Insights into Web3 native Network Design

All of the above create a blockchain offering execution, settlement, security, and data availability. 
Yet, even though it’s tempting to think about network design mainly in the context of technology, it’s worth considering the human side of it. 

Ultimately, most networks are designed to serve humans and depend on the participation of people. As Stan highlighted in our space, any resilient network needs to account for the human factor and establish some checks and balances and an incentive structure that supports long-term growth. 

Network Design and the Blockchain Trilemma

The blockchain trilemma states that any given blockchain can only achieve two out of the three properties: decentralization, security, and scalability. Even though it was fashionable for a while for projects to advertise that they had solved the trilemma, it’s a claim to treat with caution. We have yet to see the emergence of a blockchain that has made the impossible possible. If anything, the trilemma has given rise to modular blockchains, which aim to solve it by de-coupling the core functions of a chain and optimizing each layer for maximal efficiency. 
Consequently, all current solutions do have trade-offs in one realm or the other, with the hope being that eventually, innovation and progress will help us solve the third. 
To illustrate: 

Solana is highly scalable and fast. Yet, it also has high hardware requirements, which can lead to centralization since only professional node runners can participate. As Hardware accelerates, running nodes should become more accessible, allowing the network to decentralize further (In the ranking, Solana isn’t doing all that bad compared to other networks where it’d just take two entities to compromise the integrity) 
Rollups, as of now, primarily operate with centralized sequencers. While some systems allow traders to exit on L1 if necessary (escape hatch), it still opens up the rollup for censorship and MEV extraction by the sequencer. 
Farcaster has taken a pragmatic approach to building its sufficiently decentralized social network, trading off decentralization regarding the content you post for scalability and usability. While user IDs and wallets are on-chain, the rest of the infrastructure relies on 1000 of hubs that store data. After all, there is less of a problem if you double-post than if a network allows you to double-spend. 

In the end, the trade-offs teams make in network design reflect the users they want to cater to and their primary use case. With modularity, new opportunities arise to fix the trilemma, but they often come at the expense of composability and interoperability - important components for Network designers. 

Interoperability & Composability