The World's Largest Block...and Solving the Scalability Problem with the RIFT Protocol

Blockchain was billed as a solution to many of the problems that traditional technology faces when it comes to connecting various parties from one end of the world to another, and it has done pretty well at that. However, certain issues linger, and the RIFT protocol helps to get that out of the way.

Scalability has been a problem for Blockchain Systems

Today, blockchain has started to gain quite a lot of adoption. Several people have understood how it helps improve their lives and businesses beyond the traditional space, and have started to adopt it quite well. Blockchain is able to help with conducting transactions with much lower fees, increase transaction speed, and enhance the security of funds being moved. Adoption was slow, but it is undoubtedly starting to ramp up.

However, the boost in adoption has led to a few issues as well; particularly, scalability. Scalability has so far been one major problem that every technology has. When you begin to onboard so many people, how do you grow to continue offering the same level of service that they’re used to, while also handling their load and ensuring that their experience is seamless?

Solutions have so far been ineffective

Blockchain hasn’t been immune to the scalability conundrum as well, and there have been several developers who have tried to proffer solutions to it. One of the most prominent solutions has been to increase the size of blocks, so that blocks and contain more transactions and accommodate more data. Sadly, increasing the block size will affect the speed of transactions, as it will take more time for these blocks to get filled up. Larger blocks are also worked on in more time.

To be fair, there have been proposals for other solutions; these include distributing data between servers, or even storing the data off-chain. Regardless, any solution that gets proposed tends to compromise on one of two things; either the level of decentralization and freedom that blockchain users are able to achieve, or the general security of the platform.

 The problem of scalability has led to several differences in opinions, and pioneers have embarked on hard forks to bring their vision of the blockchain (as well as what they believe would have been the vision of Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto) to life. Bitcoin Cash split from the original Bitcoin protocol years ago, and then also split to firm Bitcoin SV (Satoshi Version) and Bitcoin ABC. Ethereum also saw a hard form, with Ethereum Classic being created as a result of that process.

Regardless, none of these forks has particularly led to any tangible solutions. The fact remains that increasing the block size will lead to slower transactions, and pioneers have been forced to deal with this problem since then.

ILCoin and the RIFT protocol

ILCoin Blockchain Project released RIFT protocol with the purpose of bringing an end to the scalability issue - through introducing an additional level of mini-blocks.

It was able to prove the efficiency of the new protocol, after the project successfully released a stable block with a stunning 5GB size, as can be checked in the team’s Block Explorer (block #310280). While a lot of other blockchains usually have troubles with handling large blocks, also was able to bank on its innovative RIFT blockchain to help get the best of both worlds; an increase in the size of the blocks, as well as an enhancement to the speed of transactions that occur on-chain.

With 5 Gb block size, 3 minute generation time and transaction weigh of 232 bytes, the current transaction speed of RIFT reaches 23 140 987 tx/block.

RIFT helps keep scalability issue to the minimum, essentially meaning that chains can service as many people as possible without necessarily being overly weighed down. This makes for efficient data storage, and can go a long way in enhancing the adoption of blockchain technology as a whole. 

How the two-layer system works

As opposed to the standard blocks, the mini blocks don’t get mined. They contain the transactions, but are generated by the system. This way, the network is able to get an incredible scalability potential. Mini blocks are connected to their parent blocks, and connected to each other through references. 

RIFT also comes with simultaneous asynchroization - essentially, a mechanism that synchronizes last blocks in the chain at the same time and allows to confirm transactions even if the sync is still in progress. This means that network congestion can be avoided, and scalability can be ensured. Basically, the blockchain component helps the ILCoin blockchain to handle massive load and onboard millions of people, while also ensuring that the speed that they have become accustomed to doesn’t experience any lags at all. 

So, to sum up, ILCoin and its RIFT protocol are on the fast track to cause a major disruption in the blockchain space. By merging large block sizes with the ability to conduct transactions faster, this project really is delivering the best of both worlds.