What Is BNB Smart Chain?
BNB Smart Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain) is a blockchain developed by Binance, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges, using Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA).
BSC supports smart contracts and is EVM-compatible, allowing developers to deploy smart contracts and build DApps on BSC conveniently. Compared with Ethereum, the transaction fees are lower and confirmation time is faster.
How Does BNB Smart Chain Work?
BSC adopts Proof of Staked Authority (PoSA), which allows holders of its native token, BNB, to vote for 41 validators. 21 validators of them are responsible for on-chain transaction validation and block production, while the other 20 serve as candidate block producers.
BSC produces 1 block every 3 seconds, and when a validator produces a valid block, he will be rewarded with the miner's fee for all transactions in the block, but unlike Bitcoin, BSC validators do not have block rewards.
Main Features
- EVM-compatible
- Proof of Staked Authority
- Block time ~3 seconds
Learn More
- An Introduction to Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
- imToken supports Binance Smart Chain (BSC) rolling new DeFi Portfolio features
- Binance Smart Chain White Paper
How to use BSC
Take imToken for example, first download and install imToken (https://token.im/) and create/import a wallet and add a BSC account.
Note: Check the website security certificate before downloading
If you did not add a BSC account when creating/importing the wallet, you can click "My Profile" - "Manage wallets" - "Add", check the "BNB Smart Chain“ and confirm, return to the wallet homepage to enter the newly created BSC account. Now you can transfer/receive tokens and try out popular DApps on the BSC network.
Learn more: How to use BSC wallet with imToken?
Other Wallets That Support BSC
- MetaMask
- SafePal
- TokenPocket
- Trust Wallet
- Math Wallet
- …...
Study
The Birth of BNB Smart Chain
Binance, one of the leading exchanges, launched Binance Chain in April 2019. Binance Chain uses the Tendermint consensus mechanism with high throughput and fast transaction settlement, but does not support smart contracts and has weak scaling.
To solve this problem, Binance Smart Chain, a PoSA-based consensus mechanism, was launched in September 2020. BSC supports smart contracts and is EVM-compatible to facilitate developers easily deploy smart contracts and build DApps on the chain.
In order for BNB to reach its true potential, in February 2022, Binance and BSC decided to “set sail on different courses”. Binance Smart Chain rebranded to BNB Smart Chain and Binance Chain rebranded to BNB Beacon Chain, and these two chains compose BNB Chain.
Related reading: Introducing BNB Chain: The Evolution of Binance Smart Chain
Binance
Binance, the development team behind Binance Smart Chain, is one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, founded by Chinese Canadian entrepreneur Changpeng Zhao in 2017. Its vision is “to increase the freedom of money globally” by becoming “the infrastructure service provider for the blockchain ecosystem”.
EVM-compatibility
Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is a virtual CPU for Ethereum to execute codes of smart contracts. EVM-compatibility means creating an EVM-like code execution environment that makes it easy for Ethereum developers to migrate smart contracts to an EVM-compatible chain without having to write the code from scratch again.
BNB Price
BSC Block Explorer
BSC block explorer is an open source web tool that stays synchronous with the BSC network and allows you to view information about blocks, transactions, addresses on BSC.
Resources
- BSC official website: https://www.binance.org/en/smartChain
- Introduction of Binance Smart Chain: https://docs.binance.org/smart-chain/guides/bsc-intro.html