The first and most popular blockchains were what we now call monolithic blockchains. Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. A monolithic blockchain is a chain that handles all of the core functions of a blockchain itself within a single, giant architecture. A monolithic approach has obvious limitations in scalability and the trilemma as described by Vitalik Buterin seems hard to solve. The scalability trilemma refers to a widely held belief that decentralized networks can only provide two of three benefits at any given time with respect to decentralization, security, and scalability. 

Now that Ethereum upgraded to version 2.0 which introduces a modular approach, the concept of such a modular approach has reached the mainstream. We think this modular approach is a very elegant approach to improve on the scalability trilemma. This blog item is about how Open Food Chain embraces modular thinking in a multi-chain ecosystem.The key principle in a modular approach is that each module specializes in a core function. In Ethereum 2.0 consensus, data availability, execution and settlement are considered modules. The validation is also separated from block building, turning this into a modular approach as well.

Open Food Chain is a multi-chain ecosystem. Each industry runs its autonomous blockchain(s) while they are all interoperable. Industry-specific optimisations are an obvious advantage here. This in itself is a modular approach as well.But there is more. The Open Food Chain industry chains are focused on transparent and verifiable administration only. For virtual machine based smart contracting we rely on the proven infrastructures of Ethereum and BNB Chain.

The $OFC enables financial settlements for Open Food Chain on these networks, as well as secure interaction with the industry chain public ledgers. As Open Food Chain scales we can focus on ledger transactions per industry, smart contract processing will not impact the performance of the batch and claim administration on the industry chain. There is no virtual machine load on the industry chains, which also keeps the nodes lightweight in operation.

As we isolate the processing of transactions per industry, we can keep the transaction fees at 0 (zero) and we will have no gas wars.It’s very interesting and inspiring to see the blockchain space mature and this modular thesis is definitely something we will be watching and using wherever and whenever it is applicable.