This jam-packed two-day blockchain event had no shortage of announcements

More than 1,100 registrations, nine hours of content, 450 slides and thousands of viewers — this two-day blockchain event may have been held virtually because of COVID-19, but it was jam-packed with content nonetheless.

Lisk.js is a developer-focused event that was full of announcements. Not only was a cutting-edge interoperability solution presented to the audience, but tantalizing details were given about an ambitious new hackathon and a grants program.

The conference began with a rousing speech from Lisk’s CEO and co-founder Max Kordek, who reflected on how far the project has come over the past two years.

As you’d expect, the interoperability solution was the main focus of Lisk.js 2021. Head of research Jan Hackfeld gave a compelling, in-a-nutshell introduction to how it works — and it was accompanied by the release of in-depth literature exploring the lifecycle of a sidechain, as well as details about cross-chain messages and certification.

The forward-focused presentation also delivered a roadmap for the rollout of this interoperability solution — complete with the milestones to expect over the coming months. Lead backend developer Manu also set out the journey to v3 of Lisk’s mainnet, giving an insight into the planning and development process.

Getting involved

Next up was marketing lead Monica Tartau who had details of HackOnLisk as well as the platform’s new grant program — something that Cointelegraph wrote about in greater detail during a recent article.

HackOnLisk’s significance lies in how it is the first online hackathon that has been held for the Lisk ecosystem. Complete with a total prize pool of $33,000, there’s palpable excitement that this contest will result in the development of compelling new applications that drive the blockchain forward — and better still, they can be built using JavaScript.

Meanwhile, the arrival of the grant program sparks hope that a greater number of developers and entrepreneurs will be tempted to give Lisk a go.

According to Kordek, all of these developments mean that a new era is beginning for Lisk. The roadmap has been split into six stages, each of which has been assigned a precious stone. The Quartz phase was held between January 1 and May 24, 2016 — moving on to Amber, which concluded on August 16, 2018. The Ruby phase took over and wrapped up in July 2019, bringing us to Emerald, the current phase. Looking further ahead, we’ve got the Sapphire and Diamond phases — both of which will be instrumental in ensuring Lisk’s interoperability solution gets off the ground.

More insights from Lisk here

What true interoperability looks like

Day two of Lisk.js 2021 aimed to go into Lisk’s interoperability solution in greater depth over the course of three hours — bringing together expert analysis and insight from across the project. Research scientists covered topics including token standards. The full presentation remains available on Lisk’s YouTube page, and a comprehensive blog post also offers a deep dive into all of the subjects that were discussed.

There was also considerable time devoted to Lisk SDK 5.1.0, which was released during the event. This was accompanied by a live demo that showed how a blockchain application can be developed using the latest SDK.

Of course, it wasn’t just Lisk’s team who were invited to have their say during the event. Several community members who have already built proof of concept blockchain applications using Lisk SDK — including honest ticketing systems, crowdfunding platforms, freelancing marketplaces and stablecoins — also shared their experience building blockchain applications on Lisk.

With plenty to look forward to on the roadmap, all eyes now are on Lisk.js 2022, and the project hopes it will be possible for this event to be held in person.

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