Hey @kladkogex
Before I leave any comments, I want to outline the above with some extra details for the community on each of the phases:
Before
Today, SKALE Manager & all the SKALE Chains rely on Ethereum for orchestration, primary bridging, etc. Why? Because SKALE was originally created as a scaling solution or Ethereum. While sChains are far more decentralized, distributed, and scalable than rollups; the limitations of Ethereum from both costs (even with sharp drops in costs) as well as limitations of the base actually limit scale from scaling to it’s full potential.
We’ll talk more about this, but there are multiple instances of the SKALE team making technical decisions due to direct Ethereum limitations.
Phase I
While SKALE itself is a permissionless validator network, the chains themselves are optionally semi-permissioned which allow them to be smaller, yet incredibly powerful while also maintaining their containerized nature. This is great for theoretically infinite scalability, however, does not lend itself as well to state growth.
A critical piece of the Layer 1 is the permisionless nature in general which when combined with BITE will enable:
a. The world’s first FAIR blockchain. Built for real people to do real activity privately in a trust-less manner
2. Layer 1 blockchains that are permissionless (which SKALE Europa is not) have an easier time accruing value since the chains don’t have deployment layers that are there to protect Application or Hub Chains
- This is especially true in the case of SKALE where chains are pre-paid in advance and compute must be protected to avoid abuse
- While the SKALE Network validator set is permisionless and can continue to grow, individual sChain are currently capped at 16 nodes. While sChains are Layer 1 blockchains, they make specific trade offs to operate as a scaling solution. FAIR is being designed to ensure that it is designed as a BASE Layer. Projects that need more compute or more efficient pricing? → Try a SKALE Chain!
There is a lot more content but I think to start it’s important to recognize that FAIR intends to be the composable liquidity layer for the entire SKALE Network.
Phase II
If Phase I wasn’t enough (since TVL & Value) is important for developers; Phase II brings a MAJOR upgrade to SKALE Chains. Upgrading to the FAIR SDK, which are the key components that make FAIR the world’s fairest blockchain built for AI, DeFi, Privacy, Censorship Resistance, etc; will enable games building with Zero Gas Fees to ALSO begin to integrate with the various BITE features, in addition to their access to composable liquidity from FAIR.
Phase III
This is a really unique situation since there is actually many different ways to achieve this.
However, the end goal is bare minimum to bring SKALE Manager, SKALE Chain Orchestration, etc onto FAIR directly to ensure that SKALE can truly scale to its full potential and have a network of thousands, tens of thousands, or even millions of SKALE Chains powering businesses, governments, games, financial applications, and more all interoperable, composable, and secured by FAIR and the SKALE Network validators.
Overall – I personally am very excited by this opportunity for the SKALE Ecosystem. The reality of today (in my opinion) is that:
- Ethereum 2.0 enables MEV directly through a highly centralized block creation, proposal, and submission process which in itself is harmful to decentralized networks like SKALE
- Ethereum has decided that rollups are the best way to scale, even though we have proven otherwise for years. Why should SKALE pay fees and value to a network that doesn’t actually work well for it?
FAIR allows the SKALE Ecosystem to have the base layer it really deserves both from a decentralization and security standpoint as well as from a composable liquidity perspective.
I will be doing everything I can both from my work with SKALE Labs as well as my work with Eidolon & Dirt Road Dev on the ecosystem side to continue to help the SKALE Ecosystem grow and dominate as it explores and advances into this new phase with FAIR as it’s base. If you have questions, please don’t ever hesitate to reach out in Discord: SKALE and tag me (TheGreatAxios), tag me here in a question, or reach out on X (TheGreatAxios).
Thanks (and thank you to @kladkogex for sharing this graphic).