You’ve probably heard of the trilemma problem by now. Censorship-resistant blockchains have had to prioritize two out of the following three attributes: security, decentralization, and scalability. Technologically, the struggle with any system has been achieving all three at once (thank you for driving that point home, Cryptokitties).

Traditional, centralized services like Visa and most Web2 platforms we use nowadays are built with security and scalability in mind. By centralizing all data, transactions, and information, companies are able to build and maintain proprietary systems and scale to a massive size and network speed. However, these applications are not decentralized. The data they hold is theirs, not yours. The power in the system lies in the economic rules set by the company.

At their genesis, blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum chose to prioritize decentralization and security. Both blockchains require every node to run every transaction, meaning the network is truly decentralized and massively secure (as every node has a record of every transaction). Such heavy and widespread network activity to process every transaction, however, comes at the cost of scalability.

For Ethereum, scalability became a crucial issue to address down the road. While decentralization and security make the system safe for participants, scalability is what generates widespread development and adoption.

Ethereum has relied on the innovation and commitment of its developers to solve the scalability issue. A light at the end of the tunnel has been reached — arrived at by global, rigorous, technical communities of math and computer science PhDs, software engineers, and entrepreneurs across all industries, including gaming, social networks, media, fin-tech, banking, and yes, even porn. Bitcoin is seeing scalable transactions with a solution called the Lightning Network, which uses payment channels. Ethereum’s even-larger ecosystem has arrived at four solutions for its more complex smart contract platform: sharding, state channels, and Plasma for secure scaling; and Truebit for complex computing. Proof of Stake — though developed as a solution for much more than just scalability restrictions — will have significant benefits for transaction speed when it is implemented on the Ethereum blockchain.

These solutions can be combined to achieve scalability that meets the Ethereum network’s potential, often being applied as layer 2 protocols that offer scalability without sacrificing Ethereum’s core security and privacy. When applied as layer 2 applications, these solutions can be called side-chains or child-chains.

Loom Network’s Layer 2 Solution

On Ethereum, recent platforms have created template solutions and tools for companies to create their own layer 2 blockchains that can scale to thousands or potentially millions of transactions per second. We want to give a shout out to one of these: Loom Network. Loom’s SDK lets developers build highly-scalable gaming and social blockchains.

They will also offer a pre-formulated side-chain for developers who want to scale their Ethereum dApps without hosting their own blockchain. It’s ZombieChain, a layer 2 side-chain that uses Delegated Proof of Stake as a consensus algorithm and Ethereum as a base security layer. It will also be one of the first implementations of Plasma Cash, which allows secure deposits and withdrawals between blockchains. Pretend you’re playing a virtual game of “Magic The Gathering” with a friend, according to Loom:

“Sidechains are the solution for frictionless Blockchain Gaming. Instead of having battles take place on Ethereum, we could simply store the cards as Non-Fungible Tokens on Ethereum, but handle all the game & battle logic on a Loom Plasma Chain.”

Building on top of Ethereum’s main-chain allows network operations (payments, video game actions, etc.) to operate quickly, separate from Ethereum’s main security layer. If necessary, however, the transactions can rely on the Ethereum main-chain in case anything goes awry or in case a dispute needs to be settled. In a recent AMA, Loom co-founder James Duffy was asked, “What made you choose to build Loom on top of Ethereum as opposed to the many other blockchains out there? ”

Here is James’ answer:

“I think the real question is, what other blockchain would we have built on if not Ethereum? There’s not really a credible alternative. 1. Ethereum has several orders of magnitude more developers than any other platform. And if you don’t have developers building on your platform, you’re building a ghost town. 2. Ethereum is sufficiently decentralized, which is necessary for a base layer. Other blockchains that claim to be cheaper / faster than Ethereum, it’s typically because either a) no one is using them so there’s low competition for transaction fees, or b) they’ve sacrificed decentralization by design in order to increase throughput. As far as we’re concerned, Ethereum has already won the race for developer mindshare, and with so many active projects in the developer community like Web3.js, MetaMask, Infura, Truffle, Trustwallet, etc. (it’s a long list), it’s going to be extremely difficult for another platform to catch up. It’s possible that another blockchain platform will spring up at some point in the future that’s 10x better, and if enough of our users demand it we can add support for another blockchain. But we wouldn’t bet on it. Plus, any additional features another blockchain might offer such as gas-less transactions, low-latency transactions, or higher transaction throughput, can simply be implemented as Level 2 services on top of Ethereum (like Loom) rather than building a new base layer from scratch.”

Vitalik Buterin gave his own shout out to Loom recently: “I actually think DPoS as a consensus algo for Plasma chains and state channel hubs (and systems like Loom) could work reasonably well; the ability for any user to easily fall back to the base chain and switch to another chain provider serves as an important check limiting the downside potential of any malicious layer-2 chain operator or cartel trying to cause harm.”

But that’s not all Loom does. They’re also game makers (check out the teaser for Zombie Battleground), they offer a popular blockchain Dapp game development course with over 200,000 students (CryptoZombies), they’re thought leaders when it comes to the necessity of blockchain games, and they are passionate about scaling using Plasma. Huge shout out to Loom!

Loom Founder James Duffy sat down with ConsenSys Meshian Mark Sandusky to discuss the company and its platform more. Check it out below!