Liquid Goes Live: Blockstream’s First Bitcoin Sidechain Has Finally Arrived

Three years in the making, bitcoin’s first sidechain “Liquid” is now live.

Launched by San Francisco startup Blockstream, Liquid is arguably the most advanced implementation of a technology called sidechains that’s long been a holy grail for bitcoin coders (though what’s being launched today may be a watered-down version of the original “trustless” vision). Still, that doesn’t dilute the capabilities of what the company, founded by bitcoin’s top open-source coders in 2014, has created.

Built off of the live blockchain, Liquid will now be used to carry large volumes of transactions at a higher speed for several of bitcoin’s largest companies.

A notable milestone, Liquid has been in progress for quite some time. Blockstream first unveiled the idea in 2015, then the sidechain was launched in beta – being put to the test on bitcoin’s main network – last year. Today, however, the network is finally opening up for all of Blockstream’s partners to use for real transactions….