Band Protocol’s Vision and Roadmap

The projected path from foundation to the expansion across multiple blockchains in decentralized oracle space

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Band Protocol

5 min readSep 20, 2019

When Band Protocol was founded in 2017, the vision was simple yet ambitious: provide trustworthy and reliable data to the open internet. Fast forward over more than two years, our core vision remains the same.

Today, our protocol functions as an open standard for connecting blockchain applications with reliable off-chain data.

The crazy phase that is our token sale has finally concluded; marking another milestone of Band Protocol on decentralizing the native BAND tokens and distribute them to our community of developers and users. As the next phase begins, we are taking this time to share our vision and roadmap with the community.

Band Protocol in a Nutshell

Simply put, Band Protocol strives to become the go-to decentralized oracle for dApps across multiple blockchain networks by ensuring maximum security, speed, and low cost.

To be secure and useful, it is imperative that smart contracts have access to reliable real-world data. For example, all prominent decentralized finance projects rely on a price oracle to function and receive precise time-sensitive data. Betting dApps determine payouts based on a verifiable random number or real-world event from an oracle. To ensure complete decentralization, there must be a secure bridge between trustworthy off-chain data and dApps.

Although there have been multiple attempts to solve this problem, most projects either (1) are insufficiently decentralized by design, (2) are difficult for developers to integrate with or (3) lack economic incentive for data providers to sustainably feed high-quality information.

Illustration: Band Protocol as a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

Band Protocol provides a cheaper, faster, and easier-to-integrate decentralized oracle that solves all the problems above.

The initial release of datasets on Band Protocol will be on the Ethereum blockchain, starting with price feed for decentralized financial applications. Directly after we will release datasets for sport and identity — supporting wider range of applications such as prediction market, fraud prevention, and gambling.

Long-term Vision

Band Protocol is blockchain-agnostic by nature and will expand to other blockchains through the integration with BandChain. By leveraging the same set of data providers, we will bring datasets across multiple blockchain networks without compromising the security and integrity of the data.

BandChain is a high-performant public blockchain with cross-chain data compatibility. BandChain’s objective is to bridge fragmented data available on existing, unconnected blockchains and become the base data layer for them. Data providers and token holders collectively curate information on BandChain and send it to integrated blockchains via inter-chain communication.

We are on track to execute this vision.

Let us walk you through the roadmap for the next year.

Roadmap & Go-to-Market

Q3 2019: Foundation

We implemented the initial oracle design for the Ethereum blockchain and have optimized it to only require 4 lines of Solidity code for developers to integrate. Additionally, we have built comprehensive developer documentation.
We’ve released price feed, sport event and lottery on-demand dataset on the Kovan testnet. This allows us to kickstart a developer community, bootstrap applications, and create prototypes to validate the design of our oracle protocol.
Onboarded partnerships with data providers in crypto space and traditional businesses. The first partnership was CertiK — with many more to be announced.
Decentralized token distribution through Binance Launchpad public sale. Drove awareness through airdrops and bounties.
Spotlighted BitSwing, the first dApp built using Band Protocol’s decentralized oracle with over 52,000 transactions within just 1 week after the release.
Mainnet launch on Ethereum ahead of the planned schedule.

Q4 2019: Integration

We will be launching a price feed dataset which enables DeFi apps to build on top of Band dataset on the Ethereum Mainnet. We will also roll out sports dataset soon after to support gaming and prediction market applications.
Organize Hackathons and developer events. Focus on developer support, we will complete a refined documentation and knowledge base.
We are penetrating all the major Asia’s blockchain hubs. We already have local communities built in Korea, China, Thailand, and Vietnam. Soon we will co-organize local events with fellow projects in the community and further drive adoption through hackathons, meetups, and conferences.
Throughout the rest of 2019, we will focus on the application and adoption of the decentralized oracle. Three verticals we are penetrating: decentralized finance, sport, and identity.
In 2020, we anticipate that more applications will be implemented on multiple blockchains. Hence, we will be releasing more details on the multi-chain protocol design and closely refine it with the community.
One of the key problems plaguing the dApp space is identity. We will be piloting the identity layer with dApps and trusted organizations.
Key Focus: Testing integration with existing dApps, developer community growth, and staking base

Q1 2020: Adoption

On the development side, we will continue to drive adoptions and integration on Ethereum. At the same time, we are driving forward with the development of BandChain and cross-chain solutions on other major blockchains.
Launch identity dataset and pilot applications with financial institutions.
Start integrating BandChain to other layer-1 blockchains.
Initiate Developer Grant Program to curate dApps on Band ecosystem.
Key Focus: DApp tractions and oracle usages. Development on-track for BandChain.

Q2 2020: Growth

Complete security audit of BandChain and release its testnet.
Focus on integrating Band Protocol’s decentralized oracle infrastructure to all the prominent blockchain networks. Start migrating and onboarding new data providers to BandChain in preparation for the cross-chain data feed.
Maximize query revenue through optimizing query fee and number of transactions
Key Focus: Number of dApps consuming our oracle, total query fees, and value accrued to Band Protocol network.

Q3 2020: Expansion

Launch of BandChain. Band token holders on Ethereum network will be able to migrate to the BandChain.
Onboard applications across multiple blockchains to use Band Protocol.
Key Focus: Security, number of dApps consuming our oracle, total query fees, and value accrued to Band Protocol network.

Parting Thoughts

Our token sale was just the beginning, in just 10 days you can start using Band Protocol on the Ethereum Mainnet.

The upcoming months will be huge for Band Protocol, stay tuned in our community channels for our airdrop campaigns as well as a community ambassador program.

Official Telegram Channels
🌎 Announcements: https://t.me/bandprotocolann
🌎 English: https://t.me/bandprotocol
🇨🇳 Chinese: https://t.me/bandprotocolCN
🇰🇷 Korean: https://t.me/bandprotocolKR
🇻🇳 Vietnamese: https://t.me/bandprotocolVN

- Paul Nattapatsiri, CPO at Band Protocol

About Band Protocol

Band Protocol is a data governance framework for Web3.0 applications operating as an open-source standard for the decentralized management of data. Band Protocol connects smart contracts with trusted off-chain information, provided through community-curated oracle data providers. Blockchains are enabled to connect with any web API, with DApps able to request and use data that has assured integrity through dPoS economic incentives, with one simple function call. Developers using Band Protocol will be able to easily build and manage off-chain oracles, reputation scores, identity management systems and much more.