What is BCNS (Bitcoin Cash Name Service)

BCNS, also known as the Bitcoin Cash Name Service, replaces the default Bitcoin Cash wallet address with easier and more meaningful names like “helloworld.bch”. It turns human comprehensible names like “yourname.bch” into the default alphanumeric hash that decentralized network machines used to communicate with each other, just like how our browsers can resolve domains like “facebook.com”, “google.com” into IP addresses like “119.14.21.221”.

Moreover, users can use the very same Bitcoin Cash domain to interact with their favorite smart contracts, and IPFS-hosted sites. In other words, users can efficiently manage their crypto and transactions without the worrying about losing their assets.

How is it done

Different from most of the smart contract supported chain, Bitcoin Cash blockchain is originally designed for basic peer to peer transaction. Unlike how Ethereum enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to be built and run via its machine (EVM, Ethereum Virtual Machine), Bitcoin Cash blockchain does not support the same feature by its default. Therefore, in order to interact with this UTXO-based blockchain, Omni Layer was implemented to allow users and developers to communicate, create and trade customizable tokens on top of Bitcoin Cash. BCNS will be deployed on this layer as a gateway for any applications or users to use.

What is Omni Layer

The Omni Layer provides users with advanced features including peer-to-peer trading, custom currencies, and smart contracts. A common analogy used to describe the relationship between the Omni Layer and Bitcoin is as HTTP to TCP/IP; Omni Layer is the fundamental transfer layer to the Bitcoin network. It is in charge of communicating with the Bitcoin blockchain on behalf of users, simplifying the process to do crowdfunding on Bitcoin Cash.

As for BCNS’s use case, developers can write different information to the UTXO-based blockchain at JSON-RPC interface, and get related information stored in the Bitcoin Cash script. Omni Layer plays a crucial role for BCNS because the OP_RETURN script is where all the BCNS information are stored. Just as how ENS has 3 smart contract components — Registry, Registrar, Resolver — on Ethereum, Omni Layer of Bitcoin Cash plays the exact same role that ensure the function and security of BCNS.

Portal Network has been working closely with different blockchain protocols and projects on deploying BNS-compatible systems. For instance, we have managed to deployed different standards like WNS (Wanchain Name System), QNS (QTUM Name Service), and INS (ICONick Name Service).

In addition to our BNS technology, we developed a product suite that allows both technical and non-technical users to create, deploy, and experience decentralized websites and applications. We believe by implementing BCNS on Bitcoin Cash, all users can enjoy a better user experience in this decentralized network.

Next week, we will explore more about BCNS. We will have a more in-depth discussion on how Omni Layer could interact and communicate with different technical layer within Bitcoin Cash.

Thank you for reading.