Why I choose SubSpace and why you should know about it!
The first project to fully resolve the blockchain trilemma
without making compromises
What is the blockchain trilemma?
The blockchain trilemma, or scalability trilemma, is a theorem that formulates the basic problem of scaling any distributed network. It states that of the three basic characteristics-decentralization, security, and performance-blockchain can have only two.
Any blockchain has three main properties:
- Scalability. The network is capable of increasing throughput, that is, processing an increasing number of transactions per unit time.
- Decentralization. The network operates without the need for verification by one or more trusted entities. Simply put, there should be no trust in a node or group of nodes that cannot be joined using a normal computer.
- Security. Blockchain is capable of resisting a potential attack by a significant fraction of nodes (ideally 50% of all nodes in the network, but anything above 25% is a good level).
How did the blockchain trilemma come about?
Back in the 1990s, scientist Eric Brewer developed the so-called CAP theorem. According to this theorem, a decentralized database (which includes blockchain) can only have two of the three basic properties — Consistency, Availability and Partition.
Thus, the theorem poses a problem: the creators of a decentralized database must sacrifice one of the three properties in order to achieve the proper level of the other two. This puts the long-term expansion of the database at risk.
This theory was later adapted for blockchain. The popularizer of the “blockchain trilemma” was Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin. His project was the first full-fledged platform for creating decentralized applications. Since those involve unlimited growth in the number of users, Ethereum’s bandwidth must increase without losing other important characteristics of the blockchain.
After Ethereum, many other projects offered solutions to the trilemma: EOS, Solana, Cosmos, Polkadot, Near, Avalanche, Terra, Everscale, Algorand and others. However, they have not yet found a universally accepted approach. This is where SubSpace Network comes in and takes up the burden.
The SubSpace solution
- The first problem is to find a secure consensus mechanism that is environmentally friendly, permissionless, and fair.
To solve this problem, we constructed Spartan, a simple and secure PoC consensus protocol that realizes the vision of free-and-fair consensus as described by “one-disk-one-vote”.
2. The second problem is that PoC networks are prone to centralization, due to a mechanism design challenge we call the farmer’s dilemma.
Subspace resolves the farmer’s dilemma by incentivizing storage of the history and delegating state management to executor nodes.
allowing for the first truly decentralized PoC network.
3. The final challenge is to scale transaction throughput without sacrificing the security or decentralization of the network.
While recent research shows how to scale securely, the bloat problem remains. Since Subspace already handles this challenge, to resolve the farmer’s dilemma, it is indeed able to scale without compromise.
