How Two New Sidechains Proposals Could Change Bitcoin's DNA
A long-proposed bitcoin feature called 'sidechains' may soon take a big step forward thanks to a pair of proposals. The idea behind sidechains, most associated with the startup Blockstream (whose team boasts its originators), is to make it easier to add new features to bitcoin, something that's proven difficult in the past due to bitcoin's design. In short, sidechains are supposed to make it possible for users to move bitcoins between different bitcoin-based blockchains with different rule sets. For example, in this way, new techniques for preserving the privacy of transactions or a smart....
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SideChains. No, SideChains is not the brother of prominent rapper 2Chainz (although it could be in the future, you never know). SideChains were first announced by Adam Back and Austin Hill on Let’s Talk Bitcoin. SideChains are basically new “blockchains” pegged to bitcoin similar to how the dollar used to be pegged to gold before Nixon removed the dollar from the gold standard in 1973. In theory, each SideChain would service a different purpose however they would all benefit from the adoption and benefits of bitcoin. Proponents of sidechains hail it as the end of altcoins while alternative....
The authors of the much-discussed Bitcoin Sidechains paper "Enabling Blockchain Innovations with Pegged Sidechains," released in October, formed the company Blockstream to implement sidechains and accelerate innovation in digital currencies. In November, Blockstream closed a $21 million seed funding round with nearly 40 high-profile investors. The Bitcoin Sidechains paper envisages an ecosystem of "sidechains" separate from the main Bitcoin blockchain but interoperable with it by means of two-way pegs, allowing for the transfer of assets between sidechains and the main blockchain. A....
Bitcoin Improvement Proposals (BIP) are proposals for making change to the Bitcoin network. These proposals on the blockchain are activated after gaining the required consensus from the Bitcoin community. While it is a standard practice for Bitcoin Core developers to introduce BIPs, these may require more than just technical expertise to ensure positive growth of Bitcoin as a currenc. Over the past two years, a number of Bitcoin Improvement Proposals have been put forth by various members of the Bitcoin community. These proposals call for the block size to be increased from anywhere....
Sidechains have been in development for almost a year now and are widely regarded as ‘the Bitcoin 2.0 project’. Sidechains take decentralization to the extreme, aiming to create a protocol that will lead to more innovative decentralized applications by utilizing custom blockchain technology. After eight months of active development, Blockstream has....
Welcome back to another Bitcoin News in Review, where we look at some of the biggest stories of the week here on CryptoCoins News. This week (19 October – 26 October), we looked at sidechains, saw IBM plan to unveil a blockchain-based “internet of things” next year, saw Circle and BitPay comment on New York’s BitLicense, and more. Check out our video and keep scrolling for our articles on this Bitcoin News in Review. Sidechains are an innovative concept first proposed earlier this year. They have the potential to replace altcoins and “Bitcoin 2.0” platforms. Essentially, sidechains make it....