The devs over at Algorand have found a way to scale Ethereum without an EVM. Coincidentally, Algo’s CEO has been teasing a major announcement coming at ETHDenver… Covered:  The Current ‘State of Things’ C3: The Protocol Behind The Solution New Cross-Chain Era Major ETHDenver Announcement? The Current ‘State of Things’ We’ve all heard it before. […] The post Algorand to Scale Ethereum with Groundbreaking Protocol; ETHDenver Announcement? appeared first on CryptosRus.

Algorand to Scale Ethereum with Groundbreaking Protocol; ETHDenver Announcement?

The devs over at Algorand have found a way to scale Ethereum without an EVM. Coincidentally, Algo’s CEO has been teasing a major announcement coming at ETHDenver…

Covered: 

  • The Current ‘State of Things’
  • C3: The Protocol Behind The Solution
  • New Cross-Chain Era
  • Major ETHDenver Announcement?

The Current ‘State of Things’

We’ve all heard it before. “When will Ethereum scale? When will ETH 2.0 ship?” Scaling solutions for Ethereum are all the rage, and many have performed exceptionally well. Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Loopring, Skale–the list goes on. Then there are the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) compatible chains, which most layer 1’s are. Think of Avalanche, Binance Chain, Fantom, Harmony, and Near.

In short, to interact with the Ethereum chain you must be EVM compatible. Simply put, the Ethereum Virtual Machine is the de-facto runtime for the execution of smart contracts in crypto. Without building a chain with direct EVM compatibility, you cannot interact with the smart contracts on Ethereum and thus, cannot gain access to their massive user base and the DeFi protocols running on top of the Ethereum.

A team over at Algorand has seemingly devised a solution, at least in part, to this cross-chain problem; all without EVM affinity. Plus, the solution is more than novel, in theory it is more efficient and effective than other scaling solutions. The protocol launching this solution is called C3 and they are building “decentralized markets with cross-chain settlement powered by a cross-margining clearing engine protocol.”

C3: The Protocol Behind The Solution

As seen above, the project is backed by some of the biggest suits in the game, including Digital Currency Group, Arrington Capital, and Jump Capital. C3 is more or less going to allow Algorand, a non EVM chain, to act as a Layer-2 for Ethereum. It appears this will be the first time ever a non-EVM chain is accomplishing such a feat. Now, there is some nuance with what C3 is *exactly* doing.

credit: c3.io

C3 is more-so focused on cross-chain settlement and collateral management, it is not quite a “bridge” to Ethereum in the traditional sense. A bridge seeks to shuttle assets to and from chains, like from Algorand to Ethereum and vice versa. Nevertheless, C3 is looking to change the game in how chains can see into each other’s “state.” Without going into the weeds, Algorand has devised what is called a “state proof.” This is what C3 is implementing.

Recommended: El Salvador Banks Are Using Wrapped Bitcoin on Algorand To Transact

New Cross-Chain Era 

A state proof is like a ZK rollup but cross-chain. It is bridging, but without the trust, meaning the risk. The traditional, highly insecure bridges we see today consist of 1) an application (smart contract) that locks tokens on the original chain, 2) a token minting app that creates the representation of that token on the target chain, 3) a mechanism for the user to initiate the transaction.

State-proofs improve on that concept ten-fold. Bridges are the most vulnerable protocol in crypto. This is because there is a centralized intermediary which moves assets from one chain to another; there is no other way to accomplish it. This strategy is extremely risky. With Algorand’s state proofs, a light client is created which is “queried” when the token minting portion seeks to mint another chain’s assets. This is to say, all of the “intermediary’s” have nothing to do with verifying the transaction. It is completely decentralized.

credit: decipher at algorand

Above is a high-level view of how this plays out. This is a trustless bridge. There is no validation happening in the blue sections of the above image, the verification happens entirely based off the Algorand light client, which is public and can be viewed by anyone. There is nothing in the “centralized” portions of this that are determining reliability and security. Anyone can run the trustless bridge, and Algorand wants to provide the components so anyone can build them and repeatedly use them.

There is much more under the hood making this happen, and you can watch a video about it here. C3 is ready to implement this technology to help scale Ethereum, all from “a million miles away” on the non-EVM Algorand chain. C3 posted on Twitter that they are making strides to implement this technology to work on Metamask, the lead Ethereum non-custodial wallet.

This could usher in a brand new era of cross-chain compatibility. Forget bridges, it’s now time for state proofs. To quote C3’s medium post, “C3 will launch on Algorand and use a novel cross-chain messaging technology native to Algorand to interact with other blockchains through cryptographic proofs that enable decentralized bridging.” This is all thanks to the power of zero-knowledge proofs, used in Loopring and soon to be Polygon, and actually invented by Algorand founder Silvio Micali.

Major ETHDenver Announcement?

C3 may make a splash at ETHDenver, which starts February 11th. Algorand is playing a pivotal role in what is dubbed the “longest-running Ethereum event in the world.” In fact, Algorand is the only non-EVM chain, or EVM affinity project with such a presence at the event. Algorand’s newly tapped CEO Staci Warden made it clear that Algorand will certainly be making some kind of news at the event.

Will C3 be playing a role in this announcement? Based on the Metamask tweets and the growing buzz around their novel scaling solution, it appears likely. ETHDenver kicks off on the 11th at 10 am mountain time, and be sure CRU news will be keeping a close eye on the event to give you the “proof of the state of things”.

Recommended: Three Top Projects On Algorand You Have To Check Out

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