Sharding: What it is and why many blockchain protocols rely on it
Credit to Author: Lucas Mearian| Date: Mon, 28 Jan 2019 03:00:00 -0800
As blockchains are being rolled out in an increasing number of pilot programs for everything from cross-border financial transactions to supply chain management, one persistent issue remains: a lack of scalability.
As more computers join the peer-to-peer network, the efficiency of the whole system typically degrades.
Scalability has already been identified as an issue with cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and Ethereum’s Ether. If a distributed ledger is to achieve adoption by financial technology (FinTech) companies and compete with payment networks hundreds of times faster, it must find a way to boost scalability and throughput and address latency problems.