Loom Network (LOOM): The Next Ethereum?

The cryptocurrency market has been the subject of focus of the investing community worldwide over the past few years. Indeed, the hype for cryptocurrencies is at their peak at the moment, with the overall crypto-market recovering from a drastic slump experienced at the beginning of the year. Even after all the publicity and the hype, the majority investors still do not fully understand the blockchain concept, with their main focus on the top 3 coins, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Ripple. However, 2017 saw the emergence of many such projects that aim to address all the issues of the aforementioned three. One such project is the Loom Network.

About the Loom Network:

Among all the specific use cases that blockchain projects have, Loom Network focuses on providing a next-generation blockchain platform for large-scale online gaming as well as social interaction. The Loom Network team also provides a “coding school” where developers can make their own games based on the famed “smart contract” technology. The project is still in its infancy with no large gaming project or development house having yet approached it. As of 17/4/2018, Loom Network is ranked 125^th with a combined market cap of $94,034,086 USD and valued at $0.192282 USD.

The Loom Network technology is based on the Ethereum blockchain but meant for large-scale online games and social DApps, something that the Ethereum network has experienced problems with in the past. Thus, it is built on an Ethereum Side chain offering trust and security, along with the computing resources necessary for operating commercial-scale services. It is one of the very few projects which did not have a whitepaper when it originally started and is already backed up by several projects, one of which being “CryptoZombies”.

Loom network’s Recent Developments:

The Loom Network’s Developers have recently released an update explaining the development of Plasma Support for Loom DApp Chains. As explained by them, DApp’s require trust assumptions to be made in order to effectively reach their target scalability. They thus decided to introduce Plasma technology, and more specifically, Plasma Cash to address these scalability issues. Indeed, analysts firmly believe that Plasma’s utility will help companies that need automated plasma security for their respective private or public chains.

How Does Plasma Technology Work?

Contrary to existing sidechains, Plasma Cash allows developers to transfer assets onto side chains securely. This is achieved by associating the asset deposited by a user onto a sidechain with a specific serial number.  The asset, which can be a token, is non-fungible and thus has its own transaction history. This results in zero-confirmation transactions. Because of plasma technology, the efficiency of a side-chain is greatly increased, which is great for exchanges and games in the crypto-space. It also adds an extra layer of security, as users can reclaim their funds on the Mainchain through “plasma exits” in case of a data breach.

What Plasma Technology can bring to Loom Network’s DAppChains:

As mentioned before, DAppChains were secured through DPos, which is not fully decentralized and requires the users to put some level of trust in the witnesses who are running the network. Implementing Plasma Cash technology will result in better security in this regard, as it will allow more critical operations to run the chain without high trust level requirements. Users thus no longer have to trust any sidechains as they are secured by Plasma Cash constructs.

With the addition of Plasma Cash, DAppChains can now report “Merkle proofs” which act as checkpoints directly to the Ethereum Mainnnet. Loom Network’s variant will use a slightly different implementation of the existing Plasma MVP to better suit the online gaming environment.  The plasma implementation news was received with positivity within the community, with many crediting the Loom Network to be the future of DApp development.

Final thoughts:

With an over-abundance of blockchain related projects littering the crypto-space, it is getting increasingly crucial for investors to take a closer look at an upcoming project that seems viable. The fruition of the Loom Network would mean a victory not only for the crypto-space in general but also for the implementation of blockchain technology which is poised to take over the world in the recent future. Indeed, the future prospects for the Loom Network are pretty high, with many believing that it can oust Ethereum from its position.

We will be updating our subscribers as soon as we know more. For the latest on LOOM, sign up for our Telegram!

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide, investment advice. Global Coin Report and/or its affiliates, employees, writers, and subcontractors are cryptocurrency investors and from time to time may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency and read our full disclaimer.

Image courtesy of Daniel Friedman via Flickr