The Foolishness Of Blockchain Tribalism
Introduction
Whatever discussion forum you go to, you'll find fans of one blockchain dissing another. Because Bitcoin is the largest cap coin, Bitcoin maximalists are the most common type of blockchain tribalist you will meet. Each coin has their own tribalists. What I'm going to talk about in this post is blockchain tribalism is harmful and why it doesn't even make a lot of sense. There is not much of it on Hive let alone LeoFinance because here tend to be more forward-thinking than most. But if you read more mainstream forums, you'll notice that blockchain tribalism is pretty much non-stop.
By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-1990-0414-009 / Wolfried Pätzold / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5425468Fans of FC Lokomotive Leipzig vs. SG Dynamo Schwerin
Cross-chain communication is key to higher value
There are about 8000 public blockchain projects listed on Coinmarketcap. For the most part, these chains are islands. There is little communication going on between them except for tokens being swapped on centralized exchanges.
That is about to change with the introduction of cross-chain protocols like Polkadot or Thorchain. Decentralized cross-chain communication protocols make it possible for applications and users to operate seamlessly on multiple chains without going through a centralized middleman. For example, the wrapped Bitcoin token that exists on Ethereum is relies on a centralized custodian as opposed to the solution Thorchain will offer.
With trustless cross-chain protocols different blockchains will merge into a larger network whose network effect has potential to grow into a size orders of magnitude larger than all the networks separately.
Cross-chain communication makes every new project an asset from the point of view of existing projects instead of a competitor.
Cross-chain communication puts the space even more ahead of the curve vs. regulators
Bitcoin attracts the lion's share of regulatory attention. The goal is to grow without interference from regulators. Cross-chain communication makes it possible for the long tail of small projects to join forces and build something much larger while Bitcoin is attracting most of the attention of regulators while Bitcoin's nascent institutional adoption and high degree of decentralization lends it a certain degree from protection from regulatory risks.
Protocols will be able to scale together through forking
For example, EOS forks keep cropping up. Without robust cross-chain communication, all that forking would only hinder the growth of their combined network effect.
Mass adoption requires both massive capacity and for the protocols to fade into the background
Again, cross-chain communication is one of the key facilitators of this. Chains created for different primary purposes can have different characteristics optimized for their main use cases will be able to communicate with and be part of larger networks.
Conclusion
The above are a few reasons why people in the space should stop thinking in terms of protocols being competitors. If you can come up with more, I'd like to hear them. If you think there will be clear winners and losers in the blockchain space, please come and tell me why in the comments.
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