Given the recent interest in L2s and Sidechains
I've seen various comments asking for clarification on the differences between the two models
So I decided to come up with a quick thread to try to explain that as simply as I can.
🚨DISCLAIMER🚨: this is meant to be entry-level.
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First of all, why do the two tend to be confused? 🤔
The main reason is that both can be used as scaling solutions 💡
Meaning that both provide ways to increase the capabilities of a given L1 such as
#Cardano
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But what is this "scaling" thing?
Well, imagine you were Zuckerberg, and you just set up Facebook in your college room.
As soon as Facebook starts to be used, the laptop that was running the entire Facebook started to beg for mercy because it is working 24/7 at full speed🔥
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That is what scaling is for!
If you were Zuckerberg you would have two options to support all the new users of Facebook:
- buy more laptops
- buy a bigger computer
Both allow you to handle more users but in different ways.
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The first allows you to distribute the load and potentially have ad-hoc code for your new computer
So that it better handles specific requests of new users
This first option is known in the web2 world as horizontal scaling
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The second keeps all the load on one computer but this new one is bigger and faster
Doing the work of the previous laptop and much more, so all the users are not a problem.
This second option goes under the name of vertical scaling
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When we talk about Sidechains and L2s we are only discussing if we want to
scale horizontally (add a new computer / add a sidechain)
or vertically (improve the CPU and add a couple GPUs to the laptop / add a L2)
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So now that we have an idea of how both are meant to work, what should we use?
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Well if we need to accommodate new protocol features
such as different consensus, different VM, and other features such as privacy (looking at you Midnight 👀)
then you probably want to use a sidechain as all the changes will work better on a "different computer"
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If instead we just want to do millions of transactions per second then we definitely want to go for an L2
because a "bigger computer" will handle that much better than a "network of computers"
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@MicheleHarmonic
Really wanted to tell you, this is a god sent post for my faith in Cardano. The epiphany of realizing Hydra is what I have wanted a "roll up" to be all along, seamless liqudiity, even IBC isnt this seamless.
Thank you!
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@MicheleHarmonic
My noob question is, will hydra work on side chains as well? Then you have both :)
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@MicheleHarmonic
Except if you want build new protocol features, then it’s probably still better as an L2.
There’s almost no use case where side-chains are preferred. At least not since 2017-2018.
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@0xNLYFANS
Both designs have their tradeoffs
Saying "there's almost no use case..." Is only true if we do not consider a lot of use cases, especially real world ones
Would you expand on the motivations in support of the first statement?
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@MicheleHarmonic
Why is Cardano better than others:
Sidechains on Cardano will have security of L1 (settlement layer), like they are L2 chains, unlike sidechains on other blockchains.
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@MicheleHarmonic
Thank you for broadening my understanding, in all honesty, I didn't know the difference.
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