Technology

Klaytn’s Strengths as a Layer 1 Mainnet

Hi, all. This is Klaytn Team.
In our previous article, we dispelled some common misconceptions about Klaytn’s technology. In this post, we would like to go over what makes Klaytn stand out as a global L1 blockchain.

Q. What are some technological strengths as well as points for improvement for Klaytn compared to other Layer 1 mainnets?

We are confident that Klaytn possesses global competitiveness, with the network’s fast throughput, block scalability, and TPS. But we do have to work on expanding our dev ecosystem as well as improving decentralization. The Klaytn Team is aware of these issues and we are doing our best to reform them.



Klaytn Network’s Competitive Edge

1. Throughput and finality
The table and graph below are comparisons of Klaytn with other blockchains. You can see that Klaytn’s transaction throughput is at least 3-4 times faster than that of other global top-tier Layer 1 mainnets.

The comparison was made against blockchains that can execute smart contracts and are known for their fast transaction speed: Polygon, Avalanche, and Solana. From the transaction’s propagation in the network till the confirmation of its receipt, Klaytn takes about 2 seconds, whereas other blockchains take about 6-8 seconds. Moreover, Klaytn does not require additional confirmations, so in terms of actual processing time, Klaytn has an advantage.

This graph provides an analysis of the data. The code used in the analysis is available on Github, and we will be adding more blockchains for comparison in the future. The result of the analysis can be found here. The transactions have been created following the instructions provided in the respective documentations of each blockchain.

2. TPS 

Klaytn is known to have 4000 TPS. It is a figure that has actually been measured in an environment identical to the mainnet. In other words, it’s not a theory, but an actual figure. We never attempted to deceive our users with a theoretical figure that is higher than the actual one.

We ran a stress test on the Klaytn mainnet Cypress before its official launch and confirmed 4000 TPS for KLAY transfer transactions. After the performance test, we reset the chain data to the genesis block on Cypress before launching. During last year’s network congestion, we again confirmed the mainnet’s performance as smart contract transactions were processed at 1000 – 2000 TPS for hours. (Transactions for smart contract executions require more computation, requiring more TPS than KLAY transfers). 

Technical improvements for Klaytn

1. dApp developer environment

The blockchain with the most dApp dev tools and references is Ethereum. Ethereum dApp developers can rely on a vast pool of open source, and they have an organic community sharing opinions and solutions for any issues arising in the development process. Klaytn, on the other hand, has less development tools and information, so many people initially experience difficulties developing dApps on Klaytn.

Klaytn quickly decided to improve the development environment for dApps. We opted to make use of Ethereum’s vast pool of development tools and information. Klaytn v1.8.0, which was applied to the Cypress network in March 2022 and the hardfork are the results of such efforts. You can now start using development tools including Ethereum SDK, Truffle or Hardhat in the Klaytn ecosystem. For example, you can run Uniswap or Snapshot’s open-source code on Klaytn with just minor value changes.

Enhanced Ethereum compatibility not only lowers the entrance barrier for developers, but enables other services developed on other EVM-based blockchains like BSC, Polygon. The general direction for these improvements is what we call Ethereum Equivalence, which was introduced with Klaytn 2.0. 

*Attention!!

The only inconvenience regarding Ethereum compatibility is that you have to set the gas price as fixed for MetaMask. This is caused by Klaytn’s fixed gas price, so it will be resolved with the introduction of the dynamic gas price model (estimated for July).

2. Ecosystem-based service

Wallets and block explorers services that are required for blockchain services to function. These constitute the basic infrastructure that enhances the stability of the blockchain service as well as developer experience. The Klaytn Team strives to diversify and expand these services in the Klaytn ecosystem.

We are going to diversify the existing services wallets, block explorers, and bridges to give users a wider range of choices as well as to disperse traffic, which leads to more stability. Oracle, random number generators and governance will help DeFi or NFT projects to develop on Klaytn safer and faster. There are more infrastructure services coming up, and they will also be available as open source.

Estimated launch schedule for infrastructure services

3. Decentralization 

The name of our blockchain “Klaytn” symbolizes a stone-like robust platform where developers can be fully creative in building their services, just like handling Clay. So we have put network performance as our top priority from the beginning. Accordingly, during the initial phase of developing Klaytn mainnet, we focused on performance to enable mobile services. We would concentrate on the performance-related elements like fast throughput, scalability, and TPS and then move on to achieve decentralization.

In order to achieve decentralization while maintaining the 1-second finality and high performance, we have to do endless research and development. For the year 2022, the Klaytn Team aims to first strengthen governance transparency, and subsequently improve decentralization for the governance and consensus nodes, coupled with the progress of policy and technology.

Currently, we are working on transferring Klaytn’s on-chain governance and reward structure to smart contract based systems. With this change, we expect more transparency for the governance voting and reward distribution. Contract-based systems can also evolve to allow the participation of ecosystem members, not only node operators.

The direction for Klaytn’s decentralization is explained in Klaytn 2.0’s governance decentralization. For an incremental decentralization, transparency of governance will be the priority. The new smart contract-based governance and reward systems will become the technological foundation for Klaytn’s ecosystem members to participate.

The Klaytn Team is working day and night to let more participants join and enjoy our ecosystem. Thank you for your continued support for Klaytn. Thank you!