Tenermint plans to launch the first public blockchain to implement sharding, enabling sidechain-like functionality

Tenermint, a company specializing in blockchain applications, is preparing to launch a public blockchain that will issue tokens to create a platform similar to bitcoin or ethereum with optional features.

Tendermint first announced the project in 2014 with an ambitious white paper. Tendermint has grown into a project focused on exploring how to achieve consensus in blockchain systems without relying on power-intensive processes such as mining. The startup’s technology is now used as a consensus layer by blockchain development platforms such as Eris. Due to its structure and goals, the company is often referred to as a private blockchain project.

Tendermint co-founder Ethan Buchman told CoinDesk that the team’s move may seem surprising, but progress on the business plan is still in the formative stages.

Backman said the public blockchain is intended to attract more attention to their project. Tendermint may seek to become the first public blockchain to implement sharding, a blockchain scaling solution that is also part of ethereum’s development path.

Buckman said:

“We have created interfaces for all programming languages ​​that run on Tendermint to write applications. The master core will manage all the blockchain partitions. You can have a Bitcoin partition or an Ethereum partition. There is a lot of flexibility.”

As for how Tendermint’s earlier target market of enterprise companies will interact with public blockchains, Backman said that value proposition has yet to be fully worked out.

Bachman said their public blockchain could serve as a catalyst for the technology’s adoption in private solutions.

“We want to be able to do 20,000 to 200,000 transactions per second across many different applications and have a bottom-line security model.”

Implementing blockchain partitioning

In his speech, Backman said he believes the approach Tendermint is pursuing is much simpler than ethereum and its ongoing Casper protocol.

However, the functional goals remain the same: sharding allows for multiple blockchains to exist on the same network, so enterprises can run the equivalent of a private blockchain (with separate validators) on a platform that leverages the security of a public platform.

Backman compared their blockchain approach to the sidechain approach, which is a project currently under development by Blockstream that has similar goals as Tendermint: public and private chains can interoperate and assets can be freely transferred between the two blockchains.

“The idea is that each shard is a sidechain that sits off the main chain. The difference is that we have many shards and we designed it with that in mind.”

As an additional value-add, Tendermint’s public release will seek to have new partitions and validator partitioning logic, which allows for free definition of application state.

This means users can choose to use or not use Bitcoin’s UXTO transaction model, which has been the subject of much debate among Hyperledger project participants.

Seeking a better model than crowdsale

With such a large public blockchain, Backman said Tendermint also needs a way to distribute tokens to ensure the security and popularity of the blockchain network.

However, Backman said it remains to be seen whether Tendermint will conduct a crowdsale similar to the one the ethereum team did in 2014, which ultimately raised more than $18 million.

But there are downsides to this distribution model. For example, Backman noted that crowdsales tend to attract speculators rather than individuals who are interested in advancing the technology.

Overall, Backman highlighted Tendermint’s desire to find a better model that can identify those who are truly interested in the technology rather than those motivated by quick financial gain.

“To some extent, we want to be more responsible. We might encourage people to attend a training course or a workshop and then distribute tokens to participants. We try not to encourage blind optimism.”