• The sidechain toolkit is aimed at scaling Cardano.
• It is a milestone in Cardano’s Basho era – focusing on growth and adoption.

Input Output Global (IOG), the developer of Cardano, is working on a toolkit for building customized sidechains – aimed to achieve scalability while maintaining the blockchain’s security. The toolkit also allows the building of DApps on top of the blockchain, leveraging the benefits of its infrastructure.

Described as a means to create a family of sidechains, the toolkit enables interoperability within Cardano. As a proof of concept, IOG has created an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible sidechain to be released as a public testnet before the end of the month.

Once the testnet goes live, according to the blog, developers could try out the platform by running Solidity apps. On the same note, IOG informs developers that for the EVM sidechain, data should be finalized on the main network before deployment on the sidechain.

According to the announcement, the toolkit’s components include the main chain, Plutus scripts, which allow for cross-chain transactions and asset transfers, and a chain follower for tracking main-chain data and events on the sidechain. It also comprises the sidechain module, which decrypts the mainnet data and executes the required ledger adaptations.

The Sidechain Lets Users Maintain Their Consensus on Top of the Main Chain

Besides, the new development enables the sidechain to operate its consensus and deploy its features, all connected to the main chain through a bridge that allows for the inter-chain transfer of tokens.

IOG has outlined some of the functions that can be completed with the sidechain and comprise the support for multiple consensus algorithms, ledger policies, and languages. Others are the secure launch of sidechains, small chains and experimentation, incubation, and research.

The company has also noted the benefits for the DApps developers using the toolkit: interoperability, testability, scalability, and compatibility. Interoperability – where a sidechain can maintain its consensus while benefiting from the infrastructure of the main chain, besides the transfer of assets.

The new toolkit is also scalable in that transactions are quicker and relieves the main chain from congestion. It is also ideal for testability, as with testing DApps on specific sidechains, where any adjustment can be made to the sidechains without touching the main chain. The sidechain toolkit is part of the Basho era of the Cardano – which focuses on scalability and throughput.