What is Holochain?
- A framework for distributed apps
- fully distributed peer to peer network
- and NO blockchain
But what is it then?
- still a hash-chain like the blockchain but let me explain a little deeper.
As you all probably know the blockchain has huge scaling issues, as there is just one objective truth and every node
has to download the full blockchain. It is very energy consuming and also limited.
Holochain differentiates the idea that everyone needs to have the whole blockchain - in this network each so called agents have their own hash chain for their app.
A very important point is the signature, that builds the uniqueness of the chain in connection to the agent.
So signature + source chain are the basics of an agent in the holochain network.
But what if an agent is offline - does the application stand still?
No, this is why the team built an DHT Distributed hash table where a copy of each source code needs to be stored. So other agents can still let the app run.
What about hackers?
The solution is the Distributed validation.
If someone wants to develop anything on a chain, they have to run firstly special validation rules of that application.
The Code of application is called DNA in holochain network.
So, the DNA needs to be shared in the DHT. But the validation rules are of course not open source for everyone.
So if someone wanted to change anything in the code of the DNA of an app without knowing the validation rules,
he would create an hard fork. The original DNA is not attacked. Therefore anyone would find out the hacking agent.
This process of storing the DNA in the DHT by using the validation rules is also calles "Immunesystem".
All in all - with this holochain framework,
- you can build apps that is a blockchain
- it is like each smart contract would have an own blockchain
- agents are the key instruments as they store the chains and create an very own signature in connection to that chain
The scalability issues are gone.
What do you think about this Holochain network? Please leave a comment below.
I am thankful for any question or improvement on my short description.
For more information please have a look on their website, which is also my source:
https://holochain.org/
source of the picture: https://holochain.org/