EHR interoperability

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Blockchain Interoperability Understanding
Cross- chain Technology
leewayhertz.com/blockchain-interoperability-crossc
hain-technology
We understand Blockchain as a decentralized
ecosystem powered by distributed ledger
technology. But as we deep dive, we realize that
it is not a cumulative ecosystem. Many
blockchain exists in the market and the ecosystem
for each Blockchain is isolated from one
another. Individual chains have been designed
with particular use-cases in mind, so they
feature specific strengths, limitations and
different degrees of decentralization. For
instance, if the objective of a particular
blockchain is to achieve a higher degree
of transaction throughput, then the Blockchain
might have a reduced degree of decentralization
and security. Because blockchains exist largely
in silos, they are not able to communicate with
each other. It means the strength of one chain
cant benefit other chains, or the limitation of
a particular blockchain cant be compensated by
leveraging the features of another chain. These
silos fragment the potential and value of
Blockchain as an industry, further eroding user
experience and hindering industry growth. This
is where cross-chain technology comes in. It is
the solution for improving blockchain
communication with each other. A cross-chain
architecture facilitates interoperability,
enabling two or more blockchains to trade-off
their efficiencies, decentralization, features
set, and security. This can improve chain
efficiency, reduce fragmentation, allow users
and features to flow more freely across multiple
blockchains. In this insight, you will get to
read more about blockchain interoperability and
cross- chain technology.
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What is cross-chain technology? As enterprises,
large-scale corporations and startups are
increasingly adopting blockchain solutions in
their businesses they realize that no blockchain
protocol can exist or attain its optimal
efficiency in complete exclusivity. Just imagine
what would have been the efficiency of email
services if it wasnt feasible to send a mail
from Gmail to Yahoo or Outlook. Interoperability
between multiple email ecosystems has made email
services as efficient as it is today. The same
phenomenon of interoperability powers the
efficiency of operating systems
also. Blockchain ecosystems also need
interoperability the ability to transfer
information and exchange data between any
blockchain seamlessly. Cross-chain technology is
all about strengthening blockchain communication
through the development and deployment of
interoperable blockchain systems. Why is
cross-chain technology important? As the
blockchain industry is expanding, we are
witnessing the launch of new types of blockchain
protocols, each empowered with a unique approach,
new consensus protocols, and an entirely new set
of capacities to host different applications.
Yet, they all are growing parallelly and not
scaling to the next level because the very basic
architecture of Blockchain forces them to
operate within siloes. This is creating separate
ecosystems that cannot interoperate with each
other. Cross-chain technology is important
because it has the potential to facilitate
Blockchain interoperability. Lets understand
with example, why blockchain interoperability is
needed. Why is blockchain interoperability
needed? Blockchain interoperability is needed to
subdue the restricted capacities of blockchain
protocols and achieve greater scalability, faster
block times, and higher security. Interpretability
will also help in reducing the operational costs
related to blockchain solutions. Listed below are
some of the blockchain limitations resulting from
poor or no blockchain interoperability. Lack of
direct interoperability between Bitcoin and
Ethereum restricts the bitcoin users from using
their crypto funds within the DeFi ecosystem of
Ethereum. Because of non-interoperability, users
cannot even directly transact BTC for ETH without
involving a centralized cryptocurrency exchange.
Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain both
individually support USDT, yet one cant
directly send USDT from the Ethereum blockchain
to Binance Smart Chain or any other
blockchain. Blockchain pioneers envision
implementing Blockchain into the traditional
financial system. But the limitation of
interoperability will hinder the implementation
of an effective solution. That is because if two
banks use different blockchains, then it would be
too complex, if not totally impossible, to
transact between bank accounts of those two
banks. Without interoperability, Blockchain in
the finance system would create a rather
segregated system than an integrated one.
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What are the available solutions for facilitating
blockchain interoperability? The
interoperability challenge of blockchain
technology is a critical area to be
addressed. Taking the cue, blockchain networks
like Polkadot, Cosmos, and Harmony are offering
interoperability solutions to other blockchain
networks. Several public blockchain networks,
including Etherum, are focuing on
interoperability and scalability, leveraging
platforms like Cosmos and Polkadot. Cosmos has
rolled out Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC)
protocol. It facilitates inter-blockchain
communication and enables the transfer of tokens
between Cosmos and other IBC-compatible
blockchains. Inter Chain Messaging Protocol by
Polkadot uses Bridges for blockchain
communication. Harmony, as an interoperability
solution, bridges Ethereum and Binance Smart
Chain to its ecosystem. Acknowledging the need
for blockchain interoperability, even mainstream
private blockchain network like HyperLedger that
hosts most enterprise blockchain applications
has moved toward leveraging public blockchain
networks such as Ethereum. Next, lets try to
understand how blockchain interoperability
solutions are leveraging cross-chain
technology. How does Cross-chain technology
work? There is no single approach on how
cross-chain technology is used. Different
networks may take different approaches to
blockchain interoperability to facilitate
transactions across multiple chains without
involving third parties or centralized solutions.
Following are some of the approaches to
cross-chain communication. Atomic Swaps Atomic
swaps are not a true form of cross-chain
communication because two chains dont actually
communicate with each other. But the mechanism
allows users to coordinate transactions across
chains facilitating trading of one cryptocurrency
for another directly in a peer-to-peer
transaction. Stateless SPVs It permits a
sufficiently advanced smart contract to verify a
subset of Proof of Work history. Stateless SPVs
can be adapted to a wide variety of use cases as
these are relatively inexpensive. Relays Relays
allow a smart contract on a particular chain to
verify the events that have taken place in other
chains. Relay can verify the entire history of a
chain and specific headers on-demand. The relay
method applies trade-offs between the security of
the relay and the cost of operation. However,
relays are often quite expensive to operate.
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Merged Consensus This method uses a relay chain
to allow two-way interoperability between chains.
To enforce merged consensus, it needs to be
built into the chain from the ground up. Projects
like ETH2.0 and Cosmos use merged
consensus. Federations A selected group of
trusted parties can leverage federations to
confirm the events of one chain on another.
Federations are powerful, but it requires
trusting a third party. That is its major
limitation as it breaks every essence of
Blockchains decentralization. What is the
challenge faced by cross-chain systems? Difference
of trust Though interoperability is strongly
needed, the cross-chain systems or solutions
are subjected to the difference of trust
challenge. The trust system in every blockchain
ledger is not equal. Some are backed by 1000
miners, while some are backed by five
miners. Transferring data from a weaker trustable
ledger to a stronger ledger can make the latter
susceptible to third-party manipulation and
various other discrepancies. Transaction rate
bottlenecks Another potential technical
challenge is Transaction rate bottlenecks,
which can affect large-scale blockchain
interoperability by clogging the throughput
capacity of one particular chain when it is
receiving transactions from many chains. How can
LeewayHertz offer cross-chain development
services? Committed to offering blockchain
solutions for startups and enterprises, we,
at LeewayHertz, have built a cross-chain platform
for blockchain app development. Our solution is
compatible with multiple blockchains. This helps
in easy migration and sharing between
blockchains. Our platform supports the
development of blockchain applications using
prebuilt components for rapid prototyping and MVP
development. This eliminates the need to deploy
multiple nodes and infrastructure. Developers get
to focus on writing and deployment of blockchain
business logic to start saving data on the
blockchain. Why choose our blockchain
cross-chain solution for your next dAPP
development Facilitate blockchain app
development in any technology Apps developed can
seamlessly integrate with REST, AMQP or MQTT
protocol Facilitate the development of hybrid
blockchain applications Help you save data
on-chain and off-chain Provided with OAuth User
Management for login, registration and
verification process
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Convenient migrating of data between blockchains
or cloud databases Realtime rapid persistent
data storage for hybrid application Store data in
multiple Blockchains, including Tezos, Hedera,
Stellar, EOS or Hyperledger. Integrate your
application with main Network, test network and
shared blockchain Concluding thought- The future
of blockchain interoperability For blockchain to
gain adoption across several industries,
interoperability is a must. The need for
interoperability is not limited to just swapping
of crypto assets across blockchains. But going
forward, it must also facilitate sharing of other
information such as health records, supply chain
records, certificates, and so on. Cross-chain
solutions are still emerging and they are viable
as an encouraging sign hinting at a future with
better blockchain interoperability solutions. The
hope prevails as different blockchain protocols
and tech giants envision the road to blockchain
disruption through interoperability. Are you
looking for a comprehensive rapid blockchain
application development solution? We can help
you. Our SaaS platform lets you build rapid
blockchain applications without managing the
infrastructure. To know more connect with our b
lockchain experts.