Andreas Antonopoulos, the author of Mastering Bitcoin and a well-known Bitcoin proponent, spoke about Blockstream’s Liquid sidechain, the first Bitcoin production sidechain, during a Q&A session on YouTube. Here, the author also spoke about whether there was any competition between Bitcoin’s Liquid sidechain and XRP/ Ripple, with respect to use case.
Antonopoulos started by talking about the Liquid sidechain, wherein he stated that the product was designed by Blockstream, a well-known company in the Bitcoin space that has been a part of numerous projects related to Bitcoin. The initial discussion for a Bitcoin Liquid sidechain solution commenced in 2015.
Here, a sidechain refers to a separate blockchain that is connected to the main chain via a two-way peg, a mechanism that enables assets to be fungible at a predetermined rate.