What is Lisk? (LSK)

Blockchain technology is in its infancy but the potential has clearly been recognised by the tech world, evident by the gold rush that is cryptocurrency. Cryptos are first overlaying application to utilise blockchain but it certainly won't be the last.

While the Bitcoin and ER20 blockchains have taken centre stage as front-runners for the technology they are by no means perfect in every sense. There is no real standard on how to implement the blockchain and since its release. A few developers and companies have looked at how they can improve on the concept and Lisk falls into this category.

What is Lisk (LSK)?

Lisk is a blockchain application platform that was founded at the beginning of 2016. Based on its own blockchain network and LSK (Lisk Coin) token, Lisk enables developers to create, distribute, and manage decentralized blockchain applications by providing their own sidechain connected to the Lisk network, including a custom token. Sidechain flexibility allows developers to fully implement and customize their blockchain applications.

Lisk is the brainchild of Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows, who after several years of participation in the blockchain industry saw a shortage of developer adoption. With this vision in mind, they sort out to make blockchain technology accessible. They looked at common teething issues and created a blockchain framework that speeds up and simplifies development.

Why you should pay attention to Lisk?

A different take on the blockchain

While Lisk is aimed at developers it is more than just a framework and set of developer tools. It is an opportunity to become part of the biggest technological innovation since the Internet. Lisk aims to make Blockchain technology accessible with an SDK written in JavaScript, with a special focus on the user experience, developer support and extensive documentation.

An underutilised market

The Lisk Foundation has set itself the goal of inspiring and educating entrepreneurs and developers alike. The goal is to lower the barrier to entry, create a standard and bring talent to the blockchain industry by enabling developers to build the decentralized future with the SDK.

Lisk is basically aiming to drive blockchain as a mainstream application and allow businesses the option of running decentralised networks. Most alternative solutions are either single blockchain based or are tailored for private blockchains. Lisk strives to offer the best of both worlds.

The Lisk Mainchain provides stability and security while sidechains are used for unlimited flexibility. In this way, Lisk provides developers with an environment in which they have full control to create their own sidechain blockchain network, but not to be confronted with the complexity of creating a completely new blockchain network.

Partnerships

Furthermore, Lisk has entered into a partnership with Microsoft Azure, which means that developers worldwide can develop, test, and deploy Lisk blockchain applications using Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform and infrastructure.

What is Lisk being used for?

A decentralized directory for applications

Nowadays, we have Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store. Both centralized solutions owned by corporations for centralized applications. With Lisk we not only have the network, ecosystem, and SDK for decentralized blockchain applications, we also have a decentralized application directory directly within the client which everyone can access.

All blockchain applications and services built on the Lisk platform have to be registered on the Lisk mainchain, this way the connection between mainchain and sidechain is created (for the LSK replication within the sidechain) and the application directory can find all blockchain applications and services. During the registration, the developer is able to set a unique blockchain application name, description, category, icon, tags, and download link.

Supporting third-party software

Let’s say you have a blockchain application which saves purchase receipts on the sidechain for every Bitcoin transaction your users are doing. How do you get the Bitcoin transactions of your users? An oracle is far to slow and a blockchain explorer is centralized.

That means you have to run the Bitcoin client locally next to your blockchain application in order to access its API and get all necessary data immediately. That means this kind of delegates will have to promote themselves as sidechain delegates with a local Bitcoin instance running.

This will be one of the attributes a delegate will have inside the delegate marketplace. The same applies to any other third party software, centralized and decentralized.

A decentralized and public delegate marketplace

The Lisk delegate marketplace is a way to connect blockchain application developers and sidechain delegates. This is necessary because every sidechain is an independent blockchain which needs its own set of nodes to secure it.

If blockchain application developers don’t use our default consensus algorithm (e.g. PoS or PoW) they will have to take care of the sidechain miners/forgers themselves, which might be a better option for some use-cases. However, if the blockchain application developer is using our default consensus algorithm (DPoS) he will be able to rent delegates from the delegate marketplace for a recurring fee.

Can you mine Lisk?

The simple answer is no, Lisk cannot be mined as it does not use proof of work as a payout system to run the network. Like NEO and Qtum, Lisk uses a different kind of PoS.

Lisk’s distributed consensus methodology is called delegated Proof-of-Stake, or DPoS for short. This means that while staking is possible with Lisk, it’s only possible for the top 101 “delegates,” with these delegates being voted on and agreed to on a rolling basis by the community.

Can you earn Lisk?

Trading

Since Lisk can’t be mined those interested in Lisk's potential can purchase tokens from a number of exchanges and trade them or exchange them for other currencies as it increases or drops in value.

Voting and delegates

Cryptocurrencies that use proof of consensus like Lisk offer users the ability to earn by voting. Voting is done by setting up a native Lisk wallet and adding Lisk to it and having the wallet run as a verification node of sorts. Once you're all set up you will have 101 votes to assign to delegates.

Why would you vote? You get paid by delegates for your vote, so they may forge and secure the network. With this, they can fund Blockchain apps or other things. So you can vote for the delegates you think are the best for Lisk infrastructure. Every sidechain delegate can be rented for a fee they define (e.g. 10 LSK for every 100 blocks) and with 10,000 Lisk, you give 0,01% weight to the delegate. (based on 100m lisk) The more votes a delegate gets the higher in rank he/she gets.

Should you invest in Lisk?

The future price performance of LSK depends solely on the success of the Lisk network and the adoption of its technology by developers, programmers, and start-ups. Lisk is not a digital currency that can be used to buy and sell goods and services. Hence, unlike bitcoin, no merchants will likely ever adopt the cryptocurrency as a means of payment.

Therefore, the key drivers will be technology adoption and investor interest, with the two tending to go hand in hand in the cryptocurrency market as ether (ETH) has shown. If you are not averse to risky speculative investments and are familiar with the cryptocurrency markets, putting a small amount of money into LSK could potentially turn out to be a very lucrative investment.

Given that Lisk uses JavaScript as a programming language, which is popular among tech giants such as Microsoft and Google, the likelihood of its developer base increasing and adopting Lisk as a network to build applications on is quite high. Moreover, while Lisk performs well in terms of developer participation, it is lacking in liquidity, with low trading volumes on exchanges, and needs to build a larger community around itself to generate more discussion on social media relative to more successful cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or ether.

Investing in Lisk is one of the riskier currencies since it will rely on 3rd party applications driving transaction volume and cash liquidity but the potential reward for investing now is also large; the main advantage over Ethereum is that all Lisk applications run on their own blockchains, i.e. the ‘sidechains’, which could provide an advantage in scaling to a mainstream audience.

LSK as an investment will only perform well in the long run if the Lisk network becomes a leading blockchain technology for start-ups to build new apps over the next year or so, which up until now looking very promising and worth adding to your portfolio as a long-term investment.

For more on Lisk check out their official website

Contact us

If you want to know more about cryptocurrency don’t be shy we’re happy to assist. Simply contact us

Disclaimer: This article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice and is for educational purposes only. As of the time posting the writers may or may not have holdings in some of the coins or tokens they cover. Please conduct your own thorough research before investing in any cryptocurrency as all investments contain risk.

Tags: Cryptocurrency, blockchain