Chaîne Chooses an Ethereum Sidechain
Here's a technical update. After investigating a number of blockchains – with varying degrees of software maturity – we've decided to KISS and use Ethereum out-of-the-box. This was inspired by some fellow developers who are creating a game on an Ethereum sidechain (cryptopepes.io). They'll be setting up a 'private' but open DPOS (Distributed Proof of Stake) network with a number of server nodes.
As Chaîne plans to have a network with eventually 195 nodes (as many as there are countries) a sidechain will not only work but be advantageous: it won't be subject to variable network load from other initiatives. Plus using Ethereum out-of-the-box simplifies the software management; we'll just ride along with the core improvements.
However our plan to operate child chains for each country has to change. Instead of a Directed Acyclic Graph structure the blockchain will be linear with countries checking in data in successive transactions. We'll be able to filter the data with a query (if country_code == XX) so our plans for the collection applications and analytic tools remain the same.
Each country will run its own node which will be outfitted with a default set of functionality and applications. As the software will be open source it'll also be possible for each country to customize its infrastructure as needed. This will require coordination between the local IT teams and UN/Chaîne personnel. The intention is to share knowledge among all involved via collaboration channels.
Using Ethereum means the contracts will be written in Solidity and this should simplify participation too, especially on a local level. There will be no need for developers to learn a new scripting technology. Solidity is also a proven language under constant scrutiny.
For the upcoming development we'll work on an Ethereum testnet such as Ropsten. Later we'll migrate to our our own sidechain and implement DPOS.
A sidechain will also mean we need a token to function as Ether. This has a lot of interesting potential, such as the option to create assets. We'll explore this aspect in a future post. We’ll also be updating the Idea Description doc to reflect our current thinking.