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So, if you spend any time collecting, being involved or starting up in Banano (BAN) crypto, at some point you're going to come across the term, Wrapped Banano (WBAN). You might have heard something similar in other coins, like Wrapped Bitcoin etc. which allows investment in Bitcoin across chains into the ether network, for example. Wrapped Banano is a similar approach on the BINANCE Smart Chain (BSC) network or on the Polygon network. Yes, they are named the same thing in terms of identifiers, but they are very different coin setups, something to keep in mind when getting involved with wrapped BAN.
The most common entry into WBAN is through the online wallet, Metamask. However, this presents an immediate problem in that METAMASK doesn't make it easy to get BAN into Metamask in the first place. Instead, you have to swap your current BAN on the Banano network, for WBAN on either the Binance network or Polygon network. I know, this sounds a bit confusing, but think of it like you're jumping from Midgard to Asgard or some other Sci-Fi dimension to another. You have to go through a gateway or bridge to travel. Use that analogy for your BAN coin, and it starts to make a whole lot more sense. There is the option of one more WBAN placement on the Fantom network, but folks really aren't paying attention to that since Fantom kind of went down the drain a month or so ago.
All of the above is fairly new. The WBAN connections and swaps started being available only as recently as mid-2021.
Wrapped BAN cannot be invested in on its own. It's just another token type per se. However, When WBAN is staked into liquidity pools, that in turn can generate new WBAN gains, adding to one's total. The profit comes from the liquidity swap fees charged to users when making currency trades. That said, it is a decentralized risk. Your money isn't protected and, if the pool fails or gets hacked, bye-bye WBAN stake. It's already happened once.
Among the four main pools for liquidity investing there is one on Polygon and three on Binance Chain:
- Polygon - wBAN-wETH
- BSC - wBAN
- BSC - wBAN-BNB
- BSC - wBAN-BUSD
Again, the above for investing is not straight staking. You're coins are being used to make it easier for other Banano users to swap their crypto for other currencies and return. By creating additional cash flow in the pool to enhance on-demand swaps, you then get rewarded a commensurate amount to pay you for borrowing your wBAN to make the magic happen. Similar operations occur on De-Fi Box, Alcor, Uniswap, Cake, Sushiswap and similar, all rewarding with their own coin token for pool supporters (except Alcor, not sure how they reward per se, but there's probably some benefit there or it wouldn't exist).
Going into wBAN is a bit of an evolved second or third step in making Banano coin work for you instead of just waiting for it to go up in value (wen BAN moon?). As one of my friends in CryptoMonkeys pointed out so clearly, at our respective age our money should be working for us 24/7; we can't afford to let it sit around and do nothing. Wrapped Banano is one of those available digital options, especially as you build up more Banano coin over time with the tips from my previous article on how to get Banano in the first place (yes, read it, there's lots of good stuff in there).
More info for the reading-inclined or folks who need something to help them get to sleep at night:
- Original Medium article announcing wBAN
- BSC wBAN Connection Page (needs Metamask or a BSC chain wallet).
- Polygon wBAN Connection Page (needs Metamask)
- Wiki Fan Page on wBAN
- wBAN on Fantom network
- wBAN on Polygon network
- wBAN on the BSC chain
