Blockstream Releases Working Sidechain Prototype
Sidechains have been in development for almost a year now and are widely regarded as ‘the Bitcoin 2.0 project’. Sidechains take decentralization to the extreme, aiming to create a protocol that will lead to more innovative decentralized applications by utilizing custom blockchain technology. After eight months of active development, Blockstream has revealed the first prototype sidechain.
Sidechains will offer many useful features to institutions that want to build applications based on blockchain technology. Basically, sidechains should allow businesses to better implement peer-to-peer applications while cutting out the middleman. Certain startups will be able to utilize sidechains to disrupt many Wall Street processes.
“We are now inviting the technical community… to join in and participate and try out and comment on, and actually suggest changes or improvements.”
CTO Gregory Maxwell discussed the details of the testing with developers at a San Francisco meeting that occurred Monday evening.
Sidechains function as separate ledgers with their own code and independent transactions that are tied to the main blockchain ledger to allow coins to travel from one chain to the other in a seamless fashion. The idea is that people and businesses will be able to take advantage of the cryptography while being able to take advantage of a platform that has more features and is more flexible in nature.
Shaul Kfir, DAH CTO stated that sidechains could be a “very powerful way to protect investors from having to disclose sensitive business information, even while providing complete transparency to regulators.”
