http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/10/22/bitbeat-bitcoin-coding-allstars-launch-sidechains-project-to-boost-innovation/The proposal, which could pose a major challenge to various altcoin competitors to bitcoin, aims to ramp up the development of Bitcoin 2.0 technologies to decentralize commercial and financial activity.
The proposal also carries weight because of the names behind it. The papers lead author is Adam Back. In 1990s, he developed a program known as hashcash whose core features were incorporate into the basic design of bitcoins core mining system for processing transactions. Among the whitepapers eight other authors are two of the five-person core development team charged with managing bitcoins underlying software Gregory Maxwell and Pieter Wuille. Gavin Andresen, leader of that core team, is listed in the acknowledgements as having offered reviewer comments.