In today's world where Layer 2 networks like Arbitrum and Optimism are thriving, many newcomers to the cryptocurrency space may find the term @Plasma unfamiliar. However, a few years ago in the crypto world, @Plasma was an absolute star concept, regarded as the 'white knight' that could save the Ethereum network from congestion.
Reflecting on 2017, several CryptoKitties congested the Ethereum mainnet to the point of dysfunction, with Gas fees skyrocketing. Everyone realized one crucial issue: if Ethereum wanted to support global finance, it had to scale. It was at this time that Vitalik Buterin and Lightning Network founder Joseph Poon teamed up to release the Plasma white paper.
The core logic of Plasma is actually very attractive. If we compare the Ethereum mainnet to a busy central street, Plasma has built countless 'access roads' or 'overpasses' (which we call sidechains) alongside the street.
In the design of @Plasma , everyone does not need to confirm every transaction of buying coffee or transferring small amounts of money on the mainnet. You can transfer assets to the Plasma sidechain, where you can enjoy lightning-fast transaction speeds and almost zero fees. The sidechain handles thousands of transactions on its own and then reports a 'compressed summary' (Merkle Root) of these transactions to the Ethereum mainnet after a certain period. The mainnet is only responsible for final security and arbitration, not for the specific tasks.
This sounds simply perfect, theoretically achieving unlimited levels of TPS (transactions per second). At that time, the entire community was abuzz, believing that the spring of Ethereum had arrived. However, ideals are rich, while reality is stark. Plasma encountered huge 'pits' during its implementation, the most famous being the issues of 'data availability' and 'exit mechanism'.
Simply put, if the nodes managing the Plasma sidechain go rogue or flee, users wanting to withdraw their money back to the Ethereum mainnet face a nightmare. To ensure security, users must endure a long 'challenge period' (which can last up to a week or even longer) and must provide complex cryptographic proofs to prove 'this money is mine'. This is too high a threshold for average novice users, leading to a very poor experience. Over time, the Rollup technology (which includes today's OP and ZK systems) that is easier to implement and solves data dilemmas has gradually risen, causing Plasma's brilliance to slowly fade. Pure Plasma projects are now rare, but we cannot say that Plasma has failed. It is more like a respected 'elder'. It was the first to explore the possibilities of off-chain computation and on-chain verification on a large scale. Without the trial and error and pitfalls of @Plasma , there would be no subsequent maturity and explosion of Layer 2 technology. In the evolution of the cryptocurrency space, Plasma has left a significant mark #Plasma $XPL .