Lorenzo - May 2025
Sharding is nothing more than splitting a blockchain into several different pieces that can crunch the numbers in parallel - increasing transaction speeds and throughput.
If you develop your DApps and ecosystems, you’ll inevitably run into scalability issues. This is a common problem that has plagued smart contract blockchains for many years. However, we have seen the rise of several important solutions that make the lives of Web3 founders and developers a lot easier.
EVM Congestion Issues
Any EVM chain out there has its limitations. Let’s look at Ethereum. In 2021 as the world was gorging on an unhealthy diet of NFT’s and yield farming DeFi Dapps, the network inevitably became congested. A “casual” 200$ gas fee wasn’t uncommon as users tried their best to “bribe” the network into “being the first in line” for their transactions. In essence, Ethereum served as a single lane highway that became congested with too many cars!
Enter sharding: the blockchain version of building a mega-interstate system with dozens of parallel roads capable of processing traffic independently. And yes, it’s an awesome technology. Let’s take a look at how it works.
Sharding in action
Shards are multiple pieces of the blockchain - each working independently. Each shard is a smaller, self-contained chain capable of processing its own transactions and smart contracts. This allows us to dramatically increase the overall throughput of the network. Think about it; when you visit your favorite supermarket and suddenly ALL the cash registers are operating to their full capacity, you’ll get your shopping done in no time.
In 2021 Harmony ($ONE) and Zilliqa ($ZIL) were the best examples of sharding applied to an EVM blockchain. The transactions were lightning fast, and the gas fees, almost nonexistent. This quickly made Harmony and Zilliqa the leading chains for DeFi and Yield farming. The natural question is, “why doesn’t every EVM chain use sharding?”
Cracks in the Shards
Vitalik Buterin (the founder of Ethereum) coined the term “Blockchain trilemma,” where blockchain innovation always balances between decentralization, security and scalability. It’s quite easy to have just two, but notoriously difficult (almost impossible) to have all 3! In fact the holy trinity of the blockchain trilemma keeps the brightest Web3 developers awake every night, on a diet of caffeine, nicotine and stress.
In other words, while sharding is fast, it should work without compromising security AND decentralization. However, all smart contracts need to communicate with each other across different shards. This is where latency can sneak in and sour the flavor of innovation. Let’s not forget about potential bugs and further complexity issues as well. There are simply too many technological bottlenecks that need to be addressed simultaneously.
How Sharding Works
Let’s take a look at the complex digital orchestra that plays in tune every time you use an EVM network that uses sharding. There are several components we need to know about:
- Shards: Independent chains running side by side.
- Validators: Assigned randomly to shards by a central coordinating chain (like Ethereum’s mainnet) to prevent attacks.
- Rotation: Validators move between shards periodically like musical chairs with cryptographic fairness.
- Cross-shard comms: Messages get passed between shards using protocols or relayers. Not instantaneous, but still efficient if done right!
With sharding we can now allocate one chain for its specific use case. A single chain (shard) handles just the NFT mints, another one handles only DeFi and a third handles gaming or IOT needs. Validators that process transactions are constantly reassigned from one chain to another to keep the process fair. Cross-shard messages are exchanged to confirm the validity of every transaction. The result of all this technological complexity is then “notarised” on the expensive mainnet in order to “solidify” it and make it immutable. This can even be done on the network of the Big Daddy Bitcoin itself (if needed).
Our previous article explained how ZK Rollups work. In short, ZK Rollups use off-chain computation to remove “stress” from the main EVM blockchain. Similarly, sidechains (think of Polkadot, Cosmos and Avalanche) use multiple layer 1 networks to achieve similar goals. Sharding is in essence another method of "alleviating stress” from the single highway that is the main EVM network.
Blockchain technology thrives on collaboration and cooperation. Very soon we’ll see blockchains that use ALL 3 methods to achieve amazing results. Keep an eye on EVM networks that use dedicated L1 chains with ZK rollups AND sharding.
In a world where IOT (internet of things) and AI will make millions of microtransactions possible, this will be the only way forward. Ethereum, Avalanche, Near Protocol and even Celestial are leading the way in this development right now (May 2025).
Risks and tradeoffs
But it’s not all smooth sailing with sharding. In fact the technology is plagued by several issues. Smart contracts can “communicate” with each other brilliantly on one network, yet when we scale it across several shards, this becomes much more difficult. Furthermore when we attack several problems at once, we tend to scatter our resources (validators). This can become risky! For the sake of security, we need as many validators as possible. In other words, there’s still a lot to be done to make sharding a household name like L2’s or ZK rollups. Luckily for us the progress never stops!
Conclusion
Web3 founders and builders have never had so much access and tools for building the next generation of Dapps and ecosystems. Sharding is quickly becoming the most direct way to scale L1 networks natively.
While it’s nowhere near perfect, it’s already developing exponentially. In just 2 years we’ll see the rise of new networks and tools that will help you build much faster and more efficiently than ever before. When the innovation hits like a nuclear warhead, it’s important to be one step ahead and use the tech to your advantage.
Now it’s more important than ever to focus on the development of technology. The success of your future projects depends on it.
