropriate Layer-2 solution .

OmiseGO's Plasma MoreVP implementation has been struggling, and they have been developed several times to make it available to the public, but beyond that, their research is still in a state of stagnation. This is mainly due to the use of the Plasma M[ore] VP design, which is basically considered bad (the design has unresolved large-scale exit problems), rather than the coin-based Plasma Cash variant.

See also (not exhaustive)

1. Plasma Group [Twitter] (non-profit Plasma R&D organization), plasma.build
2. Plasma Implementers Calls
3. Learn Plasma (learning resources for Plasma design)
4. Cryptoeconomics Lab [Twitter] (Plasma Chamber, Plasma Cashflow), Yuriko Nishijima [Twitter], Syuhei Hiya [Twitter]
5. LeapDao[Twitter] (Plasma Leap, Plasma MVP)
6. OmiseGO [Twitter] (Plasma MVP variant)
7. Loom Network [Twitter] (Plasma Cash variant), Georgios Konstantopoulos [Twitter]

The latest research progress of state channels

Counterfactual has released some development updates, including the team's tremendous efforts to raise its common state channel architecture to production readiness levels. This includes many API endpoints, wallet integration, and token integration, as well as comprehensive standardization, interoperability, and documentation improvements.

Connext is moving towards the introduction of a v2.0 network based on the Counterfactual framework. This will improve the distribution of nodes and provide cleaner wallet support. By leveraging the power of the counterfactual state channel, the multi-sign wallet on the chain will be able to act almost seamlessly as a channel.

There has been little progress before the Raiden Network, but since the micro-Raiden was used to control a toy car on the DEVCON3, the network has made significant progress.

Patrick McCorry last week announced a DataRegistry contract that would allow the PISA watchtower to take full responsibility for the channels they observe and provide solid evidence on the chain. Unlike previous watchtower designs, if a PISA watch tower is not behaving properly and does not perform its duties, the system can punish it by proving this behavior.

SpankChain's spank.live cam website is now accepting legal currency payments, and the SpankPay is already being used. For further information, check out their blogs and services.

See also (not exhaustive)

1. Counterfactual [Twitter] (General Status Channel), Jeff Coleman [Twitter], Liam Horne [Twitter], Josh Stark [Twitter]
2. Patrick McCorry [Twitter] (Pisa, watchtowers);
3. SpankChain [Twitter] (payment channel for streaming services), Ameen Soleimani [Twitter]
4. Thunder network [Twitter] (following the payment channel network of Lightning Network);
5. Connext [Twitter] (Payment Channel Network);

Conclusion

In the past two months, a lot of interesting Plasma research has emerged, and state channel implementers have been working hard to polish their solutions to prepare for the production deployment phase.

Note: Regarding the latest development of Ethereum layer-2 technology, the original author will be updated every two months, and interested readers can pay attention.

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