A close look at PARAMETA, the framework that makes building a mainnet easy
The latest ICONLOOP interview with CoinDesk Korea is out.
It centers on PARAMETA, ICONLOOP's own blockchain framework, which lets anyone stand up a blockchain mainnet easily and shape it around a wide range of business requirements.
See the ICONLOOP PARAMETA introduction page ▼
PARAMETA is built on loopchain, the independently developed engine that holds all of ICONLOOP's core blockchain technology. On top of that foundation it brings proven modules, a broad set of tools for standing up a mainnet, and interoperability solutions for connecting blockchains to one another — so you can build a custom blockchain optimized for any business. It is a full-package blockchain toolkit covering development from Layer 0 through Layer 4 (L0–L4), which means public and private blockchains alike can be built quickly and easily. And through the interchain technology and BTP (Blockchain Transmission Protocol) that ICONLOOP developed in-house, you can interconnect with a variety of blockchains and run your business across them.
PARAMETA also provides everything a Web3 business needs technically, plus all-round support for operating a blockchain more efficiently. That includes smart contracts tailored to different business needs — FT, NFT, DEX, AMM and more — as well as supporting technologies required to actually build a service, such as BFS, PDS and VAULT, along with fast processing speed and block finality guaranteed by a proven consensus algorithm. On top of that come an easily customizable token economy and fee system, managed node operation, and response support when network conflicts or issues arise.
The interview with ICONLOOP Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Hyukgon Ryu on the subject of PARAMETA follows below.
There is a new entrant in this year's interchain race: ICONLOOP, a first-generation Korean blockchain company. Until last year ICONLOOP focused on government projects on the strength of its decentralized identifier (DID) technology, and now it has thrown down the gauntlet with PARAMETA, its own blockchain framework.
One of Web3's limits is fragmentation. A non-fungible token (NFT) minted on the Ethereum network cannot be used in a game built on the Avalanche network. Every country has its own preferred blockchain, yet everyone ends up picking Ethereum anyway — for the reach.
Interchain has drawn attention as the answer. Interchain is the technology that sends an asset minted on network A directly to network B. Put simply, with interchain technology an NFT created on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) can be sold on a Klaytn-based NFT marketplace.
Before interchain, you had to go through a process called wrapping. Bitcoin, for example, cannot be accepted directly by an Ethereum-based DeFi (decentralized finance) service. Converting it into an Ethereum-compatible version (WBTC, wrapped Bitcoin) is what wrapping means.
But wrapping has its limits. To begin with, both wrapping and unwrapping carry a fee. And because there is an intermediary in the process, the possibility of a rug pull exists (a rug pull being when a foundation or core development team dumps its entire holdings at the top and pockets the gains for itself).
Against that backdrop, Cosmos and Polkadot have drawn attention by proposing token exchange methods that require no wrapping. Cosmos also connects to other blockchains through its software development kit (SDK), and Polkadot through Substrate. Other Layer 1 projects are increasingly pursuing interchain strategies of their own.
So what sets ICONLOOP apart? Meeting <CoinDesk Korea> on the 17th of last month, ICONLOOP CTO Hyukgon Ryu emphasized that "PARAMETA packages a full-stack solution for Web3."
Cosmos and Polkadot work by taking modules and combining them into the blockchain you want. PARAMETA is different — it delivers the blockchain core, nodes, NFTs at the service layer, and ICONLOOP's interchain protocol (BTP) as a single package. It provides validator functionality too, so even companies with no blockchain expertise can step into the Web3 ecosystem easily.
Also, Cosmos is only compatible with networks that have attached the Cosmos SDK. Polkadot does not support connections between heterogeneous chains either. PARAMETA, on the other hand, can connect to any network.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
You could sense the determination to use the technical depth built up as a first-generation Korean blockchain company to lower the barrier to entry for the Web3 ecosystem.
The biggest problem when new entrants build a mainnet independently is decentralization. On top of that, from the earliest days of the mainnet, users need to be able to bring over and use assets held on networks like Ethereum or Klaytn.
We can use the validators of the ICON public blockchain to decentralize a newly created mainnet. And if you apply BTP, users can bring NFTs minted on other networks over to Klaytn or Ethereum.
The upshot is that a service provider gets to run its own mainnet while still enjoying the advantage of being connected to other blockchains (by using PARAMETA).
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
By this point interchain starts to sound like a cure-all. Yet given the string of hacking incidents, the security of the interchain ecosystem — bridges in particular — still looks fragile. Ryu pointed out that this is "because most bridges use a trusted model." (Bridges divide broadly into trusted ones, which hand transaction verification to a third party, and trustless ones, which rely entirely on smart contracts.)
(In a lock-and-mint style bridge) the bridge's validators hold the authority to unlock assets locked on one chain or to mint assets on another. When you move an asset from chain A to chain B through a bridge, what actually happens is that assets are issued on chain B to the value of the assets locked on chain A.
The problem is that those validators are often centralized. The best-known case is the Ronin bridge of Axie Infinity: transactions could be executed with signatures from five of its nine validators, and Sky Mavis (the developer of Axie Infinity) operated four of them. Which means attacking Sky Mavis alone was enough to make off with the assets.
PARAMETA is different — it is a trustless bridge. There is no validator in the middle. Chain B verifies directly that an asset has been locked on chain A. You would have to attack an entire chain to steal assets, which makes hacking effectively impossible.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
At present PARAMETA supports only Java and Python as programming languages. The plan is to extend support to Solidity in the second half of next year. Another area ICONLOOP has its eye on is storage.
Storage is an area where decentralization still has not really happened.
Existing distributed data storage methods (IPFS) have an operator, so it is hard to call them fully decentralized. If the operator shuts down the business, the data goes with it.
The decentralized storage I am talking about means data is split up and stored across nodes, and if a few of those nodes disappear, it is redistributed so the data does not disappear with them. We are preparing decentralized storage on PARAMETA, and I expect we will show it around the second half of next year.
Hyukgon Ryu, ICONLOOP CTO
Plenty of Layer 2 projects have been launching lately, but the market still shows more interest in Layer 1 projects. "Layer 2 technology is not yet at a mature stage," Ryu said. "When you try to withdraw an asset you sent to Layer 2, confirming that transaction can take a week — so people seem to feel that using Layer 1 is more efficient in both cost and time."
Ryu named Avalanche and Polygon as the projects he is watching with interest. "What is interesting about Avalanche is that it introduced a directed acyclic graph (DAG) into the X-Chain, the blockchain that handles assets," he said. "Polygon interests me because Layer 2 looks likely to take off (once ZK rollups properly find their footing)."
ICONLOOP is pinning its hopes on HAVAH, the first project built with PARAMETA. HAVAH is an interchain NFT entertainment platform. "So far HAVAH is the only platform officially built on top of PARAMETA," Ryu said. "I expect HAVAH to expand where NFTs can be used — for example, letting NFTs minted on other chains be used as items in HAVAH-based games."
Read the article ▼
ICONLOOP Takes On Interchain with PARAMETA, a Web3 Full-Stack Package — CoinDesk Korea
There is a new entrant in this year's interchain race: ICONLOOP, a first-generation Korean blockchain company. Until last year ICONLOOP focused on government projects on the strength of its decentralized identifier (DID) technology, and now it has thrown down the gauntlet with its own blockchain framework, PARAMETA...
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