Why This Dev Built a ‘Centralized Ethereum’ on Top of Bitcoin’s Lightning Networ

[Tanimariya]

Ethereum was created to carry out complex applications Bitcoin supposedly couldn’t handle. A new app brings the idea full circle.

Pseudonymous developer Fiatjaf has created Etleneum, which he describes as a “centralized” version of Ethereum that runs on payments from Bitcoin’s Lightning Network. Hence the name, a portmanteau of “Ethereum” and “Lightning.” (If that’s too subtle, the Etleneum logo is a diamond shape like Ethereum’s with a lightning bolt running through it.)

Like Ethereum, Etleneum has “contracts,” automated agreements over what rules need to be met before money can be dispensed. The contracts are public like Ethereum’s, and like the world’s second-largest blockchain by market capitalization, Fiatjaf’s platform is open to anyone to use.

But it is not decentralized. Fiatjaf controls it all – as he is quick to note.

“Lots of people think I invented some kind of decentralized trustless smart contract platform on Lightning, which would be amazing and probably impossible, but then they’re frustrated when I deny it,” he said.

It sounds odd, since the whole point of Bitcoin and Ethereum is decentralization – wrestling control from one ruler or entity.

But Fiatjaf argues there are limits to what can be totally decentralized, and that this particular mixed set-up might prove to be more useful.
Read more info: https://www.coindesk.com/why-this-dev-built-a-centralized-ethereum-on-top-of-bitcoins-lightning-network