⚖️Problem and the Solution
We've set out to solve problems that will shape the landscape of crypto, blockchain, the internet and the world as we know it. We're starting by amplifying the impact of Layer 1 and Layer 2 chains.
A Commitment To Fight For A Decentralized World
In our mission, we described the problems faced by the industry at a high level. Now we'll dive deeper into core problems that are standing in the way of true decentralization becoming mainstream.
Outline
Why decentralization is important
Understanding why chains succeed
Why developability is critically important
Why decentralization doesn't stand a chance unless interoperability is normalized
Purpose-built chains vs general purpose
Our interoperability solution
Why decentralization is important?
Decentralization is a core component of a properly implemented Trustless system. If an element of centralization exists, inherently trust must be placed in the centralized entity responsible for the centralized part of the system. Such conditions and elements of centralization violate the foundational principle and ethos of crypto and blockchain technology at large.
In an attempt to solve problems of interoperability, many cross-chain solutions have introduced elements of centralization such as 'lock and mint' mechanisms, wrapped tokens, etc into the ecosystem. These implementations continue to bring elevated levels of risk to an area of crypto that is already plagued with security concerns.
We believe decentralization must remain a fundamental component of any lasting interoperability solution. This is why our architectural approach relies on the native chain's consensus instead of relying on relay chain or off-chain solutions rampant in the market today.
Understanding why chains succeed
Over a thousand chains have launched in the last few years. A large majority have been replicas of Ethereum utilizing the Ethereum Virtual Machine and Ethereum's robust documented and standardized EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) process. If you look at some of the most successful Turing Complete examples such as Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, Avalanche, and many more you'll notice a theme of EVM compatibility.
Why does this matter and how does this relate to the success of a chain?
I'm sure we have all heard the quote:
Imitation is the greatest form of flattery
When you review the slew of EVM compatible chains and their success an underlying pattern emerges. To better understand the pattern you have to dive a bit deeper toward the inception of EVM itself and the transformation of Ethereum through the introduction of EIPs.
In the web2 world, there are established standards that enable developers and contributors to engage with, enhance and further improve a protocol. Standards such as RFC for the domain name system (DNS), and design patterns such as MVC among others have empowered developers to speak the same language across organizations and nurtured a thriving environment of contribution and improvement.
When it comes to Turing Complete implementations in Web3, EIPs were the first successful attempt at bringing these standards to the Web3 world.
This resulted in an influx of developers building on and contributing to the Ethereum chain. Further, these standards created a stable foundation for EVM-compatible forked layer 1 and layer 2 networks to launch.
While there are other factors that contributed to Ethereum's success and the success of EVM-compatible networks, a focus on developability was by far the largest contributor. – Click to Tweet
Why developability is critically important?
Looking back at the overwhelming success of Apple's ecosystem through the launch of its App Store in 2008, followed by Google's success with the Android Marketplace Launch (Later Google Play) we can see another pattern. It's essential to prioritize builders, builder tools, incentives, and pain point resolution. This applies even in industrial sectors and is evidenced by observing the history of the Carnegie Steel empire through US Steel and what it did for builders. These refinements and a focus on making it easy for builders to create solutions resulted in the creation of gargantuan economies. In the 1900s, skyscrapers pioneered vertical spaces and made New York into a multigenerational global icon. At the turn of the millennia, it was mobile applications that revolutionized how billions live their life daily.
Ethereum brought this focus to Web3 with its mission to create a Turing Complete language and its focus on standardization through the EIP process. This same concept is what keeps other layer 1 networks from gaining traction. Many networks fail at the core requirement of making it easy for builders to develop solutions, dApps, and enhancements on their network. When builders are not incentivized to create solutions, the ecosystem of viable dApps, protocols, and solutions on the given chain remains lackluster, making it near impossible for a chain to gain traction.
At Ferrum, developability and developer-friendly solutions, processes and features are our superpowers. We know that we must attract builders, solve their pain points and give them a playground to realize their imagination with no limits. This is what we've set out to do with Ferrum Network.
Taha Abbasi, CTO at Ferrum Network
Why decentralization doesn't stand a chance unless interoperability is normalized
The absence of interoperability standards for development will continue to serve as one of the biggest obstacles to true decentralization in a multichain world. We are seeing significant interest and resource allocation by builders, investors, and communities toward building multichain infrastructure and solutions. Each builder is utilizing its own approach to solve the interoperability problem. From off-chain workers and permissioned relay chains to plasma and side chains. The solutions and interoperability protocols, data structures, APIs, libraries, and methodologies vary across each of them.
This is a natural occurrence, and perhaps it warrants encouragement as such a fluid approach favors speed and innovation over rigid structures. However, when everyone keeps creating new standards, these chains are unable to actually communicate with each other in a meaningful way without having to reinvent the wheel every time you want to build a multichain solution.
Ferrum is introducing the BIS and BIP mechanisms to solve this problem and bring standardization to blockchain interoperability.
⚖️BIS - Blockchain Interoperability Standards📝BIP - Blockchain Interoperability ProposalsApplication-Specific Chains vs General-Purpose Chains
Since the inception of the Ethereum Virtual Machine, there has been an overwhelming interest in creating general-purpose blockchains. Most of these chains hope to solve for one of the three pillars of the Blockchain Trilemma and the main problem faced by Ethereum - scalability. With crypto hype in the bull market, these chains gained a ton of traction and built treasuries to continue development for some time. However, with an overwhelming number of general purpose blockchains in the market, a majority of which have failed, it's become abundantly clear that general purpose chains are no longer the way of the future. Ethereum, Polygon, BSC, among other major players plus layer 0s like Polkadot and Cosmos have cornered this space.
This leads us to the next wave in blockchain development, application-specific blockchains or appchains. These chains are being developed to solve a specific problem from decentralized computing resources and storage to the financial settlement of assets between crypto and fiat worlds. Standalone networks like Algorand are dedicated to financial settlement while chains such as Crust Network, building within Polkadot's layer 0 framework, are dedicated to bringing decentralized storage solutions to users and chains like Cudos are focused on building a decentralized cloud computing network via Cosmos.
In the future, the Web3 world will work similarly to how system design works in the Web2 world today. For example, when designing Web2 applications, we start defining the requirements of the application first, then determine the best systems to realize those functional and non-functional requirements. We don't restrict our application requirements based on the underlying systems for computing, storage, and settlement services.
Building solutions in today's blockchains is analogous to restricting your application features by the limitations of the underlying systems that will power them. So if you are building on Ethereum, you are automatically limited to processing transactions per the Ethereum block time of about 10 to 20 seconds per block. Building an application that needs to process thousands of transactions per second is out of the question with such limitations. So your options are limited to working with a network with faster block times, such as BSC with an average block time of 3 seconds. What if you like Ethereum's security better, but need the speed of BSC? In the Web2 world, we are able to cherry-pick solutions to fit these exact needs. For example, you can use AWS for cloud computing, hosting, load balancing, Stripe for payment settlement, and a slew of other solutions for specific use cases of your application. The Web3 world falls short in this area.
Although application-specific blockchains are the future, they cannot succeed without a scalable, secure, stable, and easy-to-deploy interoperability layer with standardized integration procedures.
Taha Abbasi, CTO at Ferrum Network
Our interoperability solution
The beauty of our interoperability solution is that it's not meant to be "our" solution. Instead, we're building tools, processes, resources, and a blockchain to benefit the entire crypto industry, including other layer 1 chains and even our competitors. We're doing this to push the envelope further and push the limits of what is possible with decentralized technology.
Taha Abbasi, CTO at Ferrum Network
Our comprehensive approach includes essential core components that will ensure the success of appchains as well as General-Purpose Blockchains through standardized interoperability protocols.
Core Components of Our Interoperability Solution
Open-Source Well Documented Code
Demo Applications and Tutorials
Extensible Codebase for Limitless Customization
Unparalleled Developer Support
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