At its blockchain developer event last June, Lisk’s research team spoke to attendees about the progress they’ve made toward finishing an interoperability solution that would allow apps on its blockchain to communicate with any other apps in its blockchain network. 

Now reportedly nearing the official launch of the Lisk blockchain application platform, the team is one step closer to deploying a scalable interoperability solution within its ecosystem. Here’s what that means for developers building apps in the Lisk ecosystem as well as for the future of blockchain technology.

Blockchain Technology Is Full of Potential, But Lack of Interoperability Makes It Hard to Scale

Blockchain technology offers a secure way to digitally transfer assets, secure sensitive data and track digital and physical items as they change ownership. Because it’s distributed, data on the blockchain can’t be altered. Using it to store data or complete financial transactions is a way to protect against tampering and fraud. 

However, to fully tap into the potential of this novel technology, some experts are saying it needs to overcome a key roadblock: lack of interoperability. There are tons of different blockchains from well-known networks like Bitcoin 

BTC/USD+ Free Alerts and Ethereum

ETH/USD+ Free Alerts to lesser-known recent entries like Algorand 

ALGO/USD+ Free Alerts and Fantom

FTM/USD+ Free Alerts. 

Right now, apps built on any one of these blockchains can’t exchange data with apps built on other blockchains without a bridge. For end users, that means the crypto wallets and other apps built on Ethereum can’t connect to the wallets or apps they use that were built on Fantom. 

Achieving Interoperability Would Make Cross-Chain Communication and Transactions Possible

A few networks have begun exploring interoperability solutions to fix this and make navigating blockchain ecosystems as seamless for users as navigating the internet is today. So far, they tend to involve cross-chain bridges that effectively lock a digital asset on one chain while simultaneously minting an identical asset on the new chain.

Other networks are developing interoperability solutions that work inside those networks. For example, in the Polkadot system, parachain technology makes it possible to buy, sell and transfer digital assets within that ecosystem. However, it would use cross-chain bridges to transfer to other networks outside of that ecosystem.

Lisk Aims To Offer an Open-Source, Interoperable Blockchain Development Platform

While other networks — namely, networks like Polkadot and Cosmos — have been working on interoperability solutions, Lisk has taken a slightly different approach, using sidechain to develop Blockchain Applications.. That’s where Lisk says its interoperability solution comes in.

Using a form of sidechain technology, Lisk proposes an ecosystem made up of a mainchain and sidechains. These sidechains are secondary blockchains with their own consensus protocols that can connect to the main blockchain via a two-way peg. 

Because they use their own protocols, there’s less pressure on the mainchain when transactions are moving through the ecosystem. That’s because the mainchain simply validates and tracks each sidechain and relays messages from one sidechain to another. The actual processing happens inside the sidechains, allowing for faster, more efficient processing without burdening the mainchain.

Moreover, there’s no limit to how many sidechains can be connected to this mainchain, making it flexible and scalable to adapt to a broad number of uses. Using sidechain also allows developers to be more flexible with the implementation of their own logic instead of relying on the logic from the mainchain.

Development Of The Lisk Interoperability Solution Nears The Finish Line?

With the publication of all the research done so far, the team has officially achieved its fourth milestone which is drafting and publishing the core and supporting Lisk Improvement Proposals (LIPs) for developing the Lisk Interoperability Solution. Now, it’s working on its next milestone to achieve interoperability within the Lisk network.

During this phase, the team is tackling issues like incentivizing the role of the relayer, shortening the time to finality in the consensus mechanism and ensuring that end-user accessibility to the Lisk ecosystem is as seamless and secure as possible.

Once that milestone is achieved, the team reports it will work on Lisk bridges that will expand the in-network interoperability protocol to third-party blockchains, effectively creating the universally interoperable blockchain solution that the technology needs to realize its full potential.

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