Classifying Blockchain Scaling Solutions

Numerous blockchain scaling solutions have surfaced over the past two years, each with its own unique features. As these solutions diverge in their approaches, classifying them and comparing them becomes more difficult. This research piece will attempt to do just that, with its main focus on classifying notable protocols. 

We first look at horizontal scaling solutions, consisting of mainly sidechains, sharded chains, and data availability (DA) abstractions. These solutions do not technically inherit all of their security from the main chain, and some of them are actually independent layers that do not scale an underlying blockchain but rather, increase the throughput of itself. As such, these solutions are deemed horizontal scaling solutions because they do not require the presence of an underlying chain.