#112 - Chainlens Spaces: Scaling the EVM with BlockDAG on Waterfall Network

7 snips

Oct 28, 2024

Sergii Grybniak, Head of Research at Blue Wave Inc. and Waterfall Network, holds a PhD specializing in directed acyclic graphs (DAGs). In this chat, he outlines how BlockDAG can scale Ethereum’s Virtual Machine while navigating the challenges of decentralization. Sergii shares insights from his PhD journey that led to the creation of Waterfall Network, focusing on low hardware requirements for validators and a vision for virtually unlimited sharding. He believes DAG technology is key to the future of decentralized, high-performance networks.

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ANECDOTE

PhD Research Became Waterfall Network

Sergii traced Waterfall Network back to his PhD research on directed acyclic graphs (DAGs).
He turned academic research into a production project after years building Ethereum-inspired tools.

INSIGHT

DAGs Unlock Multi-Level Parallelism

DAGs enable parallelism at multiple levels to increase scalability and decentralization.
Sergii views DAGs as a way to reduce the trade-off between scalability and decentralization.

ANECDOTE

Eight Testnets Led To Mainnet

Waterfall ran eight testnets from 2021 before launching mainnet.
Sergii says the mainnet shows promising intermediary results but the team remains cautious.

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In this episode of Chainlens Spaces, host Conor Svensson speaks with Sergii Grybniak, Head of Research at Blue Wave Inc. and the Waterfall Network. Sergii discusses how BlockDAG technology can scale Ethereum’s Virtual Machine (EVM), the challenges of decentralization, and the journey of developing the Waterfall Network from his PhD research. The conversation highlights the importance of solving the scalability trilemma—balancing decentralization, security, and scalability—through Waterfall’s innovative architecture.

Key Moments:

- Introduction to DAGs: Sergii shares his research on Directed Acyclic Graphs (DAGs) and how they enable more scalable and decentralized networks compared to traditional blockchain architecture.

- Creating Waterfall Network: From Sergii’s PhD research to launching the mainnet, Waterfall Network’s journey toward solving the blockchain trilemma.

- Decentralization and Validator Setup: Waterfall's focus on decentralization and its effort to lower hardware requirements, enabling users to run validators on minimal hardware.

- Virtually Unlimited Sharding: How Waterfall plans to implement virtually unlimited sharding to achieve both scalability and decentralization across multiple network subsystems.

- The Future of DAG Networks: Sergii discusses what’s next for the Waterfall Network and why DAG technology could represent the future of high-performance, decentralized systems.

Standout Quotes:

1. "Directed Acyclic Graphs enable parallelism on multiple levels, making networks more scalable and decentralized."

2. "The more decentralized Waterfall becomes, the more scalable it becomes—we’re working to achieve both scalability and decentralization at all levels.

3. "Our network’s hardware requirements are low enough that people can run nodes on devices as old as 10 or 15 years, enabling broad decentralization."

4. "Waterfall is pushing the boundaries of decentralization, aiming to operate with millions of validators across continents, with a consensus mechanism that handles high validator counts efficiently."

5. "Virtually unlimited sharding allows us to create an architecture that’s scalable and decentralized across all network subsystems, not just at a surface level."

Contact Sergii Grybniak:

- Website: Waterfall.network

- Twitter | LinkedIn

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