Loom Network is dedicated to building infrastructure that helps Ethereum scale. As a formally launched second-layer scaling solution for Ethereum, it is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) sidechain network, often referred to as "EOS on Ethereum." This allows highly scalable games and user-facing DApps to run on top of it, providing the same level of scalability and throughput promised by alternative platforms like EOS, while still maintaining full compatibility with Ethereum and its security. At its core is the Loom Software Development Kit (SDK), a tool that enables developers to focus on writing application logic while the SDK handles blockchain logic.
1. Project Overview
Loom Network is an Ethereum-based platform-as-a-service that allows developers to run large-scale decentralized applications. This enables developers to leverage the trust and security of the worlds most secure public blockchain, along with the computational resources needed to run enterprise-grade services, to build DApps. Much like how Filecoin tokenizes disk space, Loom aims to become the tokenized application protocol for new decentralized networks.
Loom Network DAppChains
The DAppChains developed by the Loom team are Ethereum-specific sidechains designed for running decentralized applications at scale. Developers can run their dApps on these sidechains, and communities can operate the software on them. Each DApp runs on its own blockchain, with data that is publicly available and forkable. Loom Network focuses on "gaming" and "social" platforms within the Ethereum network, effectively separating "gaming" and "social" functionalities from the congested Ethereum network.
Project Features
Addressing Ethereum network congestion and low performance issues:
Loom Network solves Ethereums limitations through sidechain protocols, which can coexist with other Ethereum scaling solutions such as Raiden and Plasma.
Solving resource isolation problems:
Entire DApps running on Looms DApp chains operate on a decentralized blockchain, meeting the needs of real-world decentralized applications without overwhelming the Ethereum network, avoiding events like CryptoKitties.
Solving traditional gaming issues related to virtual asset depreciation, fairness, reputation, and trust:
Blockchain technology, through distributed ledgers and smart contracts, ensures that random number generation programs and automatic reporting systems are managed by cryptographically verifiable code, significantly increasing trust levels and adding value to the online interactive gaming industry, improving the existing ecosystem.
Use Cases
Loom Network currently focuses on gaming and social applications:
Gaming - Building games that only blockchain can enable: verifiable scarcity items, tradable tokens, eternal worlds, cross-game universes
Social - Breaking free from the ad-driven model of social applications, monetizing through Karma tokens, expanding via multiple clients, and reducing cumbersome authentication processes.
Internal Projects
DelegateCall:
DelegateCall is a blockchain-based question-and-answer system where users can earn points by asking or answering questions, which can be exchanged for DelegateCall Tokens (ERC-20 tokens). It was the first project launched on Loom Networks mainnet.
CryptoZombies:
CryptoZombies is an interactive online programming tutorial that teaches you how to write your own crypto collectible game using Solidity. It is one of the most popular blockchain programming introductory tutorials, with over 130,000 students.
EthFiddle:
EthFiddle has over 10,000 users and is currently the most popular Solidity code-sharing website. You can compile, run, and test any Solidity code snippet on the platform, with a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for any developer to get started.
SolidityX:
A practical language for writing scalable and secure applications, SolidityX is a default safe superset of Solidity. It compiles into secure Solidity at release, avoiding known pitfalls so you spend time fixing bugs, not finding them.
Ethdeploy:
Quickly deploy and test scalable business applications.
Technical Overview
Loom Network uses sidechain technology to enable large-scale and high-throughput applications to be built on Ethereum. Ethereum serves as the main chain, and developers can easily set up DApp chains using the Loom SDK. Each DApp chain is a Loom sidechain, and it allows for EOS-like sidechain platforms to emerge, with multiple DApps built on a single sidechain, such as the ZombieChain developed by the Loom team.
Sidechain technology was proposed in 2014, defined by a custom "ruleset" that can be used to offload computation from another chain. Each sidechain can follow different rules from the main chain while still relying on the main chain for requests requiring the highest level of security. Currently, the Dapp products are positioned for social platforms and games. In the case of the Scalability Trilemma (where decentralization, security, and scalability cannot all be maximized simultaneously), some security can be sacrificed for optimal performance, which is compensated for by economic incentives specific to the environment, such as making the gains from tampering with a blog post or a game transaction negligible. The Loom ecosystem supports free forking, allowing the community to migrate to a new sidechain if one becomes compromised.
In terms of value transfer, all these Loom sidechains consider Ethereum as the ultimate court, using Plasma Cash to ensure security. Loom Network claims to be the first team to integrate Plasma at the level of developing DApp chains. The implementation of Plasma Cash consists of a Plasma smart contract on the Ethereum mainnet and a Loom sidechain smart contract that can communicate with the Plasma contract. Users first send their tokens to the Plasma contract, which then emits a Deposit event that the listening sidechain receives. Users then receive a special Plasma Cash token on the sidechain, representing their ownership of the token on the mainnet.
Sidechains periodically "archive" to the mainnet by submitting the Merkle root of their blocks to the Plasma contract, showing any changes in token ownership. When a security issue arises on a sidechain, users can directly submit exit requests to the Plasma contract on the mainnet. Then, the tokens enter a "challenge period," during which challengers can submit signed transaction evidence proving that the user attempting to exit the tokens is not the valid owner. If the challenge period is unsuccessful, the user can withdraw their tokens from the Plasma contract.
2. Commentary
Loom Network DAppChains are designed specifically for gaming and social applications. Everything is built on a forkable, decentralized, and readable blockchain ruleset. DApp chains are blockchains with all features, capable of running on Ethereum smart contracts. Each DApp runs on its own blockchain, with data that is public and forkable, much like Ethereum and blockchain. Loom Network provides an Infura-like caching layer that simplifies everything, and more fundamentally, it is a very pure blockchain: forkable, trustworthy, efficient, and scalable.
Related Links:
https://loomx.io/
https://info.binance.com/cn/currencies/loom-network
http://www.genesisfor.com/life1/life11/459.html
