What is BNB Chain?

BNB Chain is a decentralized blockchain ecosystem focusing on Web3 economy, infrastructure and services. It provides a range of advanced tools and features for users to explore the field of decentralized finance (DeFi) and for developers to create large-scale decentralized applications (DApps).

Brief History of BNB Chain Development

BNB Chain (formerly Binance Chain) was created in 2019. At that time, BNB, a utility token launched in 2017, was migrated from the Ethereum network to BNB Chain and became the native token of the network. The predecessor of BNB Chain is what we now call BNB Beacon Chain.

In 2020, BNB Smart Chain (BSC) (formerly Binance Smart Chain) was launched as a new blockchain parallel to the BNB Beacon Chain. BSC introduces new features and increases flexibility using EVM-compatible smart contracts, promoting the explosive growth of DApps and services.

Comparison between BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain

In 2022, both BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC) will be integrated into the BNB Chain ecosystem. However, the two blockchains continue to operate independently and serve different purposes.

• BNB Beacon Chain: Used as the governance layer for staking and voting, using the BEP-2 token standard.

• BNB Smart Chain (BSC): Used as an EVM compatibility layer to provide DApps, DeFi services, consensus layer, multi-chain support and other Web3 applications. BSC adopts BEP-20 as the main token standard.

Since then, the BNB Chain ecosystem has launched more products such as BNB Greenfield and opBNB Layer 2 solutions, which will be introduced to you in detail below.

Binance does not own or control BNB Chain

Binance has no control over BNB Chain, which may confuse some people because BNB Chain was formerly known as Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain. Some people mistakenly believe that BNB Chain is another product of Binance, but this is not the case. BNB Chain is decentralized.

Binance’s centralized structure mainly serves the Web3 field. Although the concept of BNB Chain was originally proposed by Binance and is still supported by Binance, Binance is committed to making the chain a decentralized independent network. BNB Chain operates in a community-led manner, and anyone can become a network validator by staking BNB.

BNB Chain Integration

In December 2023, the BNB Chain team announced that it will shut down the BNB beacon chain, and the functions of the chain will be migrated to the BNB smart chain network.

"[...] We will make a strategic shift to migrate the functions of the Beacon Chain to BSC and shut down the Beacon Chain. This move is aimed at simplifying the BNB Chain network, improving efficiency and reducing security risks, allowing BNB to Chain’s architecture can adapt to current technology needs and future growth.” - BNB Chain Blog.

This migration is expected to be carried out in multiple phases, starting in April 2024 and ending in June of the same year. For details, please refer to the BNB Chain integration roadmap.

At this point, I believe you have fully understood the creation process and development direction of BNB Chain. Next, we will explore how BNB Chain works and its key products and features. Please note that the information provided in this article is subject to change, especially following the upcoming BNB Chain fusion implementation.

BNB Chain expansion solution and decentralized storage

Since its launch, BNB Chain has expanded into a multi-chain framework and now includes a variety of services, such as Layer 2 expansion solution opBNB and decentralized storage chain BNB Greenfield.

opBNB

opBNB is a Layer 2 expansion solution designed to leverage the Optimism OP Stack to enhance the performance of the BNB smart chain. This solution provides high throughput, low transaction fees and extremely high transaction processing efficiency, and is suitable for large-scale Web3 applications.

• Scalability: opBNB is a Layer 2 expansion solution that reduces the transaction processing and resource usage burden of the BNB smart chain. Its scalability exceeds the limitations of Layer 1, with over 4,000 transactions per second (TPS).

• Gas fee efficiency: opBNB’s average gas fee is as low as $0.001, providing high throughput and cost-effective transactions, which can greatly enhance user experience.

BNB Greenfield

BNB Greenfield ecosystem consists of a storage-centric blockchain BNB Greenfield and a decentralized storage provider (SP) network.

BNB Greenfield is a blockchain network layer built on Cosmos/Tendermint infrastructure. The blockchain utilizes the Tendermint consensus mechanism and adopts a proof-of-stake method to ensure network security. Validators play a vital role in reaching consensus and participating in network governance.

SP is the infrastructure provided by organizations or individuals responsible for responding to user requests to upload and download data. SP acts as the gatekeeper of user permissions and identity authentication.

Users submit data storage requests on Greenfield, and the storage provider (SP) is responsible for maintaining off-chain data. To ensure the integrity of stored data, users can perform challenge proof verification on BNB Greenfield.

Developers can build DApps on the BNB Greenfield platform and establish connections with BNB Chain, laying the foundation for the new data economy in the Web3 era.

Conclusion

Since its launch in 2017, BNB Chain has undergone a series of major transformations, from the early BNB Chain to today’s massive DeFi ecosystem that includes thousands of services, products, DApps, and decentralized organizations. As a strong force in the Web3 field, BNB Chain provides users, developers and enterprises with a powerful innovation and growth platform.

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