House Of Chimera

2023-04-01 18:01:11 What is Syscoin?

Syscoin is one of the first blockchain projects to adopt roll-ups, but it also stands out for other reasons.

It's a public, decentralized blockchain network that achieves high performance by using a four-layer technology stack:

Host layer (Proof-of-Work)
EVM layer
SDK layer
Application layer

Syscoin utilizes Bitcoin's Proof of Work (via Merge mining) as a consensus mechanism while still being fully Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compliant. This EVM compatibility makes $SYS interoperable and allows for Complete Turing Smart contracts.

The third layer is a software development kit (SDK) that allows Zero-Knowledge Roll-ups to increase the network's overall scalability. The last layer consists of an application layer.It serves as a user interface for the network, abstracting all the complex computations and technical details. This abstraction enhances the user experience (UX) by hiding the system's operations. Open / Comment

2023-04-01 14:00:52 ZK-proof

Let's take a closer look at ZK-Rollups, which use ZK-proofs to verify a bundle of transactions off-chain.

A ZK-proof is a cryptographic method that enables a prover to demonstrate to a verifier that a particular statement is true without revealing additional information. To be considered a valid ZK-proof, it must meet three fundamental characteristics:

Completeness
Soundness
Zero-Knowledge.

Completeness refers to the verifier and prover's ability to be honest, and fulfil their respective roles. Soundness ensures that even a dishonest prover cannot deceive an honest verifier. Finally, Zero-Knowledge means that the proof is unique in that it can convince the involved parties without revealing any information. Open / Comment

2023-04-01 10:01:02 GM!

El Salavador eliminated all taxes for technology innovation . Open / Comment

2023-03-31 18:00:00 Proof-of-Data availability

To address the issue of data availability and minimize data overhead , there are methods that allow for verifying large amounts of data without requiring every participant to download the entire blockchain. One such method is Proof-of-Data availability (PoDa), introduced by #syscoin.

In the first stage of PoDa, the data is replicated, which allows any node to copy it. This ensures that the data is widely distributed throughout the network. It's assumed that if there are enough nodes, at least one will be honest (the Honest Minority Assumption). Therefore, the data will always remain accessible because the honest node can provide it.

After a short period, the replicated data is archived and removed from the main chain, but it remains available off-chain, assuming Honest Minority Assumption. Network participants can request the data from replicating nodes at any time. This means the data is always available and cannot be censored, making data withholding attacks complex. Open / Comment

2023-03-31 14:52:45 https://twitter.com/HouseofChimera/status/1641767659187445760

See you there Open / Comment

2023-03-31 14:00:37 Data Availability

Improving the scalability of a blockchain is crucial, but it often comes at the expense of either security or decentralization . Rollups are a promising solution that should increase scalability without significant drawbacks. However, they can create issues with Data Availability (DA), a fundamental task of a blockchain. DA guarantees that all available data for a block has been published and made accessible to all network participants. The scaling methods' challenge is securing DA while preventing a significant data overhead.

Generally, there are two approaches to DA: on-chain and off-chain. On-chain DA is popular with monolithic blockchains , as all tasks are performed on a single layer. ZK-rollups, in particular, utilize on-chain DA, where layer 2 posts transactional data on the main chain as a data layer. This approach has the highest security quality , as all the transferred data to the main chain is immutable. However, the drawback is that it's impossible to avoid call data gas costs .

As a blockchain gets longer, it becomes more resource-intensive, requiring more storage and resources to participate. To reduce costs, it's possible to store data off-chain, but this could lead to trust issues and DA problems. However, there are solutions for the resource-inefficient on-chain method.

One of them is Proof-of-Data availability, which you can learn about in the upcoming post.

Stay tuned! Open / Comment

2023-03-31 10:01:21 GM!

Rising interest rates increases banks' profit but also exposes their weaknesses.

In 2022, banks had $620.4bn in unrealised losses on their securities portfolios
including $340.9bn on bonds

Will other fall due to lack of liquidity? Open / Comment

2023-03-30 18:00:00 Optimistic vs Zero-Knowledge Rollups

Both rollup solutions are popular scaling solutions for blockchain . The main difference is the type of proof they use to validate transactions.

OP rollups use Fraud proofs (similar to Plasmas' Fraud proof), which are less resource-demanding than ZK-proofs, solving one of the significant drawbacks of ZK-rollups. However, fraud proofs have a relatively long challenge period , meaning that funds can get stuck for a week or longer until transactions become final. Thus, the throughput of OP rollups is lower than ZK rollups .This is the case because transactions are not bundled, meaning all transactions must include the sender's signature.

Be that as it may, rollup implementation will drastically increase the scalability . Besides, more companies are already experimenting with them in the tech industry. For example, EY has contributed to a beta version of Starlight (ZK-proof compiler) and in the Web3 industry, #syscoin, #coinbase and others are implementing them. Open / Comment

2023-03-30 14:00:00 Optimistic Rollups

In a previous discussion, we talked about ZK-rollups. Another popular scaling method are Optimistic (OP) rollups, combining ZK-rollups and Plasma aspects . Unlike Plasma, OP rollups post transactional data and state roots on the main chain, using the main chain as a data layer.

OP rollups rely on Fraud proofs, similar to Plasma's fraud proofs. The OP rollup design uses multiple aggregators (i.e., block producers). Each aggregator must deposit a bond when posting a new rollup block.

If a user identifies an invalid state root (i.e., a block with invalid transactions), they can challenge the aggregator by posting the valid state root with required Merkle proofs to prove it. If the user is correct , the bond and the created block of the aggregator get slashed.

Be sure to check out the upcoming post, where we'll compare OP and ZK rollups side-by-side! Open / Comment

2023-03-30 10:01:24 GM!

China and France have completed first LNG gas trade in Chinese Yuan.

US dollar is commonly used globally to settle such trades. Does this mean de-dollarisation of the global trade? Open / Comment