'Layer 2' Blockchain Tech Is an Even Bigger Deal Than You Think

Michael J. Casey is chairman of CoinDesk's advisory board and a senior advisor of blockchain research at MIT's Digital Currency Initiative.

We are now entering an exciting new phase of blockchain development in which the lightning network and other programming solutions that operate "On top" of existing blockchains promise big strides in scalability, interoperability and functionality.

Rather than having the script of a particular program executed by every computer in the blockchain network, it "Is implemented simply by the two or more computers involved in the transaction."

In some respects, the sequencing will be different for the blockchain industry.

Whereas HTTP was universally adopted as an almost immediate standard, there's a great deal of competition in Layer 2 blockchain solutions.

Against alternative "State channel" Layer 2 solutions for ethereum as well as with projects aiming to enable cross-chain transactions.

At the Event Horizon conference on blockchain energy in Berlin last month, much buzz was generated by presentations on the capacity of Polkadot and Slock.

Might Layer 2 solutions deny miners the fees they need to continue securing the underlying blockchain? That was the topic of a recent Twitter exchange between Ryan Selkis and Jameson Lopp.

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