Think of Lisk as nothing, because it IS nothing but a crypto-currency. The founders of Lisk haven't produced a product yet. What IS the product SUPPOSED to be? The founders claim it will be a platform; the platform will provide developers (programmers) an easier interface or environment in which to create applications (think of anything you could download from the AppStore on your smartphone) based on bitcoin's blockchain technology. "Blockchain" is basically like the register section of your checkbook, where you log your transactions (or if you don't balance your checkbook, the bank's ledger of your transactions); only, this blockchain register is used to write down the locations and amounts of ALL bitcoins ever created since the first bitcoin transaction in 2009. The blockchain is more than just a register, however, it's a system for making secure transactions of a digital asset similar to money. Blockchains require networks of ON/RUNNING computers to work, this is where "miners" or "nodes" (computers) do the work of listing the blockchain (so that other computers/nodes can verify the register) and securing it's transactions using modern cryptology methods (Modern cryptology methods involve the factoring of two VERY large PRIME NUMBERS into an even bigger number which can only be factored by these two large primes-- and that's the easy version/explanation). The blockchain is a system that can be encapsulated into a kind of technology product, and that's what Lisk's founders aim to do.
The main founder...
Lisk founders are Max Kordek, who is very young (looking), and Oliver Beddows who's at least old-enough to have lost some hair.
https://www.lisk.io/team
https://www.lisk.io/team
Will they actually create anything? We think they will, but they raised money as far back as May 2016 and still don't really have a product out there. They are developing a "framework" which is computer-nerd term describing some modular code which can make writing applications easier. Think of a "framework" as something akin to a standard-length of steel i-beams used to construct buildings. The framework provides rules and code such that a developer/programmer doesn't have to start from SCRATCH every time she wants to make another application (just like you wouldn't have to first mine some iron before constructing a building). This framework works almost like a language, and when the product is finished it will be called an SDK (Software Development Kit) and developers will use it to incorporate blockchain technology into applications they want to write.
So what can Lisk accomplish? If Lisk is successful, it will be used as a TOOL to build applications such as computer games, or social-networks, or communications software. The Lisk founders compare it to providing an "App Store" (the place you go on your smartphone to download Snapchat or Pandora Music apps), only it's "de-centralized" instead of owned by a giant corporation with opinions. De-centralized means Lisk won't tell a programmer what app he can or cannot produce, as Apple or Google can say no to any applications they don't like (and do). Why would this be handy? What if you wanted to write an application which allows Drug Cartels to ship money around the globe? What if you wanted to write an application which allows marijuana dealers or prostitutes to be rated by their customers-- or even tipped? Can't do that on App Store! (we of course produce these examples only SLIGHTLY tongue-in-cheek).
Bluntly, Lisk isn't terribly different from Ethereum, which also aims to be the "technology behind the technology" of blockchains and crypto-tokens. A Developer would use Lisk, for instance, to create yet ANOTHER crypto-token/currency, much like there are now crypto-currencies which are built atop Ethereum (a blockchain built on top of a core kernel blockchain like Ehtereum or Lisk is called a "sidechain"). So if Ethereum already did one of these platforms and is actually RUNNING, what's special about Lisk?
The biggest difference for developers is one of familiarity-- developers know and work with a programming language called JavaScript (one of the core backbone languages, if not THE backbone language, used to create the worldwide web / internet since inception) every day and Lisk framework is going to be written in JavaScript. Ethereum, on the other hand, is written in its OWN homegrown language called Solidity. Solidity is an object-oriented language inspired by C++, and C++ was the MAIN computer langauge used to build desktop applications back before the internet and back before Microsoft kinda took over the langauge, modified it, and renamed it C# or "c sharp". Ethereum built their own langauge in order to incorporate something called "smart contracts". "Smart contracts" is just a cute way of saying ESCROW, really. In escrow, in order for a (one thing) transaction to occur, some OTHER things must occur. Bitcoin updated its code to mimick the main escrow-type use of smart contracts in the summer of 2017, and this update is called "SegWit" (Segregated Witness) and its main feature is a condition to a transaction requiring two signature out of three people in order for a transaction to "go thru"-- exactly like an escrow service would work. So let's use an eBay as an example, a buyer wins an auction to buy canned chicken poop, and is therefore obligated to send the seller money. In real life the buyer just sends the money, and then when the seller recieves the money he sends the can of fertilizer to the buyer's address. If the seller is criminal, he sends nothing, and keeps the money. eBay has no recourse to fix this, other than refund the money from eBay's OWN coffers/expense to the buyer who didn't get anything for his money. With a "smart contract", eBay can be eliminated entirely and replaced by a cheaper arbiter. Using the smart contract, the buyer would send his money into a virtual escrow account, which the seller cannot access until the buyer says he received his cans. If both type "yes" into the virtual smart contract, the seller then is sent his money from the escrow account and the CONTRACT OCCURS.
If the buyer types "no" because he did NOT receive his fertilizer, the transaction can then either be cancelled if the seller ALSO agrees to type "no", OR the seller can type "yes" because he sent the cans and elect to have an arbiter "settle" the case. The arbiter can either be a human making a judgement or arbitration in favor of either buyer or seller, or the arbiter can even be a computer program set to vote "yes" or "no" based on some pre-existing conditions. For instance, if the seller typed "no" into the contract algorythm bc he saw it was DOLLARS in escrow but he preset the sale conditions as "ethereum only", the arbiter algo could test the escrow account to see which type of currency it is, and if it's not ethereum it could nullify the entire transaction-- NO CONTRACT. Anyway, Ethereum attempted to build from the ground-up, a system, including it's own programming langauge, to make these smart contracts as easy as possible. Laughably, one of Ethereum's first smart contracts was hacked and a sidechain application called DAO caused a bunch of REAL investors to lose money, and also caused Ethereum to have to "redo" their entire coin currency (this is why there's TWO Ether coins--> Ethereum and Ethereum Classic) in massive embarrassing fashion. Ironically, Ethereum's Solidity computer language was dealt some blame by a Cornell U. researcher for the DAO hack-mess.
Before any of these Ethereum mistakes occurred, but probably after hearing about Ethereum, the Lisk founders raised $5.8 MILLION dollars in May 2016 and set about using the money to pay for a developer army to build their "framework".
The intention is for Lisk to be easier and perhaps more secure than Ethereum by using the more-familiar JavaScript programming language, and Lisk also differs in some other ways mostly interesting to computer-programmer types.
Lisk uses a form of "proof of stake" instead of "proof of work" and we won't get into that, Lisk uses wholly separate sidechains whereas Ethereum uses one big blockchain (the Ethereum blockchain) to settle all problems.
Lisk's main claim to fame, really, is the sidechains. Lisk's platform allows each developer-team (crypto-token app company if you wanna think of it that way) to run their OWN seperate blockchain which merely connects with Lisk's main blockchain. In this way, Lisk can be thought of giving more governing power to its app-building customers to rule their own blockchain and fork it as they like when problems occur. This might be a simplification, and Ethereum supporters may argue their system is more efficient or more secure or both. We aren't qualified to judge on this matter, and leave it to more qualified folk to argue in the comments.
Lisk scares us a bit, because there isn't a whole lot of people on its GitHub page. GitHub is where programmers congregate to collaborate on programming projects, so think of it as a meeting ground of sorts where a lot of sharing occurs. the more people on your GitHub, the bigger the project usually.
Lisk's Github has 23 "people" on it.... https://github.com/LiskHQ
But by this measure, Ethereum isn't much better at only 34 "people"... https://github.com/ethereum/
However, Solidity the programming language has 142 "contributors".
The symbol for Lisk is...
Lisk is probably worth consideration, but it already has MANY competitors in the sector named "blockchain as a service" or BaaS: Besides Ethereum, other cryptos tauting similar product is NXT and its planned successor Ardor (they claim "childchains" as opposed to "sidechains" and perhaps we'll save that for a later article), Stratis, and Ark. If you follow cryptos Stratis and Ark are also very popular lately.
What's perhaps sad in all this talk of blockchain technology and the companies racing to be the best most-used underlying "platform", is there is just a massive lack of actual APPLICATIONS which effectively use this stuff for anything other than maybe trading crypto-currencies. So to date (Steemit uses its OWN blockchain) there's just not much to get excited. We think there is a coming collapse in Crypto-currencies, bc there just isn't enough actual value being created beyond a frenzy to make money owning them or touting them. Lisk exists in a crowd of likeminded organizations all trying to do the same thing for a customer base of programmers who haven't yet created many viable concepts. That said, we like Steemit, altho we find it to be saturated with gamesters all trying to boost their Steemit accounts rather than write REAL articles of value.
For now, all you can do is download Lisk's wallet and trade it's currency as if it were a stock ticker symbol but without earnings, without revenues, and WITHOUT A PRODUCT. Do not peek behind the green curtain. The lastest update from the Lisk development team was September 14, 2017-- touting the rewriting of something called Lisk Nano (whatever that is)-- which was rewritten to take advantage of a "framework" (ironic) called AngularJS (JS standing for JavaScript). Frameworks built on top of frameworks-- not a fun topic. We wish the Lisk team the best of luck, and hope they are as good at marketing (Ethereum seems VERY good at marketing) as they are building frameworks for blockchains.
We hope you found our first article informative, and feel free to challenge anything we wrote in the comments!
Solid blog. Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks like this. The price of a coin should depend on the quality of the product, the team behind it, if proffesional investors believe in it, and a lot more facets. Does anyone know about: https://www.coincheckup.com Every single coin can be analysed here based on: the team, the product, advisors, community, the business and the business model and much more. Check: https://www.coincheckup.com/coins/Lisk#analysis To watch Lisk Investment analysis.
Interesting Natalie, but are you marketing this or you really support it? Have you made any successful investments in crypto based on info you gleaned from CoinCheckup?
I'll check coincheckup out Natalie, thanks for the comment!
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