Blockstream's pricey Liquid sidechain is flawed and underused
Since its 2018 debut, Blockstream has promoted Liquid as a promising solution to Bitcoin’s scaling problems. Unlike the Lightning Network which proliferates with no federation, Liquid is a federated sidechain managed by 15 functionaries. In other words, it’s a managed fork of Bitcoin meant to reduce latency and fees. Liquid’s reception has been muted at best. According to critic Udi Wertheimer, “no one’s using it.” In fact, he notes, the meme crypto Dentacoin is often more used than Liquid. Bitcoin developer Ben Price is similarly unimpressed. “It is a fork of bitcoin with a few fancy things added (tokens, confidential transactions, covenants) and bundled together with a 1 minute block time, federated custody, and some Blockstream branding.” On a typical day, there are more tweets about Liquid than there are transactions on its network. good news the liquid sidechain continues to march forward, with no halts, exploits, or liquidations in sight or any transactions for ...