October 24, 2017

Dear Community,

It’s been a heads down month at Bancor as we crossed another milestone, the activation of the first Smart Token™ and Token Relay™ on the Bancor Network™, added a string of new partners and refined the language we use to describe the Bancor ecosystem.

Product Updates

The STX (Stox) Smart Token™ and the GNOBNT (Gnosis) Token Relay™ have both been activated by the respective projects and are live in the Web App. Now anyone can convert ETH, BNT, STX and GNO at algorithmically calculated prices determined by the Bancor Formula, directly through our Web App, at any time. This is one small step for Bancor and one giant step for the industry, as the world’s first smart contract enabled autonomous conversion mechanism. You can read more in the dedicated post and check out the STX and GNO token community pages in the app. Expect many more projects to adopt the Bancor Protocol™ shortly…

Smart Contract Upgrades

We pushed a great upgrade to the Bancor Smart Contracts, including the following features and enhancements:

Gas limits to level the transaction playing field and prevent line jumping

New terminology across many entities (read more on this below and expect to see rolling changes throughout our contracts and materials)

Further gas limit optimizations to reduce transaction costs even more

Allowing the purchase of Token Relay™ tokens with a single transaction

Allowing sending of results of a transaction to another user

Cleaner design, more separation between modules and less dependencies between converters, and more…

New Terminology

After a long and thorough process with the best minds in the business, we have finalized new terminology which more accurately describes the Bancor ecosystem and its various components. As is often the case with new inventions, we at first must use old words to describe new ideas. The lexicon below is adapted to reflect the autonomous and interconnected pieces that together create the Bancor decentralized liquidity network.

The Bancor Protocol™ — This is the method described in our whitepaper by which a cryptographic token is related to another. The source token is a “Smart Token™” and its related token is called a “Connector” (formerly known as reserve.)

The Bancor Formula™ — This formula governs the price relationship between a Smart Token™ and its Connector. The ratio balances buy and sell volumes while holding a token’s Connector “Weight” (see below) constant. The formula incorporates transaction size so each buy and sell affects the price as if it were executed in infinitely small increments.

Weight — The weight of a Connector (formerly known as CRR) is the ratio between the Connector balance and the Smart Token’s Total Token Value (which is its supply x unit price.) This creator-configured parameter defines the sensitivity of a token to its Connector: A higher weight results in higher liquidity and greater stability, while a lower weight results in lower liquidity and lower stability. The weight of a Connector is held constant by the Bancor Formula while the Smart Token’s supply and Connector balance both rise with purchases and fall with sells, mandating that the price fluctuate accordingly.

Smart Token™ — A Smart Token™ can be purchased for any of its Connectors and sold for any of its Connectors, directly through the smart contract. Beyond its initial creator-configured supply, a Smart Token™ is created when it is purchased and destroyed when it is sold. Because of the fraction in the Bancor Formula, Smart Tokens™ with a total Connector weight of less than 100% increase in price as their supply increases (when purchased) and decrease in price as their supply decreases (when sold.) While demand still governs price, the supply of a Smart Token™ is dynamic and adaptable, not finite.

Token Relay™— A Token Relay™ is a unique kind of Smart Token™ with two Connectors, with a combined total weight of 100%. This configuration allows for simple integration of existing ERC20 tokens into the Bancor Protocol, making them backwards compatible. The new Smart Token™ created (for example, GNOBNT) is purchasable with either of its Connectors, and can be sold for either of its Connectors, making it a conduit for converting one to the other. Token Relays™ in the Bancor Network™ hold one Connector in BNT and the other in an existing ERC20 token, thus enabling the latter to convert into any token in the network, via BNT, which is itself a Smart Token™ (with a 10% weight ETH Connector.)

The Bancor Network™ — Every token utilizing BNT as a Connector is part of what we call the Bancor Network™ and thus convertible for any other in the network through a maximum 2 hop process via BNT. The Bancor Network™ allows for autonomous, continuous, asynchronous convertibility between integrated tokens. This is the world’s first and only decentralized liquidity network.

The Bancor Web App — This front-end UX allows users to create a Smart Wallet™ on the Bancor Network™ which they can use to buy and sell any token in the network by interacting with the Smart Token™ contract and convert between them at their formulaically calculated prices. This app will soon be widgetized and portable to any online or mobile destination for easy use throughout Bancor Network™ members’ ecosystems.

New Tokens in the Network

You can stay up to date with a complete list on Reddit, and check out these latest additions we’re excited to welcome to the network:

Storm Token — Launching Soon!

Aion

Flixxo

Miniapps.pro

UBIcoin

Afterschool

Goldmint

IQT — Iquant Chain

Eloplay

Wolk

Aigang Network

Power Ledger — Australia’s First Token Launch Raised $34m AUD!

Papyrus

SPiCE VC

Social Media Reset

Check out our newly updated and maintained Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Steemit, Reddit, Bitcoin Talk and Github channels for news and chatter wherever your are. This month we are phasing out our slack channel, which has proven to be problematic for user safety due to repeated scams and trolling. This is an industry wide problem and we’ve encouraged all of our members to migrate to safer platforms until the issues are better addressed.

Enjin Explains Token Relays

We love this explainer on how Token Relays™ work from our friends at Enjin, a Bancor Network™ member announced last month. If you’d like to take a stab at explaining any part of the Bancor ecosystem, please visit our content creation bounty program for opportunities to get involved.

Events

Speaking live at events has been one of the best ways this year for the Bancor team to meet and build with the brightest minds in the industry, as well as to get the message out about the protocol. We’ll continue to participate wherever possible as we enter the next phase of network development and new Smart Token™ integrations. Here’s where we’ll be in the upcoming month, if you have additional suggestions or would like to meet on site, please send a message to contact@bancor.network:

Geektime Tel Aviv October 24

CoinAgenda Las Vegas October 24–26

Blockchain & ICO Fest Istanbul October 27

Ethereal San Francisco October 27

SummitLA Los Angeles November 3–6

ComplexCon Long Beach November 4–5

D10e Davos November 11–14

In case you missed Galia’s talk at D10e San Francisco this summer, check it out here.

As always we’d love to hear your thoughts on the product, progress and plans. For an on going discussion with the community and team, please join our Telegram group where great moderators keep the cryptopeace.

To a lexicon of liquidity,

The Bancor Team