Is A Multichain Ecosystem the Future of Blockchain?
A recent study by Fortune Business Insights on enterprise blockchain shows that the sector will hit $21 billion by 2025, a testament to the industry's rapid growth. This is interesting given that not long ago, this market was defined by tight-knit communities, but has now evolved to become the domain for governments, businesses and institutional investors. However, the rising widespread popularity of blockchain is posing new challenges, especially when it comes to scalability. How can this issue be solved?
The biggest hindrance to blockchain adoption has been scalability, leading to slow transaction times and high transaction fees, which culminates in a poor user experience. Ethereum has suffered from this issue the most. As a result, some developers have moved to competing protocols such as Solana and Cardano that offer a better experience. However, most developers blockchain networks should not compete, but should instead cooperate to create a perfect user experience.
This is where multichain comes in. As the name suggests, it involves the creation of an ecosystem where several blockchains are interconnected, with the ultimate goal of improving user experience.
Protocols Leading Multichain Adoption
SushiSwap is leading the way when it comes to multichain. In March 2021, the protocol jumped on the trend of dApps deployed on multiple chains to catch up with its main rival Uniswap. This makes it one of the largest multichain adopters, existing on 13 chains, including on the likes of Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, and Fantom.
Ethereum has been the dominant force in SushiSwap for many months, but Polygon has recently taken over, thus showing how fast layer-two solutions can take charge. Driving gas fees down has been the key factor for SushiSwap to adopt multichain. By offering various options other than Ethereum, the protocol has succeeded in this goal.
Aave
Aave is another DeFi protocol experimenting with a multichain approach to get to the next level. The project has been a success through its crypto lending and borrowing offering, leading to many users locking up assets within the protocol.
To build on this success, its CEO, Stani Kulechov, recently came out to announce that the protocol was considering an expansion to more networks. The multichain strategy involves expanding the protocol's loan and borrowing markets on Solana via the EVM-compatible solution Neon Labs, Avalanche, and the Optimistic Rollup solutions Arbitrum and Optimism. The expansion is planned to occur in phases, and the CEO also revealed the team was working on a cross-chain governance structure..
Multichain Aggregators Are Playing a Crucial Ro
Multichain or cross-chain aggregators identify the best possible routes to fulfil trades across blockchain ecosystems and, by doing so, are easing the burden for existing DeFi users and removing some barriers to entry for new joiners. A few good examples include Apeboard, 1Inch, and AnySwa
Apeboard helps users monitor their portfolios across different platforms. The platform supports 11 chains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Terra, Solana and Binance Smart Chain. This makes it perfect for monitoring several chains and tracking balance
1Inch is an exchange aggregator that scans decentraliz
exchanges to find the lowest cryptocurrency prices for trader
The platform also offers its liquidity to 78 platforms acro
Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygo
AnySwap is a fully decentralized cross-chain swap protocol based on Fusion DCRM technology. It allows swaps between any coins on any blockchain which uses ECDSA or EdDSA as a signature algorithm. This protocol features a decentralized cross-chain bridge, cross-chain swaps and programmed pricing and liquidit
Now that you have a fair understanding of what multichain is, you might be wondering what some of the leading protocols within this category are; let us explore a few of the most popular projects here. They involve multi-asset blockchain networks that store, transfer and verify information and assets existing on a whole range of public blockchains using Decentralized Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC
Orbin Cha
This protocol aims to work as a hub for public blockchains for fluid asset movement and interactions within a single blockchain networ
Polkad
otk.in).y.n.sss.eds.p.leain network.
1Inch is an exchange aggregator that scans decentralized exchanges to find the lowest cryptocurrency prices for traders. The platform also offers its liquidity to 78 platforms across Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and Polygon.
AnySwap is a fully decentralized cross-chain swap protocol based on Fusion DCRM technology. It allows swaps between any coins on any blockchain which uses ECDSA or EdDSA as a signature algorithm. This protocol features a decentralized cross-chain. bridge, cross-chain swaps and programmed pricing and liquidity.
Now that you have a fair understanding of what multichain is, you might be wondering what some of the leading protocols within this category are; let us explore a few of the most popular projects here. They involve multi-asset blockchain networks that store, transfer and verify information and assets existing on a whole range of public blockchains using Decentralized Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC).
Orbin Chain
This protocol aims to work as a hub for public blockchains for fluid asset movement and interactions within a single blockchain network.
Polkadot
Another multichain protocol that can transfer data among both permissioned and permissionless blockchains. The protocol's bridges allow its parachains and parathreads to connect to external blockchains. Polkadot follows a shared security model, providing security to every parachain as soon as it gets attached to the Polkadot Relay Chain.
Cosmos
Cosmos' modular structure allows users to create private blockchains and connect them with Hubs to send and receive tokens from other public and private blockchains. To connect to other blockchains such as Ethereum, Cosmos has Peg Zones that act similarly to Polkadot's bridges.
It is clear that multichains will support blockchain adoption across many sectors, such as finance and banking. Without such interoperability, transactions between banks using different blockchains will be highly complex for everyone involved. But, with a multichain approach, transmitting data will not only be fast, but straightforward and secure.
Polkadot