Alright, time to address this issue.
27 Jun 2022, 15:39
Alright, time to address this issue. I've seen several different definitions of Layer 1 vs Layer 2 networks, and all of them suck, quite frankly (which is not surprising).
The two most common elements I have seen define a Layer 1 network are:
1) Can it perform transactions on its own?
2) Does it have a scalability mechanism?
In my research, using its own native currency is NOT a requirement that makes or breaks an L1 chain.
Based on those two requirements, Plexus is an L1 chain.
- It can perform transactions 100% on its own, without the need for another chain. The first use case we have does require another chain, but behind the scenes we have an EVM-compatible ledger backing the process that is self-sufficient.
- Once our JSON-RPC implementation is complete, you will be able to connect MetaMask *directly* to Plexus to trigger commands and transactions natively, exposing that native transaction capability (which is currently private) to the public.
- It has a type of Sharding protocol, backed by Azure Storage Queues, to let it scale infinitely. Right now, each node completes work individually, in a similar fashion to the NEAR protocol. At some point in the future, we will augment that protocol with a PoX mechanism to let more than one node complete the same work and decide how to handle the results.
Now, people can quibble over specifics if you want, as you folks need to have something to talk about on a daily basis. But that is how we're thinking about it, and until there is a formal standards body that certifies Layer 1 vs Layer 2 chains, or new information comes to light about requirements we're not presently aware of, that's how we're going to communicate the Plexus ecosystem.