How this smart contract platform can potentially deliver unlimited scalability
2024-12-04 10:18:43

From cointelegraph by Emre Gunen

Waterfall Network, a highly scalable and decentralized layer-1 protocol powered by directed acyclic graph (DAG) technology, recently achieved nearly 13,000 TPS on its mainnet.

While blockchain is hailed for its secure, transparent and unmediated transactions, a significant challenge hinders its meaningful entry into the global economy: scalability.

Maintaining consistent transaction speed and quality, regardless of the number of users online, is essential for Web3 technologies to become a cornerstone of the global economy. Without this capability, widespread adoption remains an uphill battle.

At the heart of this challenge lies the blockchain trilemma — the inherent difficulty of achieving scalability, security and decentralization simultaneously. Since security is non-negotiable, developers are often left with no choice but to deprioritize decentralization.

Yet, in the Web3 era, decentralization is more than a technical feature; it is a fundamental principle that distinguishes Web3 from the centralized frameworks of traditional Web2.

An innovative architecture enabling the simultaneous verification and addition of multiple transactions emerges as the solution that effectively overcomes blockchain's limitations.

Instead of trying to add scalability as an afterthought, a DAG is designed from the start to be highly scalable while also being decentralized.

Potentially unlimited scalability

Waterfall Network, a layer-1 decentralized and scalable ledger, addresses the blockchain industry’s most pressing challenges of scalability, decentralization and cost-effectiveness. Compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), the network allows users to run validator nodes on low-cost devices while enabling seamless migration of decentralized applications (DApps).

Waterfall recently set a new benchmark for blockchain performance, achieving 12,778 transactions per second (TPS) on its mainnet — 1,000 TPS more than its testnet record. It is a rare example of the mainnet outperforming the testnet performance.