DFINITY vs. Ethereum
With an introduction to Nervos
There’s no doubt that Ethereum is the leading public blockchain, that is, a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts. However NEO, DFINITY, Cardano and EOS are trying to out-do it now.
While certainly public blockchain represent a new kind of shared global infrastructure that is interesting to watch, it seems as if how they scale and the 3rd generation dApp platforms are better iterations of the older and more established ones.
Ethereum itself was bootstrapped via an ether presale in August 2014 by fans all around the world. If in 2014 EOS stole “decentralization” from Ethereum as its buzz-word to replicate its mad success, four years later DFINITY is thoroughly milking the ‘world computer’ analogy to make its point. To the lay person this is somewhat perplexing.
If Ethereum was developed in response to the lack of capabilities within the Bitcoin protocol, the tangents that Cardano and DFINITY represent need to be watched, along with even newer solutions that will come out of China, such as Nervos.
When Jan Xie wrote about Nervos, I was immediately intrigued. The era of inter operable protocols that allows enterprises to build and deploy decentralized applications (dApps) is quickly coming. Needless to say, it’s difficult to keep track of what is going on now as there are so many MainNets that have gone live and in particular Chinese blockchains are just getting their feet wet now.
Jan Xie and his friends
The Blockchain Coding Boom has Arrived
When elegant coders who grew up on Linux are now reaching into 3rd generation blockchain development such as Nervos, you get a feeling that blockchains will quickly become more scalable and important problems will be solved faster as more developers globally get into the space.
If DFINITY raised funds from respected investors Andreesen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, Nervos might become the “Chinese DFINITY”, where it’s sometimes said NEO is the “Chinese Ethereum”. The reason I say this is that Polychain, Sequoia China, Matrix partners and Multicoin, among other top-tier VCs and cryptofunds, have already taken an interest in the potential of Nervos.
If You’re Not “Nervos” You’re Not Paying Attention
This isn’t a consumer product. Developers and being open-source are what matters here. While Ethereum has a lot of developers working on it, with tons of ICOs, that doesn’t mean Ethereum will always be the leader from a technical standpoint.
Satoshi Nakamoto’s 2008 Bitcoin protocol introduced the first means for independently operated computers to communicate peer-to-peer over the Internet in a remarkable manner that conjures up an indestructible shared virtual ledger — Dom Williams (DFINITY)
However to me, while Cardano and EOS may have seemed like the new contenders in 2017, in 2018 I’m a bit more excited about DFINITY and Nervos. They are bringing a new terminology of how things could work that’s fresh and innovative.
Nervos Interview.
Nervos has a “Cell model” for decentralized application to make development more flexible, more scalable, and more accessible to real businesses that, if you haven’t heard about yet in 2018, you will in 2019.
According to CryptoBriefing, the foundational layer provided by Nervos is completely decoupled from the dApp on which it runs. Five basic components comprise the system:
Cells
Cell Types
Validators
Generators
Identity
Both DFINITY and Nervos give some concept of the blockchain being like a nervous system. Jan( Xie Hanjian) speaks about blockchain not just being about a trusted “engraving on the stone” metaphor, but as smart contracts that can punish bad actors. That is a new kind of automated security.
With auditing and punishment built into a blockchain, this creates a complete system and allows people to build “trust” amongst each other.
This has important implications for how public blockchains and their communities are also experiments in new forms of digital governance. DFINITY, it turns out, has thought quite deeply about this as well. Where Binance has won easy adoption by being first a centralized crypto exchange, newer blockchains like Nervos also facilitate initial adoption by enterprises by being less hard core than Ethereum. You have to have one foot in the real world to facilitate how businesses can integrate what they do with blockchain.
The Nervos Mainnet is set for May 2019. Nervos is a next-gen enterprise blockchain that’s raised nearly nearly half ($28 million) of what DFINITY has. In an era of rapid appearance of crypto funds, Nervos already has a fair number of substantial allies and backers:
You can check in on the GitHub of Nervos here.
The Nervos founders don’t just have former experience in Ethereum, they have familiarity collaborating with academic institutions, banks and so forth. Nervos has an elegant layered network architecture:
The LNA thus feels essentially fluid to meet enterprise needs. The layered architecture of Nervos separates data and computation, giving each layer more flexibility, scalability and the option to use different consensus methods. On the Nervos network, dApps can choose appropriate generators and consensus mechanisms based on specific needs.
The Advent of Hybrid Blockchains
By providing a hybrid solution that combines the advantages of a public blockchain and an application chain, Nervos Network will allow enterprises to build and deploy decentralized applications (dApps) without committing their entire tech stack to the blockchain. This is key so as to meet the needs of enterprise clients while allowing them still to benefit selectively from blockchain.
The dual-layered design of Nervos thus to me is one of the more important blockchains to evolve in 2019, thanks to its layers:
Secure public chain (Layer 1)
High-performance application chain (Layer 2)
What I like about DFINITY is it’s also very aware that it’s being compared to Ethereum and is even compatible with it. I’ve edited a video they recently put out about how they are different from Etheruem and it’s one of the best videos out there for quickly getting a handle on some of the terminology they use.
Bravo to Cédric Waldburger.
DFINITY vs. Ethereum in 10 Points
They go into more detail here. Cedric’s video is really like a crash course on how some of these 3rd-generation blockchains are trying hard to improve on the likes of Ethereum.
Everyone wants to be the host of the world’s next generation of software systems and services. The reality is few smart contract platforms or altcoins will survive in the long-run so, before 2021, we’re still in the nascent phase of how this takes place as more developers continue to enter the space.
The folks at DFINITY obviously have been in contact with Ethereum, since Dfinity will be compatible with EVM languages (such as Solidity) too, so you will be able to deploy any Ethereum contract on Dfinity, which is a definite advantage.
DFINITY has its own “onion” of layers that may be superior to Ethereum. The key differentiator here is how DFINITY and Nervos speak to enterprise clients more directly. One analogy that has been used is one internet/public blockchain, many LANs/private blockchains. Curiously, DFINITY has been quoted as saying it sees DFINITY’s competition as that of the traditional IT stack, not (actually) other blockchains!
Someone on Reddit said, “Dfinity is a Prius, Ethereum is a Lamborghini”. However DFINITY speaks of itself by using the “world computer” analogy (internet computer). It’s obviously seeking essentially to do everything Ethereum can do and better, so it’s definitely an Ethereum competitor in that sense.
Dfinity is also mutable to business needs, so Dfinity’s consensus rules by design which allows for state changes. Ed Posnak writes about DFINITY here. He postulates that DFINITY is pursuing a coevolutionary strategy. At the beginning this approach is smart since it builds alignment with what is popular today. In fact, DFINITY is packaged in a much more relatable way, even with the neuron-inspired governance model. It’s Silicon Valley co-opting blockchain down to the 2nd office in Crypto Valley.
Ethereum’s immutability and tendency to hard forks means DFINITY’s liquid democracy could be superior as both mature. DFINITY’s approach employs an architecture that separates consensus, validation, and storage into separate layers, which makes sense for efficiency. DFINITY might turn out to be among the 3rd-generation network contenders that would natively be more scalable than Ethereum. If all goes well, Nervos, Cardano, Qtum and possibly EOS and NEO, among others, might join them.
If Ethereum is a “code is law” network, DFINITY is an “AI is law” one. Here is where Nervos and DFINITY might truly shine as third-gen platforms, since they will have better “punishments” for hackers that are philosophically opposed to the system. Where formalized and automated on-chain governance mechanisms (i.e. “punishments”) take place, bugs or rogue smart contracts or whatever could be dealt with accordingly.
As we now know, Ethereum will take years to integrate Casper and sharding completely. If the likes of DFINITY and Nervos can evolve rapidly, there will be a race to scalability that pushes new winners on to the next level of dApp and smart contract adoption in the real world.
BlockchainSmart ContractsDappsDecentralizationTechnology
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Michael K. Spencer
Medium member since Apr 2018
Blockchain Mark Consultant, tech Futurist, prolific writer. WeChat: mikekevinspencer
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FutureSin
FutureSin
Futurism articles bent on cultivating an awareness of exponential technologies while exploring the 4th industrial revolution.
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Conversation between Dave McKoskey and Michael K. Spencer.
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Dave McKoskey
Aug 12
Watch China.The investments of talent and capital are unprecedented.They will “win” the race to scaling and actual integration.Many of the problems with smart contract platforms are being solved and deployed as we speak.
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Michael K. Spencer
Aug 12
Who do you like out of China Dave?
