Square peg ➔ round hole
Every blockchain is built for decentralized applications. Yes, even Bitcoin. The main difference is the variety of applications the blockchain can support.
The bitcoin network is like a round hole. The "money application" is a round peg. They fit together perfectly. The problem is that almost every other application imaginable is a square peg. So, that leaves dApp developers with two options...
- Carve your square peg until it fits in the round hole (Lightning network)
- Find (or build) a square hole
From 2009-2015, all the developers with square pegs had to build their own very specific square holes for their applications. When Ethereum came along, there was now a generic square hole for just about any square peg you could imagine.
The problem became cost. Every time you want to put your peg in the hole, you have to pay the extortionist bouncer at the door. Up until now, there are two options for dealing with the greedy bouncer...
- Pool your money with a bunch of other square pegs (L2)
- Find another square hole (alt L1)
Most L1s will eventually have the same problem as Ethereum. Koinos is the only blockchain I know of with a dramatically different approach. Instead of a greedy bouncer, the square hole is available via a buy-once, use-always membership (Koin). The power of the membership is that you can bring in any guests you want.
-Luke
P.S. If you're new here, Koinos is still in testnet until later this year, but fee-less smart contracts have been live for months.