“Decentralized App Store…”
Billed as the equivalent to a decentralized iTunes or Google Play (Android store), the Lisk blockchain infrastructure was released on 24 May 2016, after an ICO which raised over the equivalent of $5.7m in funds.
It was a fork of “Crypti” and designed by Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows, two German Bitcoin development experts, initially raised the funds to promote what was hailed as a major breakthrough for blockchain application development.
More akin to the likes of Ethereum / Ripple than Bitcoin, the Lisk platform has been used as the backbone for a number of initiatives, including most notably, its integration into the Microsoft Azure cloud computing service.
One of the most telling features of the system is its basis in many web technologies, with its core engine designed in NodeJS and its frontend apps coded in HTML/JS/CSS.
Whilst this is not financial or legal advice, the underlying point about cryptocurrencies like this is that the key metric to consider is adoption. If a system is being adopted (and used), it means that the system has some underlying merit, which can be translated into assets.
Unfortunately, the majority of crypto systems out there will not survive the impending crash. To determine whether one will be able to weather the storm, the most important thing is to determine its use-case, and whether its value has matched this…
What is Lisk?
Lisk is one of a plethora of blockchain systems developed to provide decentralized functionality to a particular part of the digital spectrum – in this case, the ability for people to create apps.
The problem that Lisk sought to solve was the lack of transparency and openness within the iTunes and Google Play stores – caused by a centralized structure which could deny, block and impede apps at will.
The way that Lisk wanted to provide a way around this was to give developers the opportunity to host decentralized apps across 100’s or 1000’s of servers in their network.
The various apps would have side blockchains, giving almost unlimited processing capacity to the system. Further features in the Lisk platform include:
- DPoS Design
- “Delegated Proof of Stake” – the ability for networked systems to calculate the various new “blocks” without having to resort to network-wide processing.
- Block Time
- Faster processing than the likes of Bitcoin etc.
- Forging
- Creates new LSK for each new “block” created.
Ultimately, this system has very little by way of differentiation to the likes of Ethereum or even Ripple. The main issue is that these other systems have developed a large number of intellectual assets in the form of functionality and underlying market adoption. Lisk hasn’t yet.
Who created it?
Lisk is the brainchild of two developers, both from Germany, who have been involved with the Bitcoin space since 2013…
- Max Kordek (Germany)
- Principal developer and co-founder of the system.
- Oliver Beddows (UK)
- Principal technology strategist.
They are initially a member of the “Crypti” blockchain system, but eventually go out on their own and forked Crypti to create Lisk – focused on providing a platform powered through cryptocurrency for the decentralization of games/apps.
Why does it exists?
From the Lisk Whitepaper…
Lisk is a cryptocurrency that offers a next generation platform that allows for the development and distribution of JavaScript based blockchain applications. Lisk provides an easy to use interface and access full featured ecosystem.
Through Lisk, developers can build, publish, distribute, and monetize their applications within a cryptocurrency powered system that allows for the use of customized blockchains, smart contracts, cloud storage, and computing nodes.
You can view the full Whitepaper here.
Trajectory
The Lisk application framework experienced growth due to its ICO.
However, lack of community adoption and problems with scaling the team behind it have lead to the system’s popularity waning (at one point, it was the most traded coin behind Bitcoin).
The most important thing to consider with this is its transaction volume.
Unlike the service model employed by the likes of Ripple, Stellar and Stratis, the main benefit Lisk brings is being able to deploy decentralized apps across a number of blockchain databases.
Very similar to Ethereum, its lack of unique functionality is telling – with adoption waning. On top of this, the underlying reason why Lisk has been developed – namely to provide an “app store” for blockchain does not look like it has been achieved *yet* or as well as possible.
Ultimately, from an investment perspective, we need to realize that the only “coins” that will survive are ones which have built substantive assets – either figuratively or physically.
Ethereum, Bitcoin and several altcoins including Ripple have been doing this very well.
Nice write up. One correction: DPoS stands for Delegated Proof of Stake. Any owner of Lisk can delegate their stake to a fellow Lisk holder who is forging blocks.
Ohh, apologize for that. Thanks for pointing that out.