The next is a visitor article from Erick de Moura, co-founder at Cartesi.
Regardless of over a decade of evolution, conventional blockchains proceed to grapple with the proverbial ‘blockchain trilemma’, balancing decentralization, safety, and scalability. The larger a blockchain will get – the extra customers, the extra dApps, the extra exercise and transactions – the higher the demand on the underlying infrastructure.
As adoption will increase, the community’s capacity to deal with rising demand decreases. The end result: congestion on the community, mountaineering fuel charges, and processing delays – none of which paint an image of the higher web we have been promised.
Whereas these of us working within the blockchain house are clear on the worth and potential of web3, we have now but to collectively agree on the optimum option to design it. Numerous options have been proposed, however few have taken root.
Nevertheless, within the final 12 months, we’ve seen the blockchain house trending increasingly towards a brand new paradigm: modularity. Whereas monolithic chains – corresponding to early Ethereum or Solana – are constructed with a predefined set of design and infrastructure decisions, modular infrastructure separates the essential blockchain capabilities into separate modules that may be composed collectively to construct much more highly effective purposes.
This text explores how modularity represents not only a technical improve however a strategic rethinking of blockchain infrastructure, promising a extra strong framework for future purposes.
Exploring the Modularity Thesis
Ethereum’s transfer in the direction of a rollup-centric roadmap was arguably the primary main shift in the direction of a modular framework by outsourcing execution to layer 2s like zkSync and Optimism. It was an admission {that a} monolithic blockchain merely couldn’t optimize each layer of its operations, previous a sure threshold, resulting in a significant decoupling of a vital operation away from the primary chain.
Nevertheless, utilizing layer 2s (whose major objective is to dump a layer 1’s transactions) to increase a blockchain’s computational capability solely takes us a lot farther. It displaces the visitors however doesn’t take away it completely.
Think about a ferry overloaded with too many passengers, placing it liable to capsizing. You could possibly transfer a variety of passengers onto a tug boat hooked up to the higher vessel to lighten the load, but it surely doesn’t do a lot to repair the issue on the core.
Blockchain modularity basically expands on this concept. The thesis proposes that as a substitute of a single blockchain dealing with all features of operations – with present main focus areas being execution, settlement, information availability, and consensus – these capabilities needs to be absolutely separated into differentiated, specialised layers that may perform independently. And when composed collectively, they will serve an excellent higher number of operations.
Modularity might have solely emerged because the mot-du-jour inside blockchain previously 12 months, however some modular options have already been beneath improvement for years. Its guiding ethos is to divide, conquer, and (most critically) collaborate. With the intention to work, these layers should have the ability to stack again collectively, in versatile configurations.
The Developer’s Problem
Whereas that’s taking place on the infrastructure stage, the builders accountable for truly constructing on-chain dApps face a separate set of challenges. The fact is that onramps for builders are steeper than many understand. New coding languages and unfamiliar constructing environments are simply two of the numerous hurdles that builders face when designing and deploying dApps.
The bigger constraint is the framework imposed by the blockchain a developer chooses to construct on; it’s a one-size-fits-all answer. Every part runs beneath the identical circumstances, subjected to the identical fuel worth fluctuations, and the identical efficiency limitations. Reproducibility and scalability issues have made on-chain computation environments very restrictive.
A DeFi developer has a very totally different set of necessities to construct their dApp than a sport developer. The place one would possibly prioritize safety, the opposite might focus extra on pace. They’d every want to hunt a blockchain with the proper stability between scale, safety, pace, and each different dimension vital to their software. There are inherent trade-offs and compromises that have to be navigated on this choice course of.
This limits the parameters and the design house by which a developer can construct. It hinders complicated dApp improvement and stifles innovation.
Modularity removes this hurdle. It as a substitute allows builders to compose the optimum blockchain stack. They’ll combine totally different modular protocols at each layer, to go well with the precise wants of the applying they’re creating.
Execution: The Developer’s Gateway
The execution layer is the best gateway for builders to start experimenting and constructing inside a modular framework. Because the expertise advances, it should turn out to be simpler and extra handy for builders to construct and deploy dApps on-chain. Designing instruments and platforms that ship this ease of use is vital if this framework is to be broadly adopted amongst builders.
Acquainted tooling into new coding environments which might be tried, examined, and trusted, will help to free builders from the restrictions and idiosyncrasies imposed by blockchains, specifically the absence of productive and secure improvement environments.
Various digital machines (alt-VMs) introduce a range of working methods into blockchain infrastructure that will higher present the mandatory circumstances to construct complicated, scalable purposes. It allows a richer, extra versatile improvement atmosphere that beforehand didn’t exist on-chain – a significant leap in blockchain development.
Rollups additionally perform to permit builders to construct and function their very own rollup chain or “app chain.” Identical to an app having a devoted server, app chains can inoculate dApps constructed atop them from the computational calls for of the broader community, resulting in a smoother and extra environment friendly expertise.
By means of the execution layer, builders can higher construct and deploy dApps with as minimal friction as attainable. Efficient options needs to be handy, and summary away lots of the complexities confronted by most blockchain builders right now.
The advantages listed below are multifold. The modular framework introduces higher customizability and grants builders flexibility and selection when constructing their dApp. Computations are blockchain agnostic, making dApps extra transportable and interoperable throughout chains. And with the suitable execution layer, builders can construct in an atmosphere that’s acquainted, safe, and strong.
The Modular Map: Constructing the Optimum Stack
Whereas highly effective, our answer continues to be one module or one tile in a a lot higher mosaic. Modularity is a collaborative effort, the place each answer performs an essential function; a stark distinction from the zero-sum aggressive panorama many people are accustomed to inside the blockchain house.
The modular motion has spurred considerably extra innovation and experimentation. By decoupling every layer of the blockchain stack, groups have devoted themselves to offering hyper-focused options on the infrastructural stage, enabling higher versatility on the software stage – all to the eventual good thing about the top consumer.
In the end, interoperability rests on the core of the modular thesis. Actual-world purposes can’t exist in isolation. They rely upon wealthy, complicated run-time environments which might be invariably constructed on high of a contemporary working system… and that’s what we have now engineered.
At its easiest configuration, a rollup can work together with Ethereum appearing as the only real information availability, consensus, and settlement layer. For builders constructing bold purposes that require extra versatile or customized configurations, a developer can leverage integrations with Celestia and EigenDA for information availability, Espresso Programs for sequencing, and deploying on Ethereum, Optimism, or Arbitrum.
As extra protocols combine at each stage of the stack, builders could have much more decisions for a way they compose the underlying infrastructure of their dApps. Because the collaborative ecosystem of protocols and options expands, so will the event of extra complicated, revolutionary dApps, prepared for the top consumer.
A Future Higher Than the Sum of Its Elements
Discussing and initiating new modular blockchain initiatives is admittedly faster than the precise improvement and coding required to convey this imaginative and prescient to life. Whereas our answer has developed over the previous six years, the modular ecosystem at giant continues to be in its infancy. Over time, modular infrastructure and instruments will turn out to be more and more streamlined in order that builders can have interaction with web3 applied sciences with out the steep studying curves and aggressive paradigms that presently act as boundaries to progress.
It can take time, funding, and sustained effort for each particular person piece to return collectively to create a complete higher than the sum of its elements. As soon as we get there, we won’t solely clear up the inherent limitations of earlier blockchain architectures however we may even set the stage for a extra dynamic and collaborative future in blockchain improvement.