The Blockchain Trilemma: Can It Ever Be Solved?
The world around us is all about the trade-offs we make to achieve certain results. The blockchain trilemma is no different, so it’s crucial to understand whether the problems associated with blockchains can ever be solved. Developers are pouring time and energy into solving this problem, and we’ll look at how blockchain scalability, security and decentralization can work together. These three features are fundamental to how blockchains function, with a growing acknowledgment that you can only get two out of the three. That means every blockchain must sacrifice something to work as efficiently as possible.
What Is the Blockchain Trilemma?
The blockchain trilemma is the concept that decentralization, security and scalability can’t all be represented in one blockchain.
The term blockchain trilemma was coined by Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum. He proposed this term because of his experience working on Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency on the internet, which suffers from problems similar to those of the Bitcoin network. The main issue with Bitcoin is that its network isn't as scalable as many people would like. The blockchain trilemma is all about the three things that developers want — decentralization, scalability and security — and the vexing need to choose two out of the three.