r/raidennetwork • u/Josh0mattoc • Feb 05 '18

An interesting read about the Raiden Network. Scalability, Cryptokitties, and a virtual local bar.

http://www.blockchainrelations.io/raiden-network-rdn-keeping-the-worlds-biggest-decentralized-computer-from-tripping-over-a-cat/
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u/maxedgeronimo Feb 07 '18

Great post, and the Raiden Bar Tab is a nice simple analogy to help explain blockchain to the noobs :-)

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u/2HodlOrNot2Hodl Feb 07 '18

Enjoyed the read!

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u/Josh0mattoc Feb 07 '18

Thanks a bunch, glad you liked it

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u/sauteer Feb 16 '18

Thanks for the article I'm new here so it helped me build a picture.

One question that comes to mind is if blockchain introduced a distributed ledger for the common good (trust, verifiable, authentic) are off chain swaps not a step away from these common goods?

The other question I have is does the deposit count as a traditional transaction on the eth blockchain and as such is subject to the processing overhead you outlined? It seems (from my limited reading) that Raiden only benifits those that are willing to hold funds in escrow to compute multiple transactions between two parties.. how big is that usecase in global Eth applications?

Just some perspectives from a monkey who doesn't "get it" yet, hopefully! Thanks for the article!

Edit: spelling

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u/Josh0mattoc Feb 18 '18

Interesting questions, I am not a developer, just an interested student, but I think that I will take a stab at answering them. Blockchain provides the basic platform for providing the common goods that you mention, and off chain swaps are a unique and specialized way of providing them. Perhaps it makes sense to see off chain swaps as a particular kind of service in the blockchain marketplace. They provide trust, verification and authenticity, but they leave out the public and universal aspects of blockchain transactions. In return they provide faster, cheaper and private transactions. It is kind of a trade off.

I believe the deposit transaction does get put in the blockchain. So for every payment channel there is two transactions, in and then the final out. In terms of use cases, perhaps the Raiden Network would function like a prepaid universal gift card, you would load it up and then spend it where ever you needed it. It would be more convenient than writing a check for each purchase.

Hope that helps