
Bitcoin turning into a multi-layered system is most interesting thing in crypto - nnx
http://berk.es/2018/02/09/bitcoin-turning-into-a-multi-layered-system-is-the-most-interesting-thing-in-crypto-in-2018/
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apo
_We should note, though, that a layered architecture was not envisioned by the
inventor and early adopters of Bitcoin. They envisioned it more as a monolith:
a single piece of software that handles all the possible use-cases and
features in itself. At least, that is how I read the whitepaper: no-where was
there a mention of "Application layers" or even "layers"._

Many envisioned a layered system, including Satoshi himself:

 _Piling every proof-of-work quorum system in the world into one dataset doesn
't scale._

[https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1790.msg28917#msg289...](https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1790.msg28917#msg28917)

In this response (which revolves around the nascent Namecoin idea), he also
describes cross-chain trades, something only now being implemented at scale.

In another post, Satoshi describes "high frequency trades" in which
intermediate transactions between parties are discarded. This feature was
present in the original version of Bitcoin, but was later disabled. It is
being brought back in a sense through Lightning Network.

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agorabinary
Great article, great analogy. There are many interesting applications being
built (distribution applications), but distinguishing them from the
_application layer_ is an important point. Bitcoin Lightning and Ethereum's
version of it (raiden network) are better compared to an application layer,
whereas a particular Dapp is more like a particular application powered by
that layer. And so far, many of these applications have been hindered by the
lack of such a layer, up until 2018 when I think it will see mainnet usage.

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guardiangod
Saying that the Lighting Network is the most interesting thing in crypto is
like saying IPv6 on IPv4 tunneling is the most interesting thing in
networking.

No no no

You know what's instead the most interesting thing for building on top of
crypto? More people using crypto for _various_ purposes, whether it's for
running programs (ETH), private transactions (Monero/zcash), or name lookup
(Namecoins).

~~~
kneel
People have been using bitcoin for various purposes for a while now, it's
nothing new.

Lightning is seeming like a viable options as it grows ever larger,
additionally most of the new development in privacy is happening in Bitcoin.
Very cool stuff.

~~~
guardiangod
And LN is nothing new- it just allows people to transact ...cheaper and
faster. Okay that's cool, but that's not a new goal; That's the original goal
of Bitcoin

As for adding new functionalities into Bitcoin, the creator of Ethereum
originally wanted to build Smart Contract on Bitcoin but was rebuffed by
Bitcoin developers. Ditto for Zcash. Bitcoin developers don't have a good
track record of incorporating new functionalities into the Bitcoin protocol...

~~~
agorabinary
You're missing the point of the article. A particular smart contract, or zk-
snarks, or a new Bitcoin protocol functionality... these are not application
layers, they are a particular application. Lightning is an application layer
that enables a whole new set of applications.

And this is groundbreaking stuff, you can't expect it to have been released in
Bitcoin's original 2009 client.

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granaldo
This is also one reason why bitcoin price went up too too much
[https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin/usd](https://www.coingecko.com/en/price_charts/bitcoin/usd)

The expectation for a proper scaling solution to open up bigger possibilities.
Ofcourses privided this is best course of action against bigger blocks only

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RunawayGalaxy
I also found Evan Duffield's post about on-chain scaling
([https://medium.com/@eduffield222/how-to-enabling-on-chain-
sc...](https://medium.com/@eduffield222/how-to-enabling-on-chain-
scaling-2ffab5997f8b)) pretty interesting.

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atarian
Where this analogy falls apart is when it becomes slower and more expensive to
use the lower layers than the higher ones.

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fourstar
The political angle is more interesting to me, since the Lightning Network is
developed by Blockstream, whose investors include:

Reid Hoffman, Khosla Ventures and Real Ventures, Nicolas Berggruen, Crypto
Currency Partners, Future\Perfect Ventures, Danny Hillis, Eric Schmidt’s
Innovation Endeavors, Max Levchin, Mosaic Ventures, Ray Ozzie, Ribbit Capital,
Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, Horizons Ventures, AXA Strategic Ventures,
and Digital Garage.

Think again, if you REALLY still think Bitcoin (core) is "decentralized".

(For the record, I don't think Bcash is either).

~~~
sunsu
Lightning Network is not "developed by Blockstream". There are 3 primary teams
that have contributed to the specification: ACINQ, Blockstream, and Lightning
Labs. All of the projects are open source and have outside contributors.

