As of February 15, 2022, BINANCE Chain and Binance Smart Chain will be known as BNB Chain, taking their new name from the currency that underpins the blockchain ecosystem. The move highlights further BSC’s connection with the BNB token and BNB ecosystem. BNB Chain aims to build the infrastructure to bring the parallel virtual ecosystem to life, according to the official statement.
The Binance blockchain ecosystem still entails two different chains:
- BNB Beacon Chain, previously Binance Chain
- BNB Smart Chain (BSC), previously known as Binance Smart Chain
BNB Smart Chain is the blockchain we track here on DappRadar. It’s EVM compatible, has multiple consensus layers and hubs to multi-chains. At the same time, the native BNB token also changes its name. It now stands for “Build and Build”, while they previously simply called it Binance Coin. All this will now come together under the umbrella of the BNB Chain.
The statement added that through MetaFi, the BNB Chain community would aim to build the infrastructure that powers the ecosystem. In the world MetaFi, the terms metadata and DeFi have been combined, highlighting the need for DeFi services for all blockchain products under the BNB umbrella. For example, think about metaverse, GameFi, SocialFi, Web3, and NFTs.
While the rebrand may appear cosmetic, it is hoped that the move will tighten Binance’s operations overall, increase decentralization, and broader the audience of a network that already attracts 35% of all dapp usage.
Further decentralization
Alongside the cosmetic name change comes more advancements to benefit users, projects, and developers connected to the BNB Chain community. Over the past year, the BNB Chain community has made technical upgrades towards increased decentralization, including Initiating the Bruno hard fork to increase the BNB burn rate and introducing a new BNB Auto-Burn protocol that is objective and verifiable.
The rise of Binance dapps
In 2021, over half a million Unique Active Wallets (UAW) connected to a BSC dapp on average per day, an amount that grew significantly as the year progressed. Binance Smart Chain was responsible for 35% of dapp activity thanks to a complete suite of DeFi dapps and the eventual rise of the game category within the network.
Regarding DeFi, BSC consolidated itself as the second-largest blockchain in terms of Total Value Locked (TVL). Furthermore, PancakeSwap, BSC’s leading token swap and yield farming platform, became the most used dapp in the industry based on on-chain activity, closing the year with more than 546,000 daily wallets connecting to the dapp. Nonetheless, it is worth noting that the DeFi scene is getting more competitive. It will be interesting to see if BSC can maintain the second position in the TVL rankings or, even better, challenge Ethereum’s DeFi dominance as chains like Polygon continues to flex their muscles.
In the games category, BSC’s offering became one of the most complete in the industry. Native game dapps Mobox and BombCrypto became amongst the most played blockchain games. Taking advantage of low transaction fees and fast processing times, BSC is a solid network to host blockchain games.
While DeFi and games flourished during 2021, the performance of NFTs on BSC appears to be stagnant outside of Mobox. Even though the on-chain metrics do not include the Featured by Binance Marketplace, no marketplace truly made an impact. BSC generated $670 million in NFT sales during the whole year, with 80% coming from Mobox, as previously mentioned.
The above does not constitute investment advice. The information given here is purely for informational purposes only. Please exercise due diligence and do your research. The writer holds ETH, BTC, AGIX, HEX, LINK, GRT, CRO, OMI, IMMUTABLE X, GALA, AVASTR, GMEE, CUBE, RADAR, FLOW, FTM, BNB, SPS, WRLD, ATOM, and ADA.
