In the world of cryptocurrency, there are many projects which try to bring something new to the table. Ardor is one of those projects which most people know little about, even though it certainly offers something unique. It positions itself as the first scalable blockchain-as-a-service platform for businesses. Living up to these expectations will not be easy by any means, but now is a good time to take a closer look at what Ardor brings to the table.
Ardor’s Mission
Corporations all over the world have shown great interest in blockchain technology as of late. However, not all of them want to develop their own solutions. Introducing a blockchain-as-a-service model to companies makes a lot of sense, and Ardor is designed to make an impact in this regard. Other companies provide similar services, with Microsoft probably being the biggest provider of blockchain-as-a-service solutions right now. More competition in this space can only be considered a good thing, though.
Ardor’s Technology
Creating a blockchain-as-a-service model is one thing, but making it appealing to corporations is something else entirely. To do so, Ardor’s team has come up with an interesting approach on the technical front. First of all, Ardor uses a unique parent-child architecture that allows companies to build their own products and services using the concept of child chains. At the same time, these products will still benefit from the security provided by Ardor’s parent chain. Using sidechains has become a topic of great interest in the blockchain world as of late, as it simply makes sense.
Additionally, Ardor’s blockchain-as-a-service aims to be as energy efficient as possible. Even though operating a blockchain is not on the same level as cryptocurrency mining, there are still energy requirements to take into account. With Ardor, the infrastructure uses a proof-of-stake system rather than proof-of-work. Mining competition is eliminated entirely and consensus is reached through a distributed system. Running a network node to help secure the Ardor infrastructure requires very little electricity, and the hardware used to do so doesn’t have to be overly expensive either.
Last but not least, Ardor aims to reduce blockchain bloat to the bare minimum. This is where sidechains come back into the picture. Child transactions can be removed from the blockchain once they are confirmed. This keeps the Ardor blockchain both lightweight and efficient. Using sidechains for this specific purpose makes a lot of sense, as there will be no unnecessary information on the parent chain. Individual child chains can become quite large, depending on what type of information they will need to process.
As is always the case with any blockchain solution, Ardor will stand or fall based on how reliable it is. This platform was built on top of the NXT infrastructure. Cryptocurrency enthusiasts may know about NXT, as it has been used by people all over the world for the past four years. Moreover, Ardor was developed using Java, which is one of the most popular programming languages in the world today. Building commercial applications becomes a lot easier when the development language is something most coders are already familiar with.
The Future of Ardor and BaaS
At this stage, it is too early to say whether or not Ardor can succeed. It is certainly true the project has gotten a lot of attention recently. Moreover, the native ARDR token has appreciated in value, which seems to confirm there is at least some interest in what this project has to offer. Some interesting developments are still on the agenda, including the launch of additional child chains, support for specific transaction types, and so forth. Rest assured there is a lot more to come from Ardor in the coming months, but there is never any guarantee of success.
