MAR 29 2022– BNB Chain, a community-driven, decentralized, and censorship-resistant blockchain, today announced that Ankr, Celer, and NodeReal have launched the first BSC Application Sidechain (BAS) testnet. BAS has been launched by BNB Chain’s infrastructure partners Ankr, Celer, and NodeReal in line with the BNB Chain’s 2022 roadmap.
BAS is a next-gen developer infrastructure that enables developers to build large-scale BSC-based applications with increased throughput and significantly reduced or even zero transaction fees. BAS is an infrastructure that enables developers and node operators to create and operate their own blockchain as an internal value system for a large number of users while remaining connected to BNB Chain. It is accomplished through the use of a distinct consensus engine and modern execution environment that developers or the community can specify.
BAS will be implemented in a variety of ways, including PoS sidechains and ZKRollups. BAS Frameworks and Testnet’s initial implementations are based on PoS networks. BAS’s first version is optimized for GameFi. Users can expect lightning-fast transactions and ultra-low transaction fees, which can be as low as zero based on the BASs own tokenomics. Additionally, developers can create their own BAS with customized specifications and validator sets. The testnet is now available to dApp developers. BAS/BSC built-in bridging will be available in mid-April.
Ankr, Celer and NodeReal have already launched the first BAS testnet. As a result, dapps can begin development with any of them.
Node operators do not need to worry about maintenance work if they use services provided by BNB Chain partners NodeReal, Celer, and Ankr. They will also be responsible for all future upgrades and 24×7 SLA support.
“Any developer will be able to deploy their own BAS, complete with their own specifications and validator set. Depending on the BAS deployer, this validator set may require fewer validators than BNB Chain. These validators can be run by application owners or any other community stakeholders, providing BAS with increased flexibility and decentralization. BAS is typically used in the same way as the Ronin chain is for the Axie Infinity,” said Samy Karim, Ecosystem Coordinator at BNB Chain.
To mitigate the sidechain’s potential risks, a new protocol (with built-in asset types and cross-chain functionality) should be introduced to ensure seamless liquidity between the BAS and BNB Chains. If BAS developers want to add more functionality to their sidechain, they should implement it themselves or contribute it to the BAS official template so that other developers can use it in the future.
“Scalability for L1s is going to be determined by subnet infrastructures. This is currently taking shape across the space, with BNB Chain, Ankr, Celer, and NodeReal demonstrating clear market leadership in their anticipation of this,” said Greg Gopman, CMO at Ankr.
“NodeReal is thrilled to team up with Ankr and Celer to implement and deploy the first BAS. Through this collaboration and opening our one-stop infrastructure services to the massive ecosystem, we believe the scalability of BNB Chain will be significantly enhanced. Looking forward to the high-speed multi-chain era” said Henry, CEO at NodeReal
“Celer is delighted to play a key role in enabling seamless and composable bridging and interoperability between the burgeoning BAS application ecosystem and the BNB chain infrastructure with Ankr and NodeReal in supporting the next generation of games and applications,” said Dr. Mo Dong, Cofounder at Celer
GameFi and other blockchain-based applications show no signs of slowing down and will continue to dominate the world. However, we will be unable to accomplish this without a secure, scalable, and interoperable infrastructure. BAS was born on the cusp of this revolution to better serve our developers and node operators in their efforts to create more high-quality and disruptive blockchain games. The potential for this fledgling industry is limitless, and the emphasis will be on continued development.
About BNB Chain
BNB Chain is a community-driven, decentralized and censorship-resistant blockchain, powered by BNB. It consists of BNB Beacon Chain and BNB Smart Chain (BSC), which is EVM compatible and facilitates a multi-chain ecosystem. Through the concept of MetaFI, BNB Chain aims to build the infrastructure to power the world’s parallel virtual ecosystem. For more information on BNB Chain visit https://www.bnbchain.world
Media Qs
Q. Will BNB’s app-specific sidechains work similar to Ethereum’s sidechain Polygon and Gnosis Chain, or perhaps more like Avalanche’s subnets or Cosmos-based chains ? Please share a comment on this.
A. No. They are different. BAS is a community-driven framework for developing sidechains that enables developers to build massively user-centric decentralized applications that interact with the BSC (BNB Smart Chain) – https://docs.ankr.com/bnb-application-sidechain/about-bas
BAS is typically used in the same way as the Ronin chain is for the Axie Infinity.
Q. Will they use the Cosmos/Tendermint stack since one version of BNB Chain is based on Cosmos? Please elaborate a little.
A. BAS doesn’t have to stick to any platform or framework that BNB Chain uses. BAS’s first testnet is a mini-BSC based on PoS network.
Q. Since BAS chains can pick their own validators sets (similar to Polygon), will they also generate proofs on the BNB Chain for security? Can you please share details on how BAS chains will maintain “close connection with BNB Chain”?
A.Literally BAS is a modular framework for creating BSC-compatible sidechains that defines requirements for integration with the BSC ecosystem and brings development-ready EVM-compatible features like staking, RPC-API or smart contracts. Since BSC doesn’t rely on the BAS security model, that is why there is no “shared security” bridge between BSC and BAS networks, but instead,BAS comes with a built-in bridge component powered by Celer Network cBridge that can provide protocols and standards for asset bridging and message bridging and can be managed by the BAS validator set. BAS builders can also choose other third-party bridging solutions.
One thing to add here is that Polygon does not generate proof for security in the PoS model (the most used model), so from a security point of view, BAS on top of BNB Chain is of similar security assumptions with Polygon on top of Ethereum.
To further strengthen BAS security, another community driven stealth project on “Reliable fraud-proofing & security on PoS chain” is now underway and will be revealed in three months.
Q. Is the new offering only for gaming/GameFi projects or for other kinds of use cases as well (like DeFi)?
A.For now, it’s specific for GameFi. The core BNB Chain (previously known as BSC) will serve as the home for DeFi in the ecosystem – providing an optimized environment for the most advanced DeFi applications.