Blockchain trilemma : scalability, decentralization, security
The "Impossible Triangle" is the technical bottleneck for blockchain technology, which refers to the trade-off between decentralization, security, and scalability.
Introduction
The blockchain trilemma is used to describe the trade-off between decentralization, security, and scalability.
Most of the mainstream blockchains keep very slow transaction speeds to maintain “security”. This is because they essentially consume computing power in exchange for trust. What Bitcoin and Ethereum aim to achieve is to realize the security and fairness of transactions in distributed networks without the need for mutual trust, so as to ensure the consistency and correctness of data written into the public ledger. The cost of this is limited scalability.
Decentralization, security, and scalability
These three properties are the foundation of any blockchain and must be considered when designing a blockchain platform.
The blockchain trilemma means that it’s impossible to achieve decentralization, security, and scalability in the same blockchain system. Any project must optimize two of the three properties while sacrificing the third. Early blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum pursued decentralization and security at the expense of scalability.
But emerging public chains such as Tron and Solana sacrifice a certain degree of decentralization in order to obtain better scalability, which makes transactions faster and cheaper.
Compromise in development
The blockchain trilemma demonstrates the trade-offs that must be carefully made when designing a blockchain. Therefore, it is very important to understand the trilemma and its meaning. This question has been widely discussed for a long time, but no correct answer has been achieved till now.
The Bitcoin blockchain processes 5-7 transactions per second. As the first blockchain ever, Bitcoin enjoys extremely high security and decentralization but pretty poor scalability;
As a new generation of blockchain, Ethereum supports smart contracts. It can process 20~30 transactions per second at most. It is another blockchain that sacrifices scalability while ensuring decentralization and security;
Solana is famous for its high transaction speed. But it has only a limited number of nodes, leading to core nodes controlling more power. Some community members criticize Solana for its centralization. However, some advocates believe that, compared to the abstract debate on whether to decentralize it or not, it is a more practical option to achieve scalability and mass adoption as soon as possible.
Technological progress: the impossible triangle will be surmounted over time
Technology is advancing day by day. Although mainstream public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are growing continuously, they are technologies created in the previous era, unable to meet the higher market demand and user base at present. Under the circumstances, a wide variety of public chains with different features emerge one after another.
Ethereum is upgrading to achieve better scalability
Most people might think the impossible triangle can never be solved. However, with more resources invested and faster technological progress, many people have made huge efforts to solve this problem and bring better user experiences.
Ethereum, which carries the largest ecosystem for developers and applications, has converted from the inefficient PoW mechanism to the more efficient PoS with the successful completion of The Merge. ETH staking has become a way that validators jointly maintain network security. Expensive hardware equipment is no longer needed; energy consumption will be greatly improved; sustainable development is highly valued; all of these prepare the ground for future scaling solutions.
In a future when rollup and sharding technologies are more developed, the lack of scalability will no longer be the weakness of Ethereum. It will surely be able to accommodate greater user needs, but it takes time to achieve this.
Key takeaways
Scalability, security, and decentralization are the three goals that the blockchain must achieve. But at present, we can only achieve two of the three.
Most blockchain projects sacrifice decentralization to some extent in order to gain scalability.
Technology is advancing continuously. When new solutions such as roll-up, sidechain, and sharding become more developed, the impossible triangle will no longer be the hindrance ofof blockchain progress.
Blockchain trilemma : scalability, decentralization, security
The "Impossible Triangle" is the technical bottleneck for blockchain technology, which refers to the trade-off between decentralization, security, and scalability.
Introduction
The blockchain trilemma is used to describe the trade-off between decentralization, security, and scalability.
Most of the mainstream blockchains keep very slow transaction speeds to maintain “security”. This is because they essentially consume computing power in exchange for trust. What Bitcoin and Ethereum aim to achieve is to realize the security and fairness of transactions in distributed networks without the need for mutual trust, so as to ensure the consistency and correctness of data written into the public ledger. The cost of this is limited scalability.
Decentralization, security, and scalability
These three properties are the foundation of any blockchain and must be considered when designing a blockchain platform.
The blockchain trilemma means that it’s impossible to achieve decentralization, security, and scalability in the same blockchain system. Any project must optimize two of the three properties while sacrificing the third. Early blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum pursued decentralization and security at the expense of scalability.
But emerging public chains such as Tron and Solana sacrifice a certain degree of decentralization in order to obtain better scalability, which makes transactions faster and cheaper.
Compromise in development
The blockchain trilemma demonstrates the trade-offs that must be carefully made when designing a blockchain. Therefore, it is very important to understand the trilemma and its meaning. This question has been widely discussed for a long time, but no correct answer has been achieved till now.
The Bitcoin blockchain processes 5-7 transactions per second. As the first blockchain ever, Bitcoin enjoys extremely high security and decentralization but pretty poor scalability;
As a new generation of blockchain, Ethereum supports smart contracts. It can process 20~30 transactions per second at most. It is another blockchain that sacrifices scalability while ensuring decentralization and security;
Solana is famous for its high transaction speed. But it has only a limited number of nodes, leading to core nodes controlling more power. Some community members criticize Solana for its centralization. However, some advocates believe that, compared to the abstract debate on whether to decentralize it or not, it is a more practical option to achieve scalability and mass adoption as soon as possible.
Technological progress: the impossible triangle will be surmounted over time
Technology is advancing day by day. Although mainstream public chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum are growing continuously, they are technologies created in the previous era, unable to meet the higher market demand and user base at present. Under the circumstances, a wide variety of public chains with different features emerge one after another.
Ethereum is upgrading to achieve better scalability
Most people might think the impossible triangle can never be solved. However, with more resources invested and faster technological progress, many people have made huge efforts to solve this problem and bring better user experiences.
Ethereum, which carries the largest ecosystem for developers and applications, has converted from the inefficient PoW mechanism to the more efficient PoS with the successful completion of The Merge. ETH staking has become a way that validators jointly maintain network security. Expensive hardware equipment is no longer needed; energy consumption will be greatly improved; sustainable development is highly valued; all of these prepare the ground for future scaling solutions.
In a future when rollup and sharding technologies are more developed, the lack of scalability will no longer be the weakness of Ethereum. It will surely be able to accommodate greater user needs, but it takes time to achieve this.
Key takeaways
Scalability, security, and decentralization are the three goals that the blockchain must achieve. But at present, we can only achieve two of the three.
Most blockchain projects sacrifice decentralization to some extent in order to gain scalability.
Technology is advancing continuously. When new solutions such as roll-up, sidechain, and sharding become more developed, the impossible triangle will no longer be the hindrance ofof blockchain progress.