[2018-10-10] Blockstream's First Bitcoin Sidechain Has Finally Arrived

[gentlemand]

https://www.coindesk.com/liquid-goes-live-blockstreams-first-bitcoin-sidechain-has-finally-arrived/

This has been a long time in gestation. One of the more intriguing aspects is how much space this will free up on the Bitcoin chain. I'd guess a minimum of 30% and maybe much, much more is purely used up moving from exchange to exchange.

The places signed up for this account for over 50% of trading volume.

It doesn't look like a true sidechain as people originally envisaged one but no doubt it's going to be picked up by plenty of places.

Innovation or the beginning of quasi centralised hell?

[squatter]

Innovation or the beginning of quasi centralised hell?

I was never very interested in federated sidechains. How far can you trust a dozen or two entities not to collude and steal funds? I'm actually pretty skeptical of all sidechains as currently conceived, from a security perspective.

But from an arbitrage perspective, it makes sense. If you're holding BTC on Exchange A and send via the blockchain to Exchange B, you're already trusting both exchanges. From that perspective, using Liquid is probably worth it for instantly credited transfers between trusted third parties.