I was thinking about this today, fell asleep while at it and now I'm up and typing this.
I think being able to answer this question can really help us understand where things are headed, particularly how we might achieve decentralization across various ecosystems.
I say this because we would be insane, maybe delusional is the proper term to describe that, if we think that this is a game where one chain rules them all.
The concept of a single dominant chain doing it all is pretty anti-defi and isn't quite what we are gunning for. To achieve decentralization across the board, we have to figure out what matters most, fundamentally and will always play a crucial role in keeping every economy connected without conflict.
Achieving decentralized consensus across the important tech layers is pivotal to being able to scale solutions out of this industry.
Appchains is how we scale
Everytime someone talks about scaling, we always find ourselves talking about off-chain systems.
I think that's something we need a better term or name to describe, seeing that in many cases the supposed “off-chain” systems will be blockchains on their own.
Nevertheless, scaling has always been discussed as something that needs to happen on a system beyond the primary networks.
Let's take Ethereum for instance. Supposed that Ethereum is the leading primary chain, scaling to accommodate millions of businesses and billions of users is often expected off of Ethereum, with the L1 only considered for settlement or transaction finality.
Before today, I've always been more receptive to anything but scaling outside the mainnet. I've hated it when people discussed it with Bitcoin and also with Ethereum's L2s, but when I look at appchains specifically, suddenly the idea isn't so annoying as the appeal is clear.
If you're going to build a payments solution, maybe it makes sense to have an application-specific chain for payments that people who care about payments can come together to secure.
If we work with this design across the board, what we do is create a system design that allows innovations to take shape with the right people backing them.
So we have multiple L1s for transaction finalities and then we have ultra fast appchains, serving several unique purposes.
It makes sense for this to be the embraced system design because it significantly reduces risks. Think about the numerous traditional companies, many in specific industries, if something damaging occurs, usually little is affected in the process.
We would be working with a system slightly similar, only that governance will be greatly different.
That said, with appchains being how we scale, what becomes the important tech to earn us decentralization across the board, in the best form?
It isn't going to be one tech but there's two names that stand out and that's interoperability protocols for not just asset transfers but also messaging and also liquidity bridge infrastructures. Achieving meaningful decentralization across these tech solutions ensures that across the board, we can defeat centralized attacks and enjoy sovereign individual economies, smoothly scaling and connected.