Remember how Ethereum 2.0 was meant to transform the Ethereum network into a fast, scalable and low cost environment for hosting thousands of dapps? That vision may one day come to pass but it’s fair to say that the improvements the multi-year Ethereum 2.0 roadmap have implemented so far haven’t come close to realizing that goal.
Scaling blockchains that are used by millions of users and process billions of dollars of value isn’t easy. Any upgrades need to be backwards compatible to avoid breaking anything and the potential disruption from even a seemingly minor bug can be enormous. Which is why Ethereum core developers are in no rush to push new upgrades onto the mainnet.
While Ethereum innovation stagnates, Polkadot has taken a leaf out of its playbook and unveiled its own grand scaling program. JAM is equally as ambitious as the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap but is intended to be implemented in a much shorter space of time. Can Polkadot succeed where Ethereum has stalled, or will JAM run into the same trouble?
From Gray Paper to Production
Blockchain technology begins life in technical papers but it’s only once the concepts they advance start being built out that their capabilities can be assessed. While no one disputes Dr Gavin Wood’s visionary thinking, the JAM gray paper is highly ambitious to put it mildly. Development on the Polkadot upgrade is gathering pace, however, and the developer community appears to be very much onboard.
The minutiae of what JAM entails will escape all but the most technical of crypto users, but in broad terms it’s an attempt to make Polkadot more scalable, easier to build on, and better connected. Up until now, parachains have operated as isolated communities that are connected to the relay chain but distant from the beating heart of web3: the liquidity, users, use cases, and layers that make for a thriving ecosystem.
JAM aims to make it easier for developers to build on Polkadot and to create powerful dapps that can execute smart contracts pulling data from multiple sources. It will also increase Polkadot’s throughput by 3x, making it around 650x faster than Ethereum. While the benefits this engenders may not be felt at first, they’ll prove invaluable should Polkadot succeed in onboarding millions of new users and hundreds of projects seeking to create high volume dapps.
The ability to build dapps that can perform thousands of transactions per second and process massive amounts of data opens the door to all kinds of use cases. Gaming and AI are the most obvious ones, but there are also applications in terms of trading and DeFi. Developers could create powerful derivatives platforms, prediction markets, and much more.
Leveling the Playing Field
JAM will unlock new ways for core time to be utilized, which must currently be purchased with DOT. It will support transactionless applications as well as ZK rollups, meaning devs can create their own high speed, low-cost L2s. They can also leverage ZKs to add privacy features, which has significant potential in coding apps for TradFi and DeFi in particular.
Ultimately, though, JAM is an attempt to make Polkadot more welcoming to developers. Easier to build on, easier to maintain dapps, and easier to integrate smart contracts. If JAM’s implementation succeeds, it will level the playing field for Polkadot developers, ensuring they have the resources, the tools, and the framework to create the dapps they’ve always dreamed of.
A bounty program is currently incentivizing devs to create Jam clients to decentralize its protocol and JAM Toaster, an emulator running more than 1,000 JAM nodes, is already operational. There’s still a lot of work to be done but JAM is now long past the stage of technical paper and on its way to becoming a working reality. Brace yourselves: Polkadot 2.0 is coming.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
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