MetaID Philosophy

MetaID aims to build a vast array of Web3 applications on Bitcoin and its isomorphic blockchains. We believe that the future of robust Web3 applications should have the following characteristics, which have been the design goals of MetaID from its initial version:

Ownership of Data: Data should be completely owned by the data producer, who can freely trade their data.
Single Private Key Access: Users should be able to access all Web3 applications with a single private key.
On-Chain Data: User data should be as much on-chain as possible to ensure immutability, ease of reconstruction, and reduced global verification costs (verified once upon being put on-chain).
Declarative Data Deletion and Modification: On-chain data should support declarative deletion and modification to cater to all types of applications.
Miners' Ability to Delete Data: On-chain data should allow miners to delete data (as outlined in the Bitcoin whitepaper), but the data should still be preserved in a distributed manner post-deletion.
Interoperability of Data: Data should be interconnected across applications, breaking down information silos and removing data barriers between applications.
Integration of Assets and Data: Assets and data should be closely integrated, with the value of assets being built upon the value of user data.

Scaling MetaID

The goal of MetaID is not just to build a small number of simple Web3 applications, but to enable the emergence of a vast array of MetaID applications that ultimately gain widespread adoption. However, it is well known that Bitcoin currently has low performance and high transaction fees, which clearly cannot support a large number of Web3 applications running on top of it. If MetaID applications only run on the Bitcoin main chain, MetaID cannot be widely adopted. For MetaID to succeed, it must address the scaling issue. Our philosophy on how MetaID should solve the scaling problem is as follows:

To solve the scaling problem, MetaID must support multiple chains. We believe that as long as a blockchain is homogeneous with Bitcoin and has a certain level of hashrate, MetaID should support it (see the section "On Cross-Chain" for details).
The ideal Bitcoin sidechain/layer 2 should be homogeneous with Bitcoin, and these sidechains/layer 2 should be able to form a large, unified UTXO network with Bitcoin (see the section "On Cross-Chain" for details).
Due to the stateless and highly concurrent nature of the UTXO architecture, Bitcoin sidechains/layer 2 based on the UTXO architecture should actually be considered an extension of the Bitcoin network. When the Bitcoin main network is congested, MetaID transactions can be created on these Bitcoin sidechains; when these sidechains also become congested, more homogeneous sidechains can be added. In this way, under the unified UTXO network, there is no physical limit to the scaling capacity, only limited by the total hashrate - and the limit of hashrate is essentially the limit of human electricity. Therefore, with MetaID supporting a unified UTXO network, the scaling problem is thoroughly solved to a certain extent, providing a theoretical basis for large-scale adoption.
Users can freely choose which UTXO public chain to store their MetaID data on, but the significance of storing data on blockchains with different hashrates is obviously different. For example, if Bitcoin's hashrate is 1000 times higher than that of sidechain A, it also means that MetaID data stored on Bitcoin is 1000 times more secure than that stored on sidechain A, and the energy required is also 1000 times higher (hashrate == energy). Therefore, we introduce the concept of PoP to reflect the hashrate value contained in different MetaID data.
Bitcoin is currently the public chain with the highest consensus and hashrate, which also means that assets stored on Bitcoin will obtain the highest security. Although Bitcoin-related sidechains have low hashrates, they have low transaction fees and are almost never congested. Therefore, we believe that the best future practice for MetaID-based Web3 applications is to run general application data on Bitcoin sidechains, while important MetaID assets/data are stored on the Bitcoin main chain.

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Last updated 11 months ago

Scaling MetaID

To solve the scaling problem, MetaID must support multiple chains. We believe that as long as a blockchain is homogeneous with Bitcoin and has a certain level of hashrate, MetaID should support it (see the section "On Cross-Chain" for details).

The ideal Bitcoin sidechain/layer 2 should be homogeneous with Bitcoin, and these sidechains/layer 2 should be able to form a large, unified UTXO network with Bitcoin (see the section "On Cross-Chain" for details).

Due to the stateless and highly concurrent nature of the UTXO architecture, Bitcoin sidechains/layer 2 based on the UTXO architecture should actually be considered an extension of the Bitcoin network. When the Bitcoin main network is congested, MetaID transactions can be created on these Bitcoin sidechains; when these sidechains also become congested, more homogeneous sidechains can be added. In this way, under the unified UTXO network, there is no physical limit to the scaling capacity, only limited by the total hashrate - and the limit of hashrate is essentially the limit of human electricity. Therefore, with MetaID supporting a unified UTXO network, the scaling problem is thoroughly solved to a certain extent, providing a theoretical basis for large-scale adoption.

Users can freely choose which UTXO public chain to store their MetaID data on, but the significance of storing data on blockchains with different hashrates is obviously different. For example, if Bitcoin's hashrate is 1000 times higher than that of sidechain A, it also means that MetaID data stored on Bitcoin is 1000 times more secure than that stored on sidechain A, and the energy required is also 1000 times higher (hashrate == energy). Therefore, we introduce the concept of PoP to reflect the hashrate value contained in different MetaID data.

Bitcoin is currently the public chain with the highest consensus and hashrate, which also means that assets stored on Bitcoin will obtain the highest security. Although Bitcoin-related sidechains have low hashrates, they have low transaction fees and are almost never congested. Therefore, we believe that the best future practice for MetaID-based Web3 applications is to run general application data on Bitcoin sidechains, while important MetaID assets/data are stored on the Bitcoin main chain.