Massa, the most accessible Layer 1 so far
Blockchain has certainly come a long way. The first ideas that led to the creation of distributed ledger technology date all the way back to the 1970s. What truly introduced blockchain tech to the public was the meteoric rise of Bitcoin. The financial crisis of 2008 proved to be the catalyst that inspired Satoshi Nakamoto to create a new kind of blockchain. One that removed the need for a middleman and allowed users to communicate in a true peer-to-peer fashion. The creation of Bitcoin formed the concept of financial decentralization — an idea made possible by blockchain technology.
Fast forward to 2022 and blockchain technology is still improving and adapting. Bitcoin has remained the biggest and most influential cryptocurrency for over a decade now, followed closely by Ethereum. Sadly, the original idea of decentralizing networks is now being pushed aside as blockchains are becoming increasingly centralized. And this isn’t even a direct result of stricter regulation kicking in. While the core blockchain properties, such as a distributed ledger solutions available to the public are still there, the spirit of decentralization has been losing its luster. The main reason for this is the issue of accessibility. More precisely — the lack of it.
The need for accessibility
To drive the adoption of blockchain technology further, blockchains need to be accessible. Not just for individuals but also for any other entities that want to make the most of this new technology. Despite the huge spike in popularity during the most recent bull run, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology are still relatively new. This means that the majority of users are still not too familiar with how it all works. Even if that wasn’t the case, there are other obstacles that render many of the popular blockchains inaccessible for many.
One big barrier to entry is transaction fees. Let’s take the elephant in the room, Ethereum, as an example. Ethereum is undoubtedly the largest smart contracts platform and for good reason. It has established itself as the source of various token models and it uses a programming language that’s already familiar to many developers, making it relatively easy to build on.
On the downside, Ethereum’s scalability has always been an issue and this has led to disproportionately high transaction fees. With Layer 2 solutions trying to remedy that, this issue can be resolved but it shows a clear flaw on the mainnet, one that could’ve been avoided entirely with better architecture. Another red flag for Ethereum’s decentralization was the recent switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake. Many would agree that the true spirit of decentralization lies with proof-of-work, a consensus mechanism that allows anyone to join, support the security of the network and earn rewards for it. This, however, comes at the cost of high energy consumption.
Proof-of-stake fixes the power usage but adds another barrier for Ethereum users. Anyone who wants to run a node needs to have at least 32 ETH in their wallet. Even with the current market downtrend, that’s not a small sum of money. This severely limits the decentralization of the network, restricting the number of validators to thousands instead of millions. If true decentralization is to be achieved at scale, the urgent need for a new blockchain solution is becoming painfully obvious.
Accessibility for all with Massa
At their core, public blockchains stand for security, transparency, self-governance and decentralization. However, very few blockchains actually live up to this set of values. Because human nature is a hard thing to change even with technology, power tends to accumulate within a handful of individuals in the long run. Those individuals can then directly impact the future development and application of blockchain networks.
One way to prevent this from happening is to build with foresight and engage as many members of the community as possible. The most effective way to achieve this is by lowering the requirements to run a validator node on the network, democratizing the governance of the blockchain and constantly striving for the highest degree of decentralization. The higher the number of participants, the safer the network.
This is exactly what the Massa team is currently doing. Massa is a new breed of Layer 1 public blockchain that’s built by the people for the people. Massa solves the age-old blockchain trilemma through technological innovation and puts the focus on accessibility and decentralization by lowering the requirements to run a node. Community members can start running their own Massa validator node with just a few tokens, which is incentivizing even higher levels of decentralization and opening the door for mass adoption. With over 8000 validator nodes running on the beta mainnet, Massa already offers a level of decentralization much higher than any of its Layer 1 competitors.
Another key element that adds to Massa’s high level of security is its energy-efficient, Sybil-resistant Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism. Indeed, Massa users can stake their tokens, giving them an additional incentive to be running a validator node and supporting the network 24/7.
The way forward is clear
Recent events in the crypto space have made it clear that decentralization is the way forward. Due to its high Nakamoto coefficient, which directly measures decentralization, any malicious parties will find it extremely difficult to penetrate Massa’s security. Aside from taking the lead in true decentralization, Massa offers users additional advantages such as thousands of transactions per second, low transaction fees, unlimited scalability and fair tokenomics. With none of the popular Layer 1 blockchains offering the necessary components to achieve true decentralization, it’s time to look for an alternative.
Massa blockchain is already able to address the need for decentralization and provide users with a solution that doesn’t compromise security or scalability. With the above barriers to entry out of the way, Massa allows anyone to start supporting the network and contribute to fulfilling the ultimate end goal of maximum decentralization. Developers and users can finally rest assured that the blockchain they’re building upon will remain independent and unaffected by a closed group of individuals.
For a truly decentralized future, the one clear path is Massa.
About Massa:
Massa is a high-performance blockchain designed to be truly decentralized from the start. Massa testnet was released in July 2021, providing an easy way for anyone to test our protocol, and has been constantly improving since then.
- Website: massa.net
- Testnet explorer: https://massa.net/testnet
- Documentation: https://docs.massa.net/
- Source code and tutorials: github.com/massalabs/massa
- Telegram: t.me/massanetwork
- Discord: discord.gg/massa
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MassaLabs
- Reddit: reddit.com/r/massa/
- Youtube: youtube.com/channel/UChVfdvYpn0eFk4B-T7TGmOg
