The Immutability of Blockchain and Growing Preference for Airdrops: A Discussion with Demian Brener

[magic8ball]

Demian Brener, co-founder, and CEO of Zeppelin has given views on blockchain immutability and the ability to update smart contracts over time. Speaking at the Unconfirmed podcast hosted by Laura Shin as a guest, he expressed the need to have an upgradeable, immutable blockchain.

He also shared some impressive views on why newer blockchain companies are opting for an airdrop rather than an ICO. He suggested it could be mainly because of regulatory hurdles in carrying out an ICO.

Upgradability Dilemma

Host Laura Shin asked Demian Brener to elaborate on a particular comment he had made on the topic. A dilemma had struck Demian when he was interacting with other like-minded investors, more specifically, the debate between blockchain immutability and upgradability. The Zeppelin co-founder acknowledged that blockchains have the property of being immutable and a significant reason for that is to avoid conflict and overwriting of existing data.

The point of contention, however, stands between whether blockchains and smart contracts should be upgradable or not. “Should blockchains be immutable forever or should blockchains and also smart contracts applications be upgradable over time is the real dilemma,” said Demian Brener

In any contract or legal agreement, there is always a clause which allows all related persons to make changes or upgrades to the contract. This can only be done when both parties arrive at a consensus to include modifications to the original contract.

However, there is no such provision for most blockchains and smart contracts. Failing to arrive at a consensus for change or updating the fundamentals of the main chain was one of the main reasons why Bitcoin and Ethereum have undergone hard forks.

Bitcoin Cash was a result of one such fork because the bitcoin community could not settle on whether increasing the block size and reducing the block interval of the blockchain was a good idea or not. Similarly, Ethereum Classic was born after the DAO hack fatally affected the Ethereum mainchain.

Demian hence stated that the immutability of blockchains should not become a problem for the future development of blockchain technology.


https://btcmanager.com/the-immutability ... an-brener/