Lots of blockchain projects became popular in recent months. However, their block sizes remained at the same level. What can be done to rectify this impending scalability doom?
The cryptocurrency industry has experienced some drastic changes in recent years as retail investors and companies keep entering the sector. The number of cryptocurrency users increased by approximately 190% between 2018 and 2020 throughout the world. This has caused the trading volumes to increase as well, with all-time highs recorded this year.
This should be celebrated, but there is a problem: While the demand for Bitcoin keeps surging, the blockchain infrastructure is not keeping up with the demand.
Bitcoin’s block size of 1MB implies that the blockchain is capable of handling about five transactions per second; which amounts to 86,400 transactions in 24 hours. Despite the achievements of Bitcoin, it is not possible for blockchain to power global financial transactions in its present state.
This has increased the Bitcoin transaction fees and has made the blockchain technology too expensive for many users, especially those using it for small transactions.
Different solutions have been created to overcome this challenge, one of them is the Lightning Network. However, the adoption of this solution has been slow since its launch three years ago. Some users chose to endure the costly on-chain transactions due to the technical requirements of this solution.
The Rise of Off-Chain Solutions
The problem in question is not peculiar to only Bitcoin. Ethereum also faced scalability challenges over recent months. This was made severe by the rise of Defi protocols and the increase in NFTs.
All this led to the creation of solutions like rollups (smart contract networks that execute that store transaction data from the main blockchain). Rollups are believed to help the Ethereum network scale through the current congestion and transform the way gas fees are calculated.
However, there are some concerns that the introduction of Eth2 might not even be enough to make sure that the network is ready for the future. Eth2 does not give Ethereum infinite scalability. The best it offers is 64 shards (which can be likened to the Ethereum chain). If a single chain has 50 TPS, then 64 shards will offer 3,200 TPS. Once the supply of this TPS hits, the Dapps will start using on-chain solutions faster and the demand will skyrocket and we will still find ourselves in the same situation.
What’s The Way Forward?
Some crypto experts in the blockchain sector believe that the only solution to getting rid of the scalability problems is to build a network that is capable of handling huge amounts of transactions right from the outset.
ILCOIN initially started as an alternative to Bitcoin. However, it has now evolved into a unique blockchain network. It shares the same base as Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV, and Bitcoin itself.
In March 2021, TAAL claimed that it was able to process 638MB of Bitcoin SV. This is way beyond the present limit of 128MB. This is an impressive improvement on the 1MB block size that Bitcoin is limited to, and also ahead of the 32MB block size that BCH has.
The ILCOIN blockchain produced a 5GB block in 2020 through the RIFT protocol that allowed the block size to increase without compromising the transaction speed. You can verify this on ILCOIN’s Block Explorer under block number 310280.
In a nutshell, the ILCOIN project claims that it can deliver the true decentralization that cryptocurrency preaches without compromising transaction speed. The project also says it is capable of delivering unparalleled infrastructure that is aimed at meeting the demands of the next generation of payments.
