The future of crypto will not just be multi-chain

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I honestly don’t think the future of crypto will **just** be multi-chain. I think the future of crypto will be multi-network. Let me explain what that means.

Up until a couple of years ago, a blockchain was of course a network. There were two main modules that made a blockchain a network: a node client and a set of peers.

The node client gives computers the methods to talk to each other to exchange data about the blockchain. So it’s the HOW. The set of peers is the computers that run the node client that speak the same language. It’s the WHO.

For example, on Ethereum there are multiple node clients built with different programming languages, but they still speak the same “blockchain” language (coreth, geth, etc.). The set of peers is always the same: the validators that validate the Ethereum network.

Bitcoin miners cannot talk to Dogecoin miners, for example. They don’t speak the same blockchain language. So, a blockchain is made by a node client (software) and peers (hardware, meaning computers and people). These blockchains can also be called Layer 1.

But scalability was an issue and tests to scale within the blockchain to have more transactions (increase block size, lower block time, etc.) failed (remember BCH?). So recently, a new paradigm emerged: devs and researchers built frameworks to simplify blockchain creation.

This can be now referred to as Layer 0 (not to confuse with LayerZero, the bridging software). Examples of Layer 0 are #Avalanche, #Polkadot, #Cosmos. But they share the same node client, and in some cases a subset of peers. So they **can be considered** networks.

So the equation blockchain == network is not anymore. The new equation is sum(blockchain) == network, where sum(blockchain) > 0. Layer 0 platforms **generalized** the concept of blockchain as a network.

But again, the share a node client, so if you want to be real paranoid, that's a single point of failure. Everything that's just in one item can be considered a point of failure. What if Ethereum gets blocked from Russia or China in some way?

No single network (that is, one that has a unique set of peers and a unique set of clients that speak the same language) is the one size fits all. The future needs to be without single points of failure. And it will be.