CWC Newsletter #37 (July 27, 2020)
By Taylor Ryker, Analyst
Before I begin, please check out these news outlets for the past weekly updates and announcements in the EOS and EOSIO space: EOS Nation's Hot Sauce, EOSWriter's EOSIO Week in Review, Crypto Peter's Moran Post, and EOS Go's What Happened This Week on EOSIO.
China's Blockchain Service Network and LiquidApps' DAPP Network
With the latest announcements by China's Blockchain Service Network (BSN) that they are poised to begin launching their platform in the near future, how will this network impact the use of LiquidApps' DAPP Network?
BSN and DAPP Network: Developer Friendly Environments
The current climate of dApp developments is somewhat hostile for mainstream developers to create dApps at cost-effective rates. For example, developers on Ethereum are having a difficult time covering the increasing costs of gas fees to execute their smart contracts. On EOSIO and specifically the EOS mainnet, rental fees for CPU are becoming more expensive but it is still relatively cheaper than transacting on Ethereum.
Other blockchains like Tezos or Cardano still need to build out a more developer-friendly ecosystem because they are more concerned currently with upgrading their networks for performance, scalability, and governance.
BSN and the DAPP Network are both filling the void of cost-effective developer tools and platforms. Both the BSN and DAPP Network are blockchain agnostic platforms. However, the DAPP Network is already up and running and the platform provides a suite of services, such as Oracles, cheap resources (vCPU and vRAM), and interoperability, to name a few. On the other hand, BSN is still in the creation phase and are planning to on-board 10 public blockchains onto their platform by year end.
BSN, according to their Twitter profile, is "a cross-cloud, cross-portal, cross-framework global infrastructure network used to deploy and operate all types of blockchain dApps."
On July 21, 2020, BSN issued a press release detailing the objectives of the new blockchain platform: "BSN is tackling the existing problem of the high cost of developing and deploying blockchain applications by providing blockchain resource environments to developers by greatly reducing costs associated with the development, deployment, maintenance, and interoperability of blockchain applications and accelerating the development and universal adaptation of blockchain technology."
"BSN will offer three main services: permissioned services, permissionless services, and interchain services. Permissioned services are already running on the BSN China Portal. Due to regulations in China, permissionless services will only be available on the BSN International Portal."
Although a platform to help blockchain developers both in China and internationally, a recent article on July 26, 2020 reported an internal split within BSN's domestic and global entities. After "disagreements arose around the network's members deciding to integrate public blockchains (Ethereum, EOS, Tezos, Neo, Irisnet, and Nervos) into its existing framework," two separate entities--BSN-China and BSN-International--were created.
It apparently seems that BSN-China will only be open to Chinese developers and BSN-International will be the development environment for non-Chinese developers. Although BSN was reported in the article that the split will create healthy competition, I remain skeptical of BSN acting as a unifying blockchain platform. If the point of creating an internet of blockchains through BSN, it would benefit them if they opened up their platforms to both Chinese and non-Chinese blockchain developers.
On the other hand, the DAPP Network is another platform that helps developers, primarily in the EOSIO ecosystem, to build dApps and services with cost-effective tools.
The DAPP Network "is a universal second-layer that serves as the 'glue' between blockchains, currently operating on all EOSIO chains and recently Ethereum, that allows them to scale horizontally and enjoy a feature-rich experience."
The DAPP Network is maintained by DAPP Service Providers (DSPs) who "maintain infrastructure, run blockchain nodes, and provide scaling services to developers." These services include:
LiquidLinks: two-way decentralized cross-blockchain communication network
LiquidOracles: decentralized, trustless and customizable web oracles
LiquidAccounts: seamless and free end-user onboarding
vRAM: unrestricted decentralized and affordable on-chain memory
vCPU: access to cheap, powerful computation
LiquidScheduler: task scheduler and automated task services
LiquidStorage: an incentivized decentralized storage network
LiquidDNS: designed to prevent DNS hacking
LiquidHarmony: extension of LiquidOracles, which enables easy, powerful plug-ins--LiquidSQL, web oracles, and random numbers
LiquidX: enables DSP services to be unlocked on any EOSIO chain
LiquidChains: spin up blockchains for your project or business
LiquidRandomness: blockchain random number machine
Several EOSIO dApps have leveraged the DAPP Network, such as Moonlighting, DAPP Accounts, Organic Community Market, and EOS Options, to name a few.
Currently, LiquidApps has a bounty worth 1 million DAPP tokens to any developer(s) who can solve Reddit's scalability problems by implementing a solution that relies on the services of the DAPP Network.
Ultimately, both BSN and the DAPP Network are poised to become dominant developer platforms to help ease the troubles that arise from creating dApps and blockchain services. However, both platforms begin to diverge when analyzing how they will provide resources to developers.
Central Resource Management vs. Free Market of Resources
Although BSN has not explicitly laid out their plans on how they will release resources to blockchain developers, I speculate that BSN would be the gatekeeper or central authority in resource management. It would appear that BSN would want to be in control of how their resources are being distributed amongst the different developer teams both in China and outside of China.
In their July 21st article, BSN explained that they aim to "continue to work with these teams [public blockchains] to develop more middleware and tools to reduce the time and cost of the development of dApps." However, BSN does not specifically lay out their plans in how they will implement this goal.
If BSN becomes a central gatekeeper of resources, how will this impact the price and access to these resources by developers?
On the other hand, a free market for DSP services is at the center of the DAPP Network.
LiquidApps described the essence of the DAPP Network's free market: "While the DAPP token is the access token to the DSP services, leasing markets and third-party staking can enable developers on any network to access DAPP Network and its services natively through their own protocol token. Already showcased by Blockstart, leasing markets allow users to access resources on a 'pay-as-you-go' model, providing significantly lower price volatility and a more predictable user experience."
In addition, Chintai's DAPP leasing marketplace allows developers and dApp operators to afford even more cost-effective services on the DAPP Network.
Coopetition between BSN and DAPP Network
A positive move by the BSN is there willingness to use third-party providers to interact and support blockchain development on its platform. BSN announced that they are planning to "integrate with the EOS Dfuse APIs to allow dApp developers to build EOS dApps easily and quickly. BSN expects to integrate with ETH Dfuse APIs at a later date."
I speculate that if BSN is amenable to Dfuse, perhaps BSN would look positively in integrating the DAPP Network to allow BSN developers to access even more cost-effective resources based on a free market.
Similarly to a positive cooperation between Chainlink and the DAPP Network's LiquidOracles, I believe a collaboration between BSN and the DAPP Network will be quite beneficial to blockchain developers and dApp operators.
Disclaimer: KJ Kingsley is not a financial advisor and holds the digital tokens or cryptocurrencies represented in the content above. This content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this post constitutes a solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by myself to buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the author’s employers.