# Why is Radix Atomic Composability better than it's competitors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Chat / Discussion\ **Created:** [15 June 2022 14:48 UTC](https://radixtalk.com/t/why-is-radix-atomic-composability-better-than-its-competitors/1294 "2022-06-15T14:48:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shrimp](https://radixtalk.com/user_avatar/radixtalk.com/shrimp/32/748_2.png) [@Shrimp](https://radixtalk.com/u/Shrimp)\ **Post date:** [15 June 2022 14:48 UTC](https://radixtalk.com/t/why-is-radix-atomic-composability-better-than-its-competitors/1294/1 "2022-06-15T14:48:15Z")
Simplified Atomic Composability (let’s call it AC for now) just means more and different information can be in one transaction. In an article there is the exemple of a flashloan which gets possible through AC but is this not already something which is possible in ETH? Or is AC just making it more efficient and less pricy ---
**Author:** ![andrea](https://radixtalk.com/user_avatar/radixtalk.com/andrea/32/590_2.png) [@andrea](https://radixtalk.com/u/andrea)\ **Post date:** [15 June 2022 15:34 UTC](https://radixtalk.com/t/why-is-radix-atomic-composability-better-than-its-competitors/1294/2 "2022-06-15T15:34:08Z")
From my understanding, the real problem is: _if DeFi continues to grow, it will surely require millions of smart contract transactions per second globally, and at the same time it also requires atomic composability._ Now that system traffic is experiencing congestion, eth is contemplating breaking up the Ethereum blockchain so as to spread traffic, but doing this you would likely break atomic composability. **What do you obtain from breaking AC?** Breaking AC ➡ no atomicity ➡ lack of flexibility inside the network . So, replying to your main question: **YES, YOU ARE RIGHT.** AC is already something which is possible in ETH. Not surprisingly, there has been concern recently about whether or not the “composability” property of Ethereum will be preserved in an eth2 cross shard context. However, as you can see in this [article](https://www.radixdlt.com/post/breakthrough-in-consensus-theory-scaling-defi-without-breaking-composability) ## **Cerberus: Sharding with Unlimited Scale and Composability** Radix has attacked this problem head-on with a new consensus design called Cerberus that is the end result of seven years of R&D. Cerberus introduces two significant changes from other scalable consensus protocols that give it practically unlimited scalability _without_ compromising free atomic composability. ‍ **First** , Cerberus uses a different kind of sharding. Rather than split dApps or assets between a static set of shards, Cerberus uses a practically infinite set of shards. Assets and dApps are represented _dynamically_ across these shards. The result is limitless parallelism, meaning that no matter how much demand there is on the Radix network, natural financial incentives can just add more nodes to split up the load and increase throughput to keep up. This doesn’t just raise the ceiling on scalability; **it means there is no ceiling** _._ _‍_ **Second** , Cerberus removes the barriers between its shards with a completely new consensus design. While each shard is able to conduct fast, secure consensus independently, Cerberus can directly “braid” these consensus processes together into one – atomically, and on-the-fly for each individual transaction. Braided cross-shard consensus is just as atomic and secure as simple single-shard consensus, meaning that **composability is just as free and frictionless as on a single blockchain, but without the scalability limits**. Cerberus gives Radix shards SpaceX satellite internet, rather than messages in bottles. Text ![Emergent Cerberus BFT](https://radixtalk.com/uploads/default/original/1X/77143da5ded181d83bf6bb30d70cbfcb4ab33ec7.png) My consulted material: - [What is sharding? And how is the Radix way of sharding different?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Radix/comments/qq43xh/what_is_sharding_and_how_is_the_radix_way_of/) - [ETH Cross-shard DEFI Composability](https://ethresear.ch/t/cross-shard-defi-composability/6268) - [Will a Sharded Ethereum Have All-or-None Synchronous Composability?](https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2020/10/13/will-a-sharded-ethereum-be-flexible-enough-for-decentralized-finance/) - [Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum) on Cross-Shard DeFi Composability](https://ethresear.ch/t/cross-shard-defi-composability/6268/9) - [Composability is Innovation](https://future.a16z.com/how-composability-unlocks-crypto-and-everything-else/) - [What is the DeFi sector getting wrong right now?](https://cointelegraph.com/news/q-a-what-is-the-defi-sector-getting-wrong-right-now) - [Breakthrough in Consensus Theory: Scaling DeFi Without Breaking Composability](https://www.radixdlt.com/post/breakthrough-in-consensus-theory-scaling-defi-without-breaking-composability) - [YouTube: Radix Founder Dan Hughes on Atomic Composability, Parallel Transaction Handling, and Concurrent Cross-Shard Consensus (timestamped)](https://youtu.be/FZWT3j9XHMI?t=346) - [Scaling Blockchains and other kinds of Decentralized Ledgers](https://assets-global.website-files.com/6053f7fca5bf627283b582c2/60c3808d955fe9316ac6af05_3.%20Why%20Blockchains%20Can%27t%20Scale_compressed%20(2).pdf) ---
**Author:** ![Shrimp](https://radixtalk.com/user_avatar/radixtalk.com/shrimp/32/748_2.png) [@Shrimp](https://radixtalk.com/u/Shrimp)\ **Post date:** [15 June 2022 17:44 UTC](https://radixtalk.com/t/why-is-radix-atomic-composability-better-than-its-competitors/1294/3 "2022-06-15T17:44:04Z")
Thx a lot thats puts some good light on it! > [@andrea](#): > > Braided cross-shard consensus is just as atomic and secure as simple single-shard consensus, meaning that **composability is just as free and frictionless as on a single blockchain, but without the scalability limits** This sentence all most made my head explode had to read it out loud and very slowly to understand it Gonna dig into the source list a bit. Still a lot of black spots which I need to fill > [@andrea](#): > > This doesn’t just raise the ceiling on scalability; **it means there is no ceiling** _._ But is this not potentially giving the room to attacks like Solona is witnessing? ---
**Author:** ![andrea](https://radixtalk.com/user_avatar/radixtalk.com/andrea/32/590_2.png) [@andrea](https://radixtalk.com/u/andrea)\ **Post date:** [16 June 2022 11:04 UTC](https://radixtalk.com/t/why-is-radix-atomic-composability-better-than-its-competitors/1294/4 "2022-06-16T11:04:45Z")
> [@Shrimp](#): > > This sentence all most made my head explode had to read it out loud and very slowly to understand it Ahah, I know how you feel. We are on the same boat: too many “what if?” and too many doubts for us ordinarily mortals. > [@Shrimp](#): > > But is this not potentially giving the room to attacks like Solona is witnessing? Interesting point. Try to give a look at this article full of Vitalik’s suggestion: [Why sharding is great: demystifying the technical properties](https://vitalik.ca/general/2021/04/07/sharding.html). Maybe the answer to your question is here. ---
**Author:** ![Shrimp](https://radixtalk.com/user_avatar/radixtalk.com/shrimp/32/748_2.png) [@Shrimp](https://radixtalk.com/u/Shrimp)\ **Post date:** [16 June 2022 12:42 UTC](https://radixtalk.com/t/why-is-radix-atomic-composability-better-than-its-competitors/1294/5 "2022-06-16T12:42:33Z")
Yeah definitely can feel very ordinary mortal when learning about that stuff At some point the smart sounding words just mix into a word gibbierish salad but there is just so much to learn especially cause everything interlocks and is important to the full network Thx for the article I am gonna check it out