Source: Three o'clock sleepless blockchain community
Cai Wensheng: Now I invite the main creators of Zipper to share with you how zip will change ripple for your reference. Zhang Jian, the original Huobi CTO and Xiong Kemiao have been working on the bank settlement account system and are the main creators of zipper.
Xiong Kemiao: One of the founders of Zipper
Zhang Jian: Technical Consultant of Zipper China
What are the pros and cons of Zipper vs Ripple?
Kemiao Xiong: To put it simply, Zipper is a multi-blockchain architecture with cross-chain as the core for the financial field. The rapid development of blockchain technology has clearly demonstrated that new finance based on blockchain will be an irresistible trend. But at the same time, we have also seen that financial institutions in various countries have adopted a cautious attitude towards the application and construction of blockchain due to considerations of security, compliance, technical standardization and other aspects at this stage. Disconnected islands are formed between the various chains built using different blockchain technologies. To achieve interoperability on the premise of meeting the compliance requirements of different countries and regions is the "rigid need" of global financial institutions. Zipper came into being in this context.
The biggest difference between Zipper and Ripper is that Zipper is defined as a financial-grade public chain, while Ripple is defined as an enterprise-grade blockchain.
Background 1: The relationship and development direction of public and private chains
Zhang Jian: From the perspective of credit, it can be understood that the public chain is the public credit endorsement, while the private chain is endorsed by the private sector or alliance. Different credit endorsements lead to different scopes of application. If the public chain is compared to the current Internet, the private chain is the local area network. The value of a local area network without access to the Internet is very small. So I think that the prospect of public and private chains is that all types of private chains or consortium chains will eventually connect to or be replaced by public chains, just as rivers flow into the sea. At present, due to the consideration of compliance and privacy security in global financial institutions, most blockchain application attempts are concentrated in the alliance chain, and how to connect with the public chain will become very critical in the future.
Background 2: Blockchain infrastructure, applications and industrial chain
Zhang Jian: The vertical classification of the blockchain system can be divided into two categories: infrastructure and applications. The infrastructure is what we often call the underlying blockchain, and the application refers to the DApp (decentralized application) based on the underlying blockchain. Mining machines, mining farms, exchanges, etc. belong to the industrial chain around the blockchain. In the "New Generation Infrastructure" section of my blockchain book, it is mentioned that the infrastructure of the blockchain mainly includes two parts: one is the diversified blockchains, and the other is the connection facilities between the blockchains . In the future, the distribution of diversification will show such a law: the closer to the bottom layer, the more single it tends to be, and the closer to the application layer, the more diverse it tends to be. Due to the existence of diversified blockchains, the connection facilities between blockchains have also become an indispensable part. The Zipper, which is mentioned immediately, falls into this category.
Question 1 : What is Zipper?
Zhang Jian: To put it simply, Zipper is a multi-blockchain architecture with cross-chain as the core for the financial field. The rapid development of blockchain technology has clearly demonstrated that new finance based on blockchain will be an irresistible trend. But at the same time, we have also seen that financial institutions in various countries have adopted a cautious attitude towards the application and construction of blockchain due to considerations of security, compliance, technical standardization and other aspects at this stage. Disconnected islands are formed between the various chains built using different blockchain technologies. To achieve interoperability on the premise of meeting the compliance requirements of different countries and regions is the "rigid need" of global financial institutions. Zipper came into being in this context.
Question 2 :What are the characteristics of Zipper?
Zhang Jian: First, compatibility/compliance. Zipper's ACIP is a heterogeneous cross-chain interoperability protocol, which is compatible with blockchain implementations of completely different architectures, and provides financial institutions with the ability to access public blockchains in different internal implementations on the premise of meeting compliance requirements. ability. The second is efficiency. Zipper's SCIP is an isomorphic cross-chain interoperability protocol, which meets the overall requirements of high concurrency and scalability. The third is privacy and security. First of all, the cross-chain architecture itself effectively shields the transmission of private information between different chains. In addition, the data separation and credit verification strategy adopted by Zipper can better balance payment efficiency and privacy security.
Question 3 :What is Zipper essentially doing?
Zhang Jian: In essence, it is the interface between the real world and the digital encryption world. In fact, the exchange currently undertakes this function, but it is not enough. Putting aside the debate on centralization or decentralization, from the results, the exchange only realized the opening of the currency level. However, large-scale asset digitization/blockchainization in the future will require converting various forms of assets in the real world into digital assets. Zipper is essentially doing this.
Question 4 :What is Zipper's development plan?
Zhang Jian: According to the announced plan, we will launch the mainnet in Q1 of 2019. Among them, the core design and development of SCIP and FEA was completed in Q3 of 2018, and the development of ACIP and CCG was completed in Q4 of 2018, and the test network was released.
Question 5 :An understanding of the future of digital assets?
Zhang Jian: I think the rapid development of blockchain will not only drive the emergence and development of native digital assets, but also drive the large-scale digitization of real assets. With the transition from physical assets to digital assets, the boundaries between assets and currencies will become increasingly blurred. It is foreseeable that in the era of digital assets, there will be a large number of different types of assets with similar liquidity to currencies. In many financial scenarios in the future, these assets with the same liquidity as currency can even complete transactions in place of currency, or exchange directly between various types of assets without currency as an intermediary. The traditional monetary theory and even the legal system will be transformed and adjusted under the impact of digital assets.
(Q: Does China’s blockchain still need to copy the American model? I don’t think it can be copied, the policy environment is different, the blockchain revolution is a top-down revolution, not a bottom-up revolution. @Cai Wensheng)
Zhang Jian's understanding of blockchain
I think the blockchain (here refers to the Bitcoin-type public chain) can be understood as a set of code-based institutional arrangements to complete the construction of a decentralized collaboration system.
The market economy is a typical decentralized collaboration system. We do not need to regulate the price and output of products like the planned economy, but institutional construction is needed.
From the beginning of its birth, the blockchain cannot be viewed or evaluated only from a technical point of view, otherwise, completely wrong conclusions will be drawn. Blockchain is a cross-border product that integrates the Internet, cryptography and economics.