A new layer of blockchain tech is emerging: inter-chain mediators
In the beginning was Bitcoin, the only blockchain we thought we’d need. Then Ethereum came along and launched us into a multi-blockchain world. Since then we’ve seen many new blockchains emerge with their various different protocols, financed by their various different tokens.
One of the the key doctrines of this era was Joel Monegro’s seminal “fat protocols” post, in which he explained that value creation in a protocol world happens in a very different way than in the Internet world. Specifically, in the Internet world, the protocols (think TCP/IP and HTTP) were conduits and not holders of value; it was the applications built on top of them that held the value. In the blockchain world, he argued, it’s the protocols that hold the value.
His post, in some ways, helped provide the fuel and justification for the protocol/ICO excitement we have witnessed over the past 6-8 months.
The layer? Blockchain interoperability.
Fat protocols, thin protocols, and interoperability
Monegro’s core thesis is now coming under scrutiny. Teemu Paivinenargues in his recently posted essay on “Thin Protocols” that “[while] protocols in aggregate will continue to capture most of the value, individual protocols will in fact be quite thin and tend towards capturing minimal value, due to the combined effects of forking and competitive market forces.”
Meanwhile, blockchain blogger Evan van Ness wrote that “there’s no such thing as ‘fat protocols’” — for a few reasons. First off, he writes, Monegro doesn’t clarify what is an app and what is a protocol. Second, he points to examples blockchain platforms like Gnosis and Steem and reasonably asks, are they apps? Protocols? Or both?
Van Ness then refers us to a post by Stephan Tual, a leader within the Ethereum community who now is at Slock.it (and who has as more first-hand experience with decentralized innovation than most, since he was at ground zero of “DAO-gate”). Tual challenges conventional wisdom further by sharing his Web 3.0 Abstracted Stack….