On October 21, 2019, key figures from pioneering projects including Agoric, Tendermint, FOAM, and oscoin convened at the Flood Conference in San Francisco. Their primary focus: addressing the blockchain industry's critical need for seamless interoperability protocols.
While deeply technical, establishing a universal inter-blockchain communication standard is as fundamental to the future of Web3 as the TCP/IP stack was for the Internet. Proponents of leading solutions like IBC, Tendermint's interoperability protocol, and Polkadot from Gavin Wood argue that liberating siloed data and assets is paramount to cultivating a thriving, multi-chain economy.
Although it may seem that crypto Twitter is constantly embroiled in controversy, there remain deeply collaborative and innovative corners of the ecosystem.
One such area is the development of a token-agnostic interoperability protocol. The Ethereum-centric Polkadot, Wanchain 3.0, and Tendermint's IBC protocol are the current heavyweights. Amidst this friendly competition lies a shared vision: a blockchain-powered future where specialized chains, each with unique use cases, can communicate and transact freely.
Christopher Goes of Tendermint Research reminded the audience that such interchain communication "allows for both customization and scalability, as chains can operate concurrently."
The era of needing a single blockchain to rule them all is fading. Instead, developers can double down on their core ideas, confident that their application can eventually connect with other blockchains to enhance its capabilities. This is crucial for companies like FOAM, Agoric, and countless others building in the space.
For its part, FOAM is constructing a decentralized, GPS-like protocol where users are incentivized to verify the real-world locations of physical objects. This could range from museums in Paris to historical monuments in New York. When a user adds a location to the FOAM network, they must stake tokens. Other users can then challenge or verify the legitimacy of that submission. This data becomes publicly available, tamper-resistant, and enables new businesses to build on a resilient alternative to centralized mapping services.
Industries that could rely on this verifiable location data include supply chain logistics, smart grids, and autonomous vehicle networks. Without the ability to transfer this data between systems, much of its value is lost to inefficiency—a clear example of how an interoperability protocol can unlock immense potential.
Agoric's smart contract platform also stands to benefit significantly from bridging networks. Dean Tribble, CEO of Agoric, explained in an interview with CryptoSlate that his team is actively exploring both IBC and Polkadot to achieve their goals. Already, the Agoric testnet has launched on the Tendermint Core engine and the Cosmos SDK.
Tendermint is a Byzantine fault-tolerant consensus engine that powers the Cosmos blockchain. The Cosmos SDK is a developer toolkit that enables anyone to build custom, application-specific blockchains from the ground up.
The push for a universal messaging protocol also brings significant social advantages. Because blockchains have historically been unable to interact, token holders of each network often view the space as a zero-sum game. This has played out repeatedly within the crypto ecosystem.
Dean Tribble of Agoric described interoperability as a critical, unifying force. Tribble remarked:
“Interoperability between blockchains creates more social bridges between communities. The key thing is to have open-source person-to-person communication.”
Agoric is also dedicated to opening smart contract development to the world's approximately 24 million JavaScript developers through a secure subset of the language, Secure ECMAScript (SES) and Hardened JavaScript. In line with their interoperability goals, the mission is simple: expand the developer community.
To this, Tribble added:
“Solidity developers can be too expensive for certain companies looking to experiment with smart contracts. For many long-term industrial use cases, like microgrids, paying high developer fees could render your business model unviable.”
Reframing the technical conversation around interoperability into one of social cohesion is a welcome shift in the blockchain industry. With a tentative launch date for early 2020, the IBC protocol is poised to bring much-needed technical maturity to the field. For a comprehensive overview of Tendermint's work on IBC, visit their GitHub proposal.
