What’s needed to make BSV the preferred blockchain network for enterprise-grade applications? BSV Association Director Thomas Giacomo spoke at the recent sCrypt Hackathon 2024 opening event with a presentation on how blockchain should exist in the real world, where business and government each have their own requirements. He also discusses the various tools and services developers can use to support their projects.
The full afternoon session of Day 2 is available at this link, and you can watch the entire two-day series of sCrypt Hackathon 2024 presentations on the CoinGeek YouTube channel. Most of the talks present the blockchain’s basic features, then go into more technical detail about how sCrypt’s TypeScript-based environment makes it easier for developers to turn their visions into working products.
In this presentation, Giacomo gives a broader overview of how the BSV blockchain space looks and introduces its core components from a developer’s perspective. The BSV Association is a Swiss NGO that acts as custodian of the Bitcoin protocol code, and it also plays a number of vital support roles in education, advocacy/liaison, training, and tools.
The main item on the BSV blockchain’s yearly roadmap is the Teranode protocol upgrade. Fundamentally, the BSV blockchain world believes in Layer 1 scaling, and Teranode will enable the network to process millions of transactions per second. The protocol must still follow Satoshi Nakamoto‘s original and “set in stone” transaction rules, protecting any application built on the BSV blockchain network.
The BSV blockchain “is cheap, fast, and secure,” Giacomo says. Efficiency and “sustainable proof-of-work” are also goals, as is compliance: “If we want adoption, we have to ensure the chain is compliant with the regulatory framework.” The idea is to emphasize BSV blockchain’s role as a versatile technology for enterprises rather than creating speculative assets.
Giacomo shows there are currently at least 163 different applications running on the BSV blockchain across a variety of industry sectors and use cases, including education, finance, food/beverage, legal, media/entertainment, supply chain, and technology. He also refers to sCrypt CEO Xiaohui Liu‘s “boomers vs. degens” remark from the day before, agreeing that the two are not mutually exclusive.
While the blockchain and its immutable transaction records should scale on Layer 1, there is still room for complementary services on other layers. These layers extend the blockchain network’s capabilities with plugins, indexers, token libraries, smart contracts, and APIs.
“Everyone should understand that Teranode (by itself) will not be enough,” Giacomo says, adding that everyone will need to use SPV (detailed in the original Bitcoin white paper) to be able to verify the transactions the network processes.
Along with stewardship of the protocol and its governance, BSV blockchain’s main infrastructure components include a reliable SPV wallet, ARC, Overlay Networks, Merkle Services, and software libraries for developers. Many of these services are yet to be built or tested fully, and there’s always room for developers to build better services to make these components more useful. BSV blockchain must encourage as many developers as possible to contribute, and the vital components/tools are open source for this reason.
He notes that the BSV Association is also seeking ISO 27001 (the standard for information security management systems) certification, working on strategic partnerships in government and academia, and regularly sponsors events such as sCrypt’s Hackathon, the London Blockchain Conference, and various smaller/more specific events in other countries around the world.
If you’re a developer and the presentations from sCrypt’s event sound interesting, check out the other sCrypt Hackathon sessions or look at sCrypt’s work. Even if you miss out on participating in the sCrypt Hackathon 2024, sCrypt’s website is open at any time as a resource for people to find out more.
Watch: BSV entrepreneurs prove Bitcoin works with their applications
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