Introduction to Stage 2
Blockchain Economy. Understand a chain as a market selling blockspace.
The questions this stage addresses
The previous stage explained why chains are needed. This stage explains what a chain actually is.
The key shift is: understand a blockchain as a market rather than just a technology. It has a product (blockspace), a price (gas), supply (block-production capacity), demand (transactions seeking execution), congestion, and bidding.
With this view, Layer 2, multiple chains, and cross-chain systems become different solutions to the same market problem rather than a collection of technical terms.
Six chapters
What product does a chain really sell?
Besides TPS, how else can two chains be compared?
What happens when the rules themselves become software?
What happens when issuing an asset costs almost nothing?
Why not simply make blocks bigger?
Will users still need to know which chain they use?
After this stage
You can compare chains without relying on TPS rankings, using six dimensions: security, execution, state, latency, decentralization, and hardware requirements.
Stage artifact: A comparison table for three chains.
Study suggestions
- Do not copy someone else's comparison table for chapter 8. Research it yourself; many widely circulated numbers are wrong or outdated.
- Chapters 11 and 12 involve cross-chain operations. Use small amounts. Bridges are among the industry's most frequent failure points, covered specifically in chapter 24.