Project reveals cutting-edge solutions to achieve interoperability

A blockchain application platform that aims to make this technology accessible for everyone has unveiled a high-level view of its cutting-edge solutions for interoperability.

Lisk says its approach is based on the paradigm of cross-chain certification — with information submitted between networks utilizing a signed object known as a certificate.

According to the platform, this approach delivers several crucial advantages compared with other methods in the market. It is scalable — meaning there are no limits on the number of sidechains that can be connected to the Lisk mainchain — as well as flexible because cross-chain update transactions can be executed whenever a user desires. This gives crypto enthusiasts the freedom to create a cross-chain transaction every 10 seconds or just once a month, establishing an ecosystem that’s built around their requirements.

This flexibility also ensures that the technology is fast, and crucially, the task of creating and sending cross-chain update transactions is not one that’s restricted to validators. Security is also achieved because certificates need to be signed by a large portion of validators from the sending blockchain — with all cross-chain messages authenticated through certificates. Receiving chains can also double-check whether a certificate’s signatures were created by legitimate validators, and effortlessly detect and reject malicious transactions.

Updated roadmap objectives

Lisk says it has established eight roadmap objectives, with each encompassing a key aspect of its interoperability solution. They include defining the cross-chain messaging protocol, introducing token standards for its ecosystem (including for NFTs,) making the Lisk-BFT protocol more flexible, updating the format of block headers, and enhancing the signatures that are used across its platform.

“The Lisk interoperability solution is based on the paradigm of cross-chain certification,” the project explained. “Any kind of information can be exchanged between chains using general cross-chain messages. The Lisk mainchain plays the key role in the whole ecosystem since all cross-chain messages between sidechains are routed via the mainchain.”

According to the platform, sidechains can be customized around a user’s exacting requirements — opening up the possibility that they operate on a different consensus algorithm. LSK tokens can also be moved to any chain, and will serve as the default token for transaction fees throughout the ecosystem.

Specific tokens can also be created for sidechains, enabling a decentralized application to have its very own digital asset. There are few restrictions on customization here, paving the way for developers to decide whether they want block rewards, and giving them full control over other specifications such as block time and block size limits.

Interoperability in action

To illustrate the capabilities of its interoperability solution, Lisk paints a scenario where a user with LSK tokens on the mainchain wants to engage with a prediction market chain that relies on its own special token for betting.

First, the user would send LSK tokens to an exchange chain through a cross-chain token transfer, paving the way for the cryptocurrency to be swapped for betting tokens. A subsequent cross-chain token transfer would ensure that the crypto is sent to the prediction market chain, where the user can bet on the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics. From here, an oracle chain can send the result to the prediction market chain through a custom cross-chain message — and if the user had the good fortune of being right, they can then receive their winnings.

The platform says that further details about its ambitious plans for interoperability, and its Lisk Improvement Proposals, are going to be unveiled at Lisk.js — Lisk’s annual blockchain developer event — on May 21 and 22.