February 15, 2022, 2:05 pm EST
Cryptography’s future depends on decentralization. Decentralization is required for crypto networks to retain their most important properties of being “permissionless” and “censorship-resistant,” that is, anyone can use them and they can be built on.
Decentralized blockchains are based on the idea that they provide an immutable ledger with open, non-discriminatory participation.
Eighteen months ago, Binance launched its own blockchain exchange.
Radix founder and current CTO Dan Hughes Dan started building Radix in 2016, a new base layer decentralized ledger protocol built to support smart contract development. Radix is a public, decentralized ledger built to support the creation of applications, with a focus on decentralized finance (DeFi) use cases. It uses a new consensus algorithm called Cerberus to help secure the network while giving it a higher level of performance (i.e., scalability) that could be desirable to specific applications. Radix also features its own smart contract execution environment (i.e., virtual machine) dubbed the Radix Engine, which allows developers to map business assets to pre-built Radix components. The project is aiming to be an alternative base layer to blockchains.
Cryptocurrency exchange Binance has rebranded the blockchain powering its platform in a bid to emphasize decentralization.
In the move, Binance’s CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a webinar Tuesday that Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is now BNB Chain.
“People always think of Binance Smart Chain, because it carries the Binance word, as something owned by Binance,” Zhao said. “We’ve done a lot of work to decentralize it, and we also realize BNB is beyond Binance. It’s bigger than Binance…BNB is its own living, breathing ecosystem with the BNB Chain.”
Meanwhile, the SEC is examining the relationship between Binance’s US arm and two trading firms, Sigma Chain AG and Merit Peak Ltd., that have ties to Zhao, people familiar with the probe told The Wall Street Journal.
When the exchange’s blockchain was launched, its creators didn’t consider its Binance branding for what was then just an experiment, according to Samy Karim, who holds the title of BNB Chain coordinator.
“When we started off, we definitely didn’t expect BSC, now BNB chain, to grow to where it is today,” Karim said. “It shows the level of underserved demand there really was, and this type of infrastructure really helped to drive massive new user growth in decentralized applications that wasn’t really happening before.”
BNB, formerly Binance Coin, now stands for “Build and Build” as the blockchain token for the BNB chain.
The chain is a community-driven, decentralized blockchain powered by the token and consists of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). As of Tuesday, the total value locked (TVL) in BNB was 25 billion, according to BSCProject data.
The rebranding is to stress its independence and deemphasize Binance’s role going forward, Zhao said. “BSC, now BNB, was an experimental product that we initially contributed to and helped with the initial funding, but now it’s community driven, open-sourced, and decentralized,” Zhao said. “Binance doesn’t own the chain, it’s just a contributor in the community and will continue to do so, but the BNB chain is completely running on its own. It’s not run by us or anyone else,” he added.
Via Blockworks
Jacquelyn Melinek
