Our recent Medium post outlined some of the major advantages of transitioning the VRA token from Ethereum to Binance Chain. From bolstered liquidity to a more conducive infrastructure for micropayments, an ability congruent with Verasity’s vision, Binance Chain was the clearcut choice for our token transition.

However, there are also some other reasons for converting to Binance’s native blockchain, especially considering the flexibility of its construction using Cosmos and all of the interoperability benefits that Cosmos’ SDK and ecosystem afford.

The Cosmos SDK, Binance Chain & Interoperability

As we have detailed extensively before, it is difficult to change online viewers’ preferences and habits. Users stick to platforms that they know, and convincing large swathes of users to gravitate to a new platform requires significant network effects. For example, PewDiePie, the popular YouTube star, has 95 million followers on YouTube, but only 0.25% or 250k of them moved to his new venture on DLive.

That’s why Verasity decided the optimal method for our platform was embedding our wallet, video player, reward module, and blockchain-based verification analytics directly into existing platforms. At the core of integrations between digital platforms, open-source repositories, and other programs are SDKs — software development kits.

Our SDK empowers developers on various media platforms to embed Verasity without changing their publishing workflow or forcing viewers to change their preferences; a compatible drop-in solution predicated on convenience.

Transitioning our VRA token from Ethereum to Binance Chain has some significant advantages concerning extending the capacity of our SDK.

First, Binance Chain is more performant (in terms of transactions per second) than Ethereum, which is ideally suited to complement our needs regarding micropayments. With a Tendermint-based consensus algorithm, faster block finalization times equate to faster settlement, which makes micropayments a more realistic and less costly endeavor. But we already have discussed this aspect in detail.

More to the point, Binance Chain is a fork of Cosmos, and is a part of the Cosmos ecosystem, particularly, with its connection to the Cosmos SDK. The Cosmos SDK is a unique proposition in the broader blockchain space because it is built from the ground-up as a modular, blockchain-agnostic framework for developing decentralized applications (dapps).

No longer are developers stuck learning the ins, outs, and limitations of Ethereum’s Solidity, and can instead focus on building applications that run on blockchains in a familiar process.

For us, that’s a major draw of Binance Chain. Amid an ecosystem of interoperable blockchains on Cosmos, from DeFi applications like Kava to what will ostensibly be Binance’s recently announced Venus project, there is enormous potential for growth with the Cosmos SDK.

For example, although Verasity is currently embedded into major, conventional media platforms like YouTube and Twitch, the compatibility of our SDK and VRA token with Cosmos opens up numerous doors previously unavailable on Ethereum. Should blockchain-based video streaming platforms garner more widespread adoption, Verasity will be immediately compatible with them as a drop-in solution.

Our current SDK uses Binance’s blockchain which already supports Cosmos and allows us to easily integrate any new blockchains and projects compatible with Cosmos. As a result, we could translate the value of Verasity to multiple audiences, many of which are extracting tokens and value directly from Binance, including fiat-pegged stablecoins and other native tokens — fostering the type of standardized and liquid environment necessary for Verasity to grow organically.

Binance Chain’s BEP-2 standard is congruent with token standards within the Cosmos Network, making our token seamlessly transferable among DeFi platforms, media platforms, and other blockchain-based dapps on the Cosmos or Binance platforms. Rather than previously existing as an embedded plug-in for major content media platforms, the VRA token can become a much more integral and fluid component of a broader system of applications at the bleeding edge of the transition to the Web 3.0.

The need to attract users to a new platform or independently embed Verasity into a content medium is consequently removed. Instead, Verasity and the VRA token will be inherently harmonious with dapps, media platforms, and more built directly on Binance or Cosmos. VRA tokens can be immediately swapped for fiat-pegged stablecoins like Binance’s BGBP or wrapped digital assets ported from the likes of Ethereum.

In the near future, imagine earning VRA tokens on a YouTube analog built on Cosmos, swapping VRA for the BGBP stablecoin on Binance DEX nearly instantly without loss of custody, converting that stash of BGBP stablecoin into Kava’s USDX collateral backed stablecoin, and subsequently opening a leveraged position on Kava using the capital earned from Verasity — all within a standardized network process.

In an age of the web where interoperability will be king, the ability of Verasity to extend the audience, influence, and extensibility of our SDK and VRA token are unmatched by our integration with Binance Chain and the broader Cosmos ecosystem.