What Is The Binance Smart Chain?

Activity on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) includes token swaps, decentralized money markets, NFTs, earning yield, and more. Binance Smart Chain supports the BEP-20 token standard, while its sister Binance Chain, which features the Binance DEX, supports the BEP-2 token standard. In order to trade on Binance DEX, you’ll need to use BEP-2 tokens. If you’d like to use dApps on BSC, you’ll need BEP-20 tokens.

To interact with apps on BSC, you’ll need a wallet, such as Math Wallet, Ledger, TokenPocket, Bitkeep, ONTO, Safepal, and Arkane, as well as MetaMask. You can use MetaMask, although it is an Ethereum wallet, by connecting it to BSC. 

Certain dApps, like PancakeSwap, allow you to connect using Trust Wallet, which is a mobile wallet. If you’d like to use BSC from your pocket, it’s among the best options. Once you have a wallet, you can explore some of the most popular decentralized applications on BSC. 

The Binance Chain Wallet, which is a browser extension for Chrome, Firefox, and Brave, is an option for certain apps built on BSC. In order to move funds to the Binance Smart Chain, use the Binance Bridge. Binance users can withdraw their funds from a Binance account to a BSC by selecting Baince Smart Chain (BEP-20) when withdrawing their funds.

Binance Bridge

The Binance Bridge Project is a cross-chain bridging service designed to increase interoperability between different blockchains. With the Binance Bridge, you can convert certain tokens from other blockchains into wrapped tokens (or “pegged tokens”) to be used on Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain.

For instance, you can select blockchains such as Ethereum or TRON, and bidirectionally convert their native tokens to wrapped tokens on BSC or vice versa. You can also monitor the on-chain reserve that ensures that the wrapped tokens on BSC are sufficiently collateralized by the native tokens here on the Binance Smart Chain’s Proof of Assets page.

Binance Smart Chain Validators 

Binance Smart Chain validators stake BNB as they process transactions and confirm new blocks. In simple terms, validators are the ones that make sure that BSC keeps going. By staking BNB, they process transactions and confirm new blocks. They earn transaction fees that stem from network activity. 

Binance Smart Chain relies on a consensus mechanism called Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA). The model of consensus can support a short block time and lower fees. You can check the top validators on Binance Smart Chain. 

Binance Smart Chain Projects 

Pancake Swap

Pancake Swap is an automated market maker (AMM) on Binance Smart Chain similar to Uniswap or SushiSwap, but for BEP-20 tokens. Earn passive income, as well, by providing liquidity to one or more of the liquidity pools. 

While the AMM is at the core of PancakeSwap, there’s much more you can do. You can also take part in the lottery, win NFTs, participate in token sales, compete for spots on the leaderboard, and more.

Venus

As a borrow-lending protocol similar to Compound or Aave on Ethereum, Venus is a decentralized money market where you borrow and lend BEP-20 tokens with algorithmically set interest rates. Venus can be used to earn interest or use them as collateral to borrow against to participate in yield farming. Venus also features a decentralized stablecoin called VAI, which is backed by a basket of crypto assets. Binance suggests looking at Venus as a hybrid of Compound and MakerDAO on BSC. 

Autofarm 

Autofarm is a yield aggregator on BSC, similar to yearn on Ethereum. The goal of Autofarm is to automatically find you the most optimal way to earna  yield on your deposits. 

BurgerSwap 

BurgerSwap is a popular AMM on BSC. You can do BEP-20 token swaps and provide liquidity. 

Spartan Protocol

The Spartan Protocol is a synthetic asset protocol on BSC, allowing users to create liquidity pools for BEP-20 tokens – just like many other AMMs. The Spartan Protocol is aiming to create synthetic assets collateralized by liquidity pools, as well as lending and on-chain derivatives. 

Cream

Cream is a popular lending protocol on Ethereum that is deployed on BSC. Borrow and lend BEP-20 tokens. 

Analytics For Binance Smart Chain (BSC)

1. BscScan is the place to keep track of Binance Smart Chain in a manner similar to Ethscan for Ethereum. Also shows what day the number of transactions on BSC was highest. 

2. The BscScan yield farming dashboard shows all current farming opportunities. Scan all the latest farms with this app. 

3. The MathdApp Store tracks all of the different dapps in the BSC ecosystem. Select Binance Smart Chain on the sidebar on the left, and you’ll get a list of trusted BSC DApps.

4. Average gas price that users pay for BSC transactions is a good indicator of network health and congestion. 

5. Unique address count is a rough metric regarding the number of users on Binance Smart Chain. 

6. The total number of transactions on the Binance Smart Chain on a given day is a good metric of how much a network is used.

7. The Token Tracker page tracks the top BEP-20 tokens by market capitalization or daily trading volume. Learn the highest cumulative value on BSC, which is printing the highest trading volumes. There are many wrapped tokens on this page, such as the Binance-Peg ChainLink, which is an ERC-20 LINK wrapped as a BEP-20 token on BSC. It’s a tokenized version of a coin or token that belongs to another blockchain so you can use non BSC coins on BSC. Wrap any LINK you own for farming on BSC. Do it without selling the token. 

8. The Validators Leaderboard keeps track of the top validators. 

Is Binance Smart Chain Centralized? 

The Binance Smart Chain has faced criticism from the blockchain community. A researcher for the online database for the crypto industry, Messari, researcher Ryan Watkins tweeted about the project’s centralization of its validator corp. “Every cycle people get hoodwinked by the latest centralized solution to all blockchains problems,” tweeted Watkins. “Every cycle influencers pump these narratives so they can dump on naïve retail traders when it’s over.”

Watkins took aim at BSC’s proof-of-staked authority consensus, which has 21 active validators chosen daily by Binance Chain, and is governed by just 11 validators. 

“It’s hard not to presume that each Binance Chain validator is in some way connected or tied to Binance,” Messari’s Wilson Withiam said: “They each take turns producing blocks in a seemingly predefined order. There doesn’t appear to be any stake-weighted mechanism to determine which one produces the next block.”

According to Watkins, BSC’s efficiency compared to Ethereum are a product of “the magic of centralization” and not “technological innovation,” as many might think. 

“BSC is an Ethereum fork with a centralized validator set. That’s it. Nothing more,” he added. “If you really think BSC has achieved smart contract supremacy, and will become the world’s settlement layer, you are on crack.”

Binance Smart Chain Is Quickly Growing

Binance Smart Chain (BSC) is becoming a recognized blockchain networks when it comes to running smart contract-based applications. The platform seeks to enable developers to build decentralized applications (dapps) so users can manage their digital assets cross-chain with low latency and large capacity.