Unlocking the Future: Exploring Lisk - The Next-Gen Blockchain Project

The first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, was launched 14 years ago. This set in motion the creation of a trillion dollar industry with thousands of projects. One project in this massive industry is Lisk. 

Lisk is a very interesting, exciting project that could be classified as a next-gen blockchain project. It works to improve the foundation created by Satoshi Nakamoto 14 years ago. 

This article will cover everything that you need to know about Lisk, the future plans of the project, and the investment viability of its native coin LSK. 

What is Lisk?

Lisk is a blockchain project meant for interoperability with a host of sidechains. It will achieve this by allowing developers to develop their own sidechains and Web 3 applications using JavaScript. 

The fact that every Web 3 application built on Lisk using the JavaScript software development kit (SDK) provided by Lisk will have its own blockchain is incredibly important. This allows for a nearly infinite amount of customization and allows developers to build some really cool applications. 

That’s a very basic overview of what Lisk plans to become. The project is still in development and has not achieved full interoperability at the time of writing. The next section will detail where exactly Lisk fits into the greater blockchain industry. 

Lisk’s Goals

Lisk is focusing on the Web 3 aspect of the blockchain industry. This is an emerging section of blockchain technology, so there is plenty of room for improvement within it. 

The first major problem with Web 3 is that most Web 3 applications are isolated from each other. For instance, a Web 3 application on the Ethereum blockchain will be isolated from Web 3 applications on other blockchains. 

This isolation greatly limits the reach of Web 3. 

Lisk plans on improving this by making multiple blockchains interoperable. In other words, they don’t just want blockchains built on top of Lisk to be interoperable. 

They want entirely separate blockchains to become interoperable. 

That’s a massively large goal, but one that can likely be achieved within the next 10 years. 

Anyway, Lisk has three main goals that it wants to achieve that will greatly improve the industry. 

The first goal is to become the go-to blockchain for JavaScript developers that want to develop Web 3 applications. This goal is important because JavaScript is the most popular programming language in the world – there are a lot of JavaScript developers out there. 

However, JavaScript is not currently used in the blockchain industry, which means there’s a lot of JavaScript talent out there that cannot develop blockchain applications. 

If Lisk is successful with launching their JavaScript SDK, then it’s likely we will see a massive increase in the number of Web 3 applications as JavaScript developers enter the industry. 

The second goal is to onboard 100 million users into Web 3. We personally find this an odd goal to include the whitepaper as this number is mostly out of the direct control of the development team. But it’s in the whitepaper as a goal, so we are mentioning it. 

The final goal is to make the Lisk Foundation a sustainable organization. Again, this is an odd goal to have in the whitepaper. Though this goal is more directly controllable by the team, achieving this goal would greatly improve Lisk as their foundation would invest in projects on the Lisk blockchain. 

What is LSK Token?

LSK token is the native token of the Lisk blockchain. It will be used for governance and on Web 3 apps on the Lisk blockchain. 

Basically, you can use LSK on Lisk the same way that you can use ETH on Ethereum. 

The History of Lisk

Lisk makes their project sound great on their website. However, it has what we would describe as a very disappointing history. 

First of all, the ICO for Lisk ended on March 21, 2016 after raising 14,000 BTC and 80 million XCR. 

It was the second largest ICO at that time and raised nearly $10 million USD. 

It was pretty clear from the start that the two founders, Max Kordek and Oliver Beddows, were in way over their head with the project. It did not help that Kordek, the CEO, decided to launch a separate company called Lightcurve later in 2016. 

Anyway, it took Lisk a year to set up their foundation, 18 months to organize a team, and two years to launch the SDK. 

Things are currently set up fine at the moment, but it sure did take a long time for everything to get into place. 

Now, it’s been nearly six years since this project launched and there is still not a single use case for the token nor is the blockchain even working. 

It’s a little ridiculous in our opinion. The team is at risk of running out of funds before anything even launches as they only have enough funds for another few years of operating expenses. 

Who Founded Lisk?

Lisk was founded by Oliver Beddows and Max Kordek. Kordek serves as the CEO and public face of the company. He was 24 years old when he founded Lisk in 2016. In addition to Lisk, Kordek also owns Lightcurve, which is a cryptocurrency consultancy firm. 

Oliver Beddows is the other co-founder of Lisk. There’s not as much information available about Beddows, but it’s clear that Beddows runs the development arm of Lisk. He had 12 years of development experience when he co-founded Lisk, so he definitely knows about development. 

LSK’s Tokenomics

LSK has relatively simple tokenomics. The blockchain uses delegated proof of stake (DPoS) for consensus, which is far faster than proof of work (ie. Bitcoin). A new block is generated every 10 seconds.

The total supply is 100 million LSK plus the mining reward. The mining reward starts at 5 LSK per block and lowers 1 LSK per year until reaching 1 LSK. When it reaches 1 LSK, it will stay out 1 LSK indefinitely. 

Now, delegated proof of stake works a little differently than standard proof of stake. Basically, LSK holders vote to choose 101 nodes to become Active Delegates that can form consensus on the blockchain. 

This is supposed to work because token holders will only vote for delegates that have a good reputation of keeping the blockchain secure.  

Is LSK a Good Investment?

First of all, nothing here should be construed as financial advice in any way, shape, or form. This is for strictly informational purposes. 

We view LSK as a reasonable, albeit risky, investment. Yes, the project has failed to deliver on many milestones in a timely manner, but the team does appear to be working on things at the moment. 

This is similar to Cardano. It took Cardano about 6 years to launch smart contracts and a little longer to launch the public mainnet, so a delay like this is not unprecedented. 

That said, the team really needs to make 2023 the year that they get this project launched. The window is slowly closing on a project like this and cash reserves will begin to dwindle over time. 

So, would we classify this as the type of project you should invest all your money into?

No, that would be extremely unwise. However, this project does have the potential for 100x returns over the next five years if everything goes according to plan. 

Basically, this is the type of investment that is good for people that invest more like venture capitalists. By that we mean investors that will go into 20 or 30 smaller projects knowing that 99% of them will fail. But all it takes is one to do a 100x (or more) for that investment strategy to work out. 

Personally, we are not super bullish on this project – it will probably fail. The upside, however, with creating JavaScript blockchains is simply too big to ignore. 

Again, you should do your own research on the team before making an investment. 

Final Thoughts

That covers it for everything you need to know about Lisk. The idea the team has of making JavaScript blockchains is a really good one. 

Sadly, the team has not done the best job turning their vision into a reality. If they can successfully launch their blockchain, then we expect great things from this project.