GivETH’s Solution for Ethereum Scalability

The crypto-scene is growing at an extraordinary rate. It’s hard to argue that fact. Whether it will outdo fiat currencies or if the whole thing is a big bubble is a whole different topic, but it is growing quickly. Bitcoin, obviously, spiked to insane levels in 2017 but just behind it was Ethereum.

Now, with the hiccups Bitcoin was facing at the end of 2017 and without a real solution in sight for the transaction issues they were facing Ethereum could potentially take its place as the top dog in decentralized currencies, at least as far as usefulness goes.

However, with this attention Ethereum has been rapidly garnering, upscaling the Ethereum blockchain to handle its increased load from Dapps and transactions is a real concern, especially for all the many different startups attempting to lay their stake in Ethereum mainnet.

One such startup is that of Giveth. Giveth is attempting to create a platform where organizations can transparently receive from donors without having to deal with the bureaucratic hassle of a regular charity by keeping everything available to the public via the blockchain. A simple enough and highly beneficial idea for society as a whole, however their product roadmap has hit a bit of a snag. That is the fees involved on the mainnet of Ethereum are beginning to be too high.

So, in the meantime, while Ethereum’s main network slowly fixes this scalability issue companies like Giveth have to find workarounds. Luckily, they aren’t alone in this boat. By working together with other startups, such as Aragon, Swarm City, and Status, they are coming up with workarounds to maintain transparency while avoiding the main Ethereum network. With the help of a bridge between the Rinkeby testnet and Ethereum main chain, created specifically for Giveth by Péter Szilágyi.

A recent blog post explains:

“Once the donation is confirmed on the main Ethereum network two corresponding reactions happen on the Rinkeby test network: 1) The corresponding amount of GivETH tokens representing 1:1 the donation value in ether is minted in Rinkeby. 2) A Pledge is generated in the DAC, Campaign or Milestone on the Rinkeby test network with the owner set to the donor address and the emitted tokens being the donation value.”

The GivETH tokens are moved around on this network instead of the main chain, helping to tackle the fees, but there could be unexpected effects over the long-term. Consequently, Giveth intends to use a public Proof of Authority sidechain pegged to Ethereum’s mainchain.

But first, they are using the test networks for most of the work, they can ensure that the prices stay low, and then they can use the main network for verification in bulk so it ends up being much cheaper. Once everything is ready and formalized with their partners, it will be fairly easy for a fork or sidechain to be introduced.