Possible sidechains projects

[Akado]

Sidechain with Ethereum, have Digix to back up our smartcoins with real gold, audited on the blockchain. Most likely what will be done by Maker.

[Samupaha]

Probably not a high priority, but someday we should have a plantoid sidechain. That would be coolest thing ever.

[Samupaha]

More I think about rate-limited blockchains, more I like them. We could really create an awesome ecosystem with them.

The gambling chain was my first idea. But anything else? Everyone, put your thinking hats on!

IoT projects maybe. They need microtransactions, and if they can make them without paying any fees at all, that's pure win. Fast and free transactions are exactly what IoT needs. We can offer that for them.

Bytemaster's idea of mutual aid societies might be also suitable for it's own blockchain, although I'm not sure if it will need a rate-limited one.

But then there is the essential question: "What is the role of Bitshares blockchain in this ecosystem?"

Answer: Exchange, bank and gateway. In the other words, the financial platform. Other chains can focus on doing their job, whatever that is they want to achieve, and leave handling of finances for Bitshares. Investing, fiat-gateway, crowfunding, exchange for traders, etc. They can also enjoy positive network effects by hiring our witnesses to be witnesses for their sidechains.

@bytemaster talked also in the latest hangout about this article: Why your Ethereum project will most likely fail

...but he remembered it a little bit wrong: he talked about "why ethereum will fail" but that wasn't the point. The point was that ethereum dapps will fail. Most projects are not going to be valuable enough when compared to their centralized equivalents. People might try them but in the end they will choose centralized one because it will just work better overall.

Ethereum will probably do just fine. They are the one who is selling shovels for golddiggers. There will be always ideas what to build on Ethereum platform, so it's not going to fail anytime soon. There is huge demand.

We could see Bitshares like that, too. We will be the financial platform that servers all the sidechain projects. Many of them will fail because they can't attract enough customers because they just don't have a good enough product. But there will be lots of them and Bitshares can make shitload of money by serving them while they exists. Preferably they all should be Graphene-based, so that sidechaining is easy to implement and it will also make money for Cryptonomex.

Offtopic: Thom, Oren Klaff's book Pitch Anything is great stuff.

[Thom]

Thanks for that clarification and your summary of BM's comments in last Friday's mumble session.

In general I agree with your summary and BM's assessment. The more features we add directly to BitShares the more costly and difficult it will be to maintain it. Our focus should be to complete the platform features already envisioned and make them as robust and reliable as possible in ways that don't negatively impact speed or scalability. That work alone will keep CNX occupied for some time.

Moving the development focus of new features away from the core BitShares platform and to separate chains has many pluses. However, there is one big minus: who has the skills, investors and inclination to build and deploy a completely separate blockchain infrastructure?

Most of those that have the skills and capitol to start such a project want to be in control and autonomous, which is perfectly understandable. If our approach to grow the crypto ecosystem though sidechains has any chance of success it will require us to find a compelling (read: emotional hook) marketing strategy and message that connect to prospects at a deep, subconscious level which motivates them because it feels like the obvious, best choice to make.

As engineers and geeks we are generally focused on the hard, black and white, rational facts concerning decisions, even when it comes to selling our services and products. We need to break out of that mold when we enter the marketing arena, and that's not easy for us to do. We've got to learn to hype without being dishonest, without selling vaporware. We need to see things not only from a customer's vantage point in terms of the raw facts, but also from the vantage point of what personally motivates the decision makers to choose the BitShares platform. The London Real had a great interview that relates to this. It's well worth the time to listen to it. The full interview was quite long, but this 6 minute clip from it really spoke to me. The clip explains how to connect at a deeper level in a way we all intuitively understand. I believe this is the full interview, if the clip wet your appetite.

[Samupaha]

Perhaps I should have been more clear that I wanted to brainstorm more ideas for compeletely new blockchains rather than making already existing blockchains to sidechains of Bitshares.

Bytemaster talked about how he is inclining to sidechains as a solution for new features, rather than implementing all to Bitshares blockchain. I think I have to agree with him. We should focus on optimizing the current blockchain and develop only the most necessary features like market making incentive programs. Everything else should be a sidechain project.

That's why all gambling related stuff should be on a sidechain. If it was a rate-limited chain, core token owners would have fast and free transactions. Of course they would need to agree on a few things like how witnesses and/or sidechain operators are paid but that shouldn't be too difficult.

There are very many people in the world who are interested in building gambling stuff on the internet. Now they have a great opportunity to build it on a blockchain that can also scale up. And as a sidechain, they don't need to think how customers will get money in, because that's the job for Bitshares. We are, after all, a financial platform.

[Thom]

I think a sidechain for DASH would be interesting and useful to BitShares, but not sure if the small DASH community would have as much to gain, based on the goals described in their Evolution whitepaper.

DASH & BitShares have a great deal in common, and based in part on the after-mumble conversation I can see us forming an alliance where we could help each other. The core principles of both projects are aligned very well.

I see the biggest advantage to DASH being what we have implemented already, things like speed and ubiquitous multisig. They have some wonderful plans, but we offer similar solutions right now so they wouldn't have to wait to implement them if they were a sidechain with BitShares.

In terms of the greatest impact on marketcap tho, DASH is probably not the optimum choice as a first effort for sidechains. I can certainly see the greater and immediate impact of gambling as a sidechain, but what existing chains do gambling / gaming for monetary profit as their core focus? Are those communities strong enough and have a substantial network affect now and if not why not?

[Samupaha]

In the latest hangout Bytemaster talked about what kind of sidechains would be worth of doing. Those have to be radically different from any other blockchain that exists today, little tweaks like parameter changes aren't big enough foundation for a new chain.

I don't generally support gambling but if people are going to do it anyway in the blockchain, they should do it in the Bitshares or in a Bitshares' sidechain. Gambling sidechain could be a good alternative – if it's a sidechain, there is no regulatory risk for Bitshares (or at least it's considerably smaller).

Gambling chain could be a good opportunity to test rate limited free transactions in a way that Bytemaster discussed in his blogpost How to build a Decentralized Application without Fees.

I've heard that many gambling business operators have stayed out of blockchain because they need fast and reliable transactions (Bitcoin blockchain is out of question). If the sidechain is Graphene-based, it will be suitable for their needs. If it's truely rate-limited for transactions, operators can be also sure that they have a certain quota of capacity for their games, based on how much core asset they own. If they need more capacity, they will buy more core asset.

Of course the gambling chain would make a good sidechain for Bitshares. That way users will have several different ways to acquire assets that can be used for games, including fiat-gateways. Gambling chain operators don't have to worry how their customers will get funds in and out, they can just focus on building more games and optimizing the blockchain. It would be win-win situation for both, Bitshares and gambling chain.

Does anybody else have any good ideas for possible sidechain projects?