The other day, I was watching a documentary about apes. The narrator was asking about the main difference between us and other animals. At school, they told us it was thinking, and I thought that was the answer when you look at nature that makes sense. However, the narrator focused on communication. At that moment, I imagined a world where humans could not communicate with each other. It includes speaking, writing, reading, etc. (no, you can’t talk with telepathy too).

It doesn’t matter how many beautiful ideas you have if you don’t have a team to make them real or pass from generation to generation. We were probably stuck in the woods with primitive tools.

I believe this idea also fits blockchain. When I learned about IBC, there were a couple of chains that wanted to be THE chain for every possible problem. There are a couple of reasons why this idea will not work. Some of them are technical problems, and some of them are not. Of course, there is a possibility that the technical problems might be solved in the future. Most of us are so bad at imagining the future. As one of the computer science legends, Alan Kay said:

It’s easier to invent the future than to predict it.

Even if we solve the technical problems, there are still “human” problems. How can you convince the USA and Russia to use the same network/infrastructure? There are almost 200 countries in this world, and they have different regulations. This problem looks much harder than solving the technical problems.

So, we need another solution. Every jurisdiction should be able to create its own rules (even in the network and consensus layers). This brings us to the Application-Specific Blockchains.

Okay, please bear with me with this idea: Every country has its blockchain(s), and anyone can also create a chain easily. With this idea, we solve most of the authority and scalability issues. Everyone can interact with the chain that he/she wants without waiting for all other applications’ transactions. In my opinion, this idea fits the mainstream more than THE CHAIN idea.

What is IBC?

Inter-blockchain communication (IBC) is a standardization that lets chains communicate securely. There is no “trust to intermediary” like in the bridges. Anyone can run a relayer (a program that relays messages between chains consistently), and the chains are still accountable. Because chains do not trust the relayer, they trust the other party that they connected. Both parties keep other parties light clients and validate every proof from the relayer. For a more detailed explanation, please have a look at it here.

Why do we need IBC?

Let’s go back to the idea that we were thinking. We have lots of blockchains from different entities. They will need to communicate with each other. This is where IBC comes into the game. They can communicate over IBC - the network of networks! People don’t need to waste their most precious asset: Time. Do I really need to wait for some kitties to breed while I am trying to send an urgent transaction? You might say, “Pay a higher gas fee, idiot!” Of course, this solves my problem. But is it going to work for all of us?

Beautiful things do not need so much explanation. When you see and understand them, you watch them as fascinated.