A Technical Look at Our Move to Binance Chain Verasity Follow Aug 13, 2019 · Unlisted

In late May 2019, we announced our partnership with Binance Chain in what were the first steps of converting our VRA token from the ERC-20 to the proliferating BEP-2 standard on Binance Chain — our VRAB token. Subsequently, we published our listing on Binance DEX, the non-custodial exchange surging in growth since its launch.

As Binance Chain continues to attract many projects initially built on Ethereum, we find it prudent to evaluate the advantages of using Binance Chain, and specifically, why we transitioned our VRA token to their blockchain.

The Advantages of Binance Chain and Binance DEX for Verasity

At a high level, Binance Chain is an optimized fork of the Tendermint consensus engine and Cosmos SDK, which supplements Binance’s goal of achieving a high-performance, low fee engine for their globally popular trading platform.

The modular SDK of Cosmos is already highly popular with several projects building solutions on the network, such as Kava Labs, and is also the foundation of Binance DEX.

Compared to Ethereum, Binance Chain has some immediately noticeable advantages in performance.

Binance Chain, which is built using a PBFT validator consensus, has faster block times than Ethereum, making settlement confirmation faster — coupled with more frequent block times.

Block times are irrelevant when evaluating settlement costs if ledger costliness is not considered, but that primarily extends to proof-of-work chains, not Binance Chain’s validator and witness node mechanism. In the context of Verasity, faster confirmation times (i.e., block frequency) is ideal for our microtransaction reward payment mechanism for video costs.

Blockchains, specifically high-performance cryptocurrencies, provide the technological manifestation of a solution to the mental accounting barrier of micropayments, simply by lowering transaction costs to the point where micropayments become viable.

For Verasity, Binance Chain is not only a boon for our VRA token’s trading, but also for its underlying performance within its value proposition as an attention-based platform for video rewards. Low-cost transactions are necessary to facilitate our embedded infrastructure of rewards payments in major online platforms.

Slow confirmation times and prohibitively high gas fees would eventually preclude a vast portion of our user base from using Verasity due to a subpar, and expensive user-experience.

Binance Chain & DEX Begets Liquidity

Binance is the most liquid spot exchange in the crypto industry that does not offer derivatives products. Binance’s liquidity begets further liquidity, and is precisely what investors, traders, institutions, and projects are looking for in crypto markets. Combined with low transaction fees, Binance Chain offers the best option for our community to access and trade our VRAB token without slippage concerns or high trading fees.

Additionally, security is at a premium in the crypto exchange landscape, and it has associated effects with liquidity in crypto markets beyond centralized exchange operations.

For example, hacks and exit scams are an endemic problem, and a result, it is not surprising that users are increasingly favoring DEXs. However, DEX’s have traditionally faced usability problems despite their non-custodial security assurances, which have had adverse downstream consequences on their liquidity, pushing investors away from them in the process.

Binance DEX changed all of that.

According to CoinGecko, Binance DEX had nearly $3.3 million in trading volume in the last 24-hours, making it one of the most popular decentralized exchanges. Why? Binance DEX is a blend of the biggest liquidity draw in crypto spot markets (i.e., Binance), and a non-custodial, user-friendly wallet — TrustWallet.

The decisive mix of liquidity and security is naturally appealing to both investors and projects, which is why projects continue to transition from ERC-20 to BEP-2.

Similarly, where other DEXs struggle to maintain parity with their user bases on listings of new tokens outside the scope of Ethereum’s network, Binance has demonstrated the initiative in rapidly expanding the functionality of Binance DEX. For example, Binance is planning on introducing more stablecoin trading pairs into its DEX, and has even extended the TrustWallet to function with DEXs across the market.

And, most importantly, Binance has ported BTC to Binance DEX with its BTCB token, where the price is pegged to 1 BTC — injecting the liquidity and most popular trading pairs into its DEX. Binance is also planning on expanding its offering of pegged BEP-2 standard tokens on its DEX.

We even recently proposed a VRAB/USDSB trading pair listing to Binance DEX on July 25th, a move that would grant VRAB (the BEP-2 VRA analog) much better exposure and volume to investors/traders. Detailed guides for the conversion process of the VRA token to Binance Chain’s BEP-2 VRAB token are also available here.

The broader cryptocurrency narrative is transitioning to more interoperable, performant blockchain networks. Cosmos, with its IBC and SDK, is one of the core projects pushing that narrative forward with its successful launch, and many initiatives, like Binance Chain, are leveraging its ability to become a medium of extensive value capture for trading and the next-generation of decentralized applications.

For Verasity, the advantages of using Binance Chain were simply too good to pass up. We look forward to additional developments from Binance Chain, and what they can bring to transforming this blockchain.