Hi there, lovely steemians!
Today I bring to you a great project out there on the blockchain. It is no other than the Quant network project. I bet you must have heard of it long before now because of the huge impact it is poised to create on the blockchain.
Source
Well, let's get started...
Blockchain as we know, is a fast-paced ecosystem and one with with huge potentials. To say that there are over a thousand projects presently on the blockchain is merely stating the fact. Unfortunately however, the ecosystem, at a closer look, is rather fragile to sustain them all owing to some limitations in its technology especially with respect to the single-ledger pheneomenon. Now I purposely single out this particular case because it is our major concern here as far as overledger is concerned.
Now what do we mean by overledger?
Overleger is an operating system put in place by Quant network team to tackle the issue of communications between blockchains. This is a case where different ledgers on blockchain cannot exchange data. (For instance neo blockchain and ethereum blockchain cannot share information).
This inability of the different ledgers on blockchain to communicate (ie receive data from one another) primarily results from the differences in blockchain designs and algorithms. In other words, blockchains/decentralized applications at present have heterogenous structure which makes them single-ledger-dependent. There’s is no compatibility between blockchains and also between blockchains and other off-chain systems hence, it is difficult for decentralized apps on one blockchain to migrate to another. This points to a glaring inefficiency and disunity of blockchains. Blockchains in this light have limited scope thus, posing scalability issues.
Additionally, it has been proven that single-ledger applications have high security risks. It presents huge risks to developers and businesses. These, all added up, in a sense impedes mass adoption of blockchain.
As with technology, this problem can be solved by designing a better system. Hence, several blockchain projects have attempted to offer solutions to this issue of lack of inter-communications between blockchains. Such projects include: sidechain - developed by blockstream; cosmos - developed by interchain; AION-1 - developed by Nuco; virtualchain - developed by blockstack; polkadot - developed by parity technologies; and inter-ledger - developed by by W3C. But all these projects have met with less success as they can connect only two blockchains at a time.
By comparison, the quant network approach to this problem is unique. Quant profers a solution to the single-ledger dependency by proposing a multi-ledger system known as OVERLEDGER. Overledger, as learnt earlier, is an operating system introduced by the quant network team to solve the problem of single-ledger dependency.
Overledgeer will bring about introduction of new scripting language jnto blockchain development (or updating existing scripts as the case may be). In dealing with this issue of blockchains inter communications, overledger focuses on these key aspects: purpose, connection speed, scalability, fault tolereance, layers of communication, connection method, and connection speed.
Overledger will be a general purpose technology - one that is applicable to both blockchain and off-the-blockchain apps. Overledger has the ability to be set up on different ledgers of the blockchain and the ability to communicate with those different ledgers. This means for instance it will be set up on NEO blockchain, Ethereum blockchain, Waves blockchain, etc. This way, the various ledgers/applications upon which the overledger is set will be empowered to communicate and exchange data with one anoher irrespective of their specific blockchains. Smart contracts and applications will thus be able to run on different blockchain technologies and data also can be moved from one blockchain ledger to another.
We already stated that different ledgers/blockchains at present have different working mechannsms and different structures and consequently, it is almost impossible to build a common interface for all ledgers. So overledger will solve this issue by running on top of different ledgers rather than attempting to match up with them. Overledger introduces a blockchain programming interfaces(BPI) and verification blocks which when combined with a two-faced commit would enable inter-ledger transactions and communications.
So while most projects in this field allow communication between only two blockchains at a time, overledger will be able to communicate across multiple blockchains at a given point in time. It will enable apps to communicate, replicate, and exchange data across multiple blockcchains thus, making it easy to compare the performance of one blockchain to another. It will order and manage blockchain blocks.
Overledger allows users to develop/set up multichain apps(multi-blockchain based applications); and the fact that it enables offchain apps to run on top of blockchains will bring about a wide adoption of blockchain technology more so as it would not limit users to a particular chain/vendor.
Overledger has scalability features embedded in its protocol and will bring about increased transaction speed. It is also embedded with advanced features that would tackle security threats. The overleder innovation would be flexible and adaptable to newer technologies. Overledger is a platform with advanced features fashioned to address blockchain challenges such as slow transaction rate, crytocurrencies exchanges, migration, etc. It will thus help in boosting blockchain technology
It is the view of Quant network team that communication between blockchains will foster the much needed wide adoption of blockchain technology thus, driving blockchains in general toward achieving its vision of a secure and trusted network and reaching its fuller potential as a decentralized network.
For more information about this great project, visit their website at: https://www.quant.network/
Also read their whitepaper here: https://objects-us-west-1.dream.io/files.quant.network/Quant_Overledger_Whitepaper_v0.1.pdf
You may also join their official telegram group for regular updates on the project. Go here: https://t.me/quantoverledger