CoinMetrics: Operating the Blockchain of Ripple, EOS and Binance Chain is “impractical”

By Selena 12/19/19 1:01 AM

A new study by CoinMetrics shows that running a full node on the Blockchain is very costly in both time and money. Especially for systems of XRP, EOS, and Binance Chain, auditing these blockchains requires days of computation and specialized types of computers.

Auditing distributed ledgers are extremely difficult

The promise that a distributed ledger can easily be tested on computers around the world is entirely false. Theoretically, as long as the blockchain remains in its original state, but with the development of transaction history, storing all the information is impossible.

New deals are also continually being produced, further complicating the problem. However, to ensure the transparency and source of funds for the projects, there must be auditing firms involved. Ironically, blockchain was created to generate a trustless model – without trust, eventually relying on auditing companies to prove their transparency; otherwise, Blockchain projects are challenging to get the nod of big companies.

Returning to the research at the beginning of the article, CoinMetrics has conducted a new study based on starting to operate a node on many different networks. Even running a standard node takes time to synchronize and requires a significant piece of a hardware configuration for most networks. Based on this information, CoinMetrics has ranked Blockchains based on its audibility.

“Synchronizing a full archive EOS node took more than 1 month and required a machine with terabytes of NVMe SSDs […]

Ripple require such huge amounts of storage (tens of TBs) that they are impractical to run and synchronize.”@coinmetrics latest is ? https://t.co/J5L1uXQW1t pic.twitter.com/WSs3uPlXNC

— Eric Wall IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS (@ercwl) December 17, 2019

As Blockchains grow, a growing concern is that only large companies and corporations are interested in storing all information, which makes some Blockchain networks a reality much more vulnerable. Also, cross-checking Blockchain is becoming more difficult and limited to a handful of companies specializing in working with storage nodes.

EOS, Binance Chain and XRP Blockchain are extremely difficult to audit

Networks like EOS and Binance Chain are rated by CoinMetric with an F-score because of technical difficulties in extracting and storing node information.

CoinMetrics has highlighted in their report:

“Despite having an obvious accounting model for a complex asset, EOS received an F for difficulties in extracting all the data needed to conduct a complete audit. A hosting node running with an additional plugin is required, with references quite scarce.”

Additional structures like DEX and fees complicate distributed ledger storage, CoinMetric points out. On the other hand, Bitcoin (BTC) is rated A, considering the ability to synchronize a node successfully.

At the same time, Ethereum also gets a B point when it is quite easy to synchronize a full node. Still, storing the entire Ethereum history for reference is almost impossible, especially if you’re trying to start over.

CoinMetrics also pointed out that Ripple from XRP requires too large memory resources to store the entire digital ledger. Ripple Network DLT and all XRP, along with other asset transactions, will take dozens of terabytes to adequately accommodate – a requirement banks can meet, but much more difficult to control individual mathematicians.