The Endgame for BNB Chain: AMA with the Core Development Team

What's the point of BNB Chain in the era of L2s?

This is probably my last AMA on the role of L1s in the era of L2s.

And I’m happy it’s BNB Chain. Although their team was more difficult to contact compared to other L1 teams, I appreciate that the core development members of BNB Chain took the time to answer my questions.

Even if you're not particularly interested in BNB Chain, it matters. BNB Chain consistently ranks among the top three chains in terms of TVL, active users, and number of dApps.

BSC Ranks 3rd by TVL, and second by Active users.

Yet, BNB Chain might not be the most loved blockchain on Crypto Twitter, and I’ve even got hate in the comments for covering developments in the BNB Chain ecosystem.

Nevertheless, numbers don’t lie. Users like to use BNB Chain. Now, BNB Chain has just launched an L2 on BNB Chain - opBNB to increase performance and reduce gas fees.

So, what’s the point of BNB Chain and the opBNB in the era of so many L2s?

By the way, previously I had insightful discussions with Sanket from Polygon, Luigi from Avalanche, Michelle from Solana, Kendall from Near, and Alex from zkSync and all discussions can be accessed in my full AMAs on this blog.

---

There’s no sponsor for this week! But….

Instead, I invite you to try Vertex Protocol with my referral link to get 10% VRTX token reward boost.

Vertex Protocol offers spot, perpetuals, and an integrated money market, all powered by a hybrid of a central limit order book (CLOB) and automated market maker (AMM).

It’s fast with low-latency, competitive with CEXs, thanks to Vertex's innovative off-chain sequencer architecture. Enjoy the freedom of non-custodial trading but with control over your assets. Oh, and there’s VRTX token coming 👀

Key Features:

• Hybrid Trading Model: Efficient liquidity utilization, minimized gas fees, and reduced MEV.

• Universal Cross-Margin: Use your entire portfolio as margin for better risk management and capital efficiency.

• User-Friendly Interface: Seamlessly manage your trades with a streamlined, customizable platform.

Why Vertex? It’s simple. Vertex offers a powerful, efficient trading experience, and I simply want to get more VRTX token airdrop, while you get 10% more of the token too with my referral link!

Note: Trading involves risk. Please trade responsibly.

---

❓Question 1

What’s the point of L1s, and BNB Chain L2 in particular, in the era of Layer 2s? Do you agree with Sanket (Polygon) and CEO of Matter labs that Ethereum has already won the L1 games?

🗣️BNB Chain Core Development Team

Layer 1 and Layer 2 solutions, like BNB Chain and Ethereum, each have their own strengths and roles to play in the Web3 world. 

Fewer than 6 chains have more than 1M monthly active users based on Nansen data. Compared with Web2, it will be a long journey to realize mass adoption and reach 1 billion users. It's not about who wins the Layer 1 race – it's about embracing the diversity and the specific strengths of different solutions. 

BNB Chain is based on the Ethereum tech stacks, including OP Stack. We want to focus on actual users' requirements. BSC currently hosts more than 5,000 dapps with more than 1M daily active users across them. Some high-frequency trading cases and games are looking for cheaper and more scalable solutions right now, and opBNB presents a seamless solution for them from both a tech and commercial perspective. 

So, it's not really a competition. It’s more about finding the best mix of solutions to different problems. After all, we're all in this together!

Please see an illustration of the BNB Chain ecosystem below:

---

❓Question 2

Despite ranking in the top three chains based on most activity metrics, BNB Chain faces criticism for being overly centralized. This centralization came to light when the chain stopped after the BNB Bridge hack.

What’s more, in the current regulatory crackdown on crypto and especially Binance, don’t you think that this centralization poses real concern to Binance and BNB Chain users?

What’s your take on this criticism? Do you plan to decentralize the chain or you focus on different value proposition for the L1?

🗣️BNB Chain Core Development Team

BNB Chain is community-driven and not controlled by any single party. It's all about the participation of users, developers, and validators. BNB Chain is following the same progressive decentralization approach as a lot of other top protocols. 

Currently, we've got around 46 to 49 validators, with 32 actively taking part. Validators are chosen based on their staked BNB.

We are aware that decentralization is a journey. We are eager to continue increasing the number of validators to become even more decentralized over time, and we plan to raise the number of active validators to 40 by late 2023.

---

❓Question 3

Firstly, congratulations on launching the L2 chain, opBNB! Given that the market for Layer 2 solutions is already crowded, what sets opBNB apart? How will you compete to attract users & TVL?

On a different note, would it not have been more effective to transform BNB Chain's Layer 1 into a true Layer 2, similar to what Polygon is currently doing, rather than launching a separate Layer 2 on top of BNB Chain?

🗣️BNB Chain Core Development Team

Thanks for your kind words on opBNB! 

As discussed, we created this L2 to provide a better experience for our 1M+ daily active users and over 5,000 dApps, which are craving faster speeds and better savings. Some highlights of what opBNB offers include the lowest gas fees among all L2s, stout gas limits per block and consistent fees, regardless of traffic. Plus, we ensure that every transaction gets the all-clear from all nodes to ensure top-notch security.

We support projects on opBNB with multiple programs including, Grants, Kickstart, the Liquidity Program, marketing support and the like. We also spotlight projects in DappBay.

To answer your point about revising BNB Chain’s Layer 1 into a true Layer 2, it’s important to remember that L1s are still key in the Web3 space. Launching opBNB allows access to the massive BNB Chain user base and helps developers better cater to diverse use cases. 

BSC will have many comprehensive DeFi legos, which do not need to migrate to opBNB. Even in the Ethereum ecosystem, DeFi on the ETH mainnet is still dominating market share. BSC will be viewed as a DeFi hub, whereas opBNB is more suitable for gaming, SocialFi and low latency DeFi applications like derivatives, prediction markets and payments.

---

❓Question 4:

What's next for BNB Chain that the community should be excited about? Are there any significant updates or announcements on the way? We’re keen to learn more about the major milestones on your roadmap.

🗣️BNB Chain Core Development Team

We recently launched BNB Greenfield on mainnet. This new foundational component is aimed at dealing with data and with distributed ledger tech. What it offers in terms of control over data backups and recovery is top-notch. More on this below:

1. Data ownership: Data monetisation and exchange (DataFi) are fundamentally different from other dStorage solutions (e.g. Filecoin or Arweave). Greenfield will focus on empowering creators, builders and projects to build, deploy and monetize their data and IP (codes, publications, novels, music, video, etc.)

2.  Cross-chain programmability: This is built between BSC and Greenfield, and will soon be established between opBNB and Greenfield too. Existing BSC/opBNB builders can seamlessly leverage Greenfield as a storage and data processing layer. It will be possible to incorporate fully on-chain games and social media dApps soon.

3. Decentralized AI: This is another key theme here. AI has dramatically improved the efficiency of content creation (AIGC), and creators need a better DataFi platform here. Furthermore, the AI supply chain is welcoming Web3 now. For example, in the case of decentralized AI dataset labeling and decentralized LLM training with data privacy protection. We will work with the BNB Chain community to build AI related infrastructure around Greenfield.

Keep an eye on our Twitter for more updates on Greenfield!

---

❓Question 5:

What’s the endgame plan & vision for BNB Chain?

🗣️BNB Chain Core Development Team

The goal for BNB Chain is to onboard the next billion Web3 users to achieve real-world Web3 adoption. Key focus areas include decentralization, faster transaction speeds, multichain integration and increased focus on supporting developers. 

Our plans and technology updates are shared regularly on https://www.bnbchain.org/

---

Thank you to the BNB Core development team for answering the questions, as well as to everyone reading this AMA!

I'm planning to start a new AMA series called "Building in DeFi" to learn what builders think about the future of DeFi and what lessons we, retail investors, can learn from them. So, make sure to subscribe!