Countdown to BandChain Wenchang Mainnet Launch
Band Protocol is officially launching the public Mainnet of BandChain Phase 0 (Wenchang) at 2:00 PM UTC on June 10th 2020. The Genesis Ceremony will enable token transactions and staking.
The upcoming mainnet launch of BandChain is the second iteration of Band Protocol — a cross-chain data oracle platform that aggregates and connects real-world data/APIs to smart contracts in real-time.
The past few months have been all hands on deck to ramp up the development of BandChain and the initial targeted release schedule of Q3 2020 after numerous rounds of constructive feedback from partners ranging from lending protocols, stablecoins, insurances, prediction games, betting markets and many more decentralized applications.
Starting now to June 10, we’ll be kickstarting the official block production, conducting intensive tests on the stability and security of BandChain nodes to ensure the highest degree of decentralization and security upon public launch.
The launch will be conducted in three continuous stages to ensure the safest and smoothest transition.
Band Protocol Overview
As announced in January, BandChain will be fully released across four phases to maximize stability and security. Extensive features will be added across phases to culminate as a real-time cross-chain oracle that is able to connect smart contracts to any external data including credentialed and paywall APIs. Supporting premium API’s on-chain is simple where data providers are required to pay the API fee and maintain the API keys individually. However, this is not at all scalable as the number of supported API endpoints grows, Band Protocol is approaching this with a scalability focus where fees can be settled on-chain with our validators (Phase 2). The complete release of BandChain will include support for various data types ranging from price feeds, real-world events, private/identity data, and more!
The decentralized oracle network and data layers are operated by BandChain’s industry-leading validators that are composed of the top blockchain infrastructure DevOps/security firms and enterprise-grade validator services. Validators required to stake BAND tokens and are to provide data using an algorithm that randomly selects based on weighted-stake. Out of the initial set of 17, our publicly announced genesis validators include stakefish, Chorus One, Figment Networks, Infstones, B-Harvest who have extensive experience in operating decentralized oracle networks and leading layer-1 blockchain nodes.
Each BandChain node operates independently of each other to redundantly source data for decentralized applications to ensure decentralization and security of the network. Furthermore, the on-chain performance is fully transparent, easily monitored, and verifiable on CosmoScan to provide provable information about each individual validator node that is responsible for sourcing data — maintaining a high-security standard and accountability to provide trusted oracle data.
Working in hand with our 17 industry-leading genesis validators who have been participating in Wenchang’s Testnet #2, we have conducted an extensive range of stress-tests on both private and public testnets. Over the past 47 days, all tests and edge cases have passed to achieve stability and produce ~2,000,000 blocks with zero downtime at an average block time of 1.9 seconds. This ensures that the BandChain decentralized network will be able to withstand the load required upon Mainnet launch and beyond.
Phase 0: Wenchang Mainnet Release Steps
The focus in this Wenchang Mainnet is three-pronged, we’re rolling out account creation, token transfer, and validator staking. The main goal is to smoothly onboard our professional genesis validators, additional network participants, wallets, and exchanges to decentralize the BandChain network from the initial release.
The onboarding process will be segmented into three stages of focus before we proceed with releasing Phase 1 (codenamed Guan Yu) which will support the permissionless creation of customizable data oracle scripts that can query public and permissionless data sources.
At the same time, Phase 1 Guan Yu with oracle functionality is live on the Devnet and currently being used to integrate with our partners to conduct internal testing and code audits before going live.
Check out our development on our Github:
Although we are not expecting any issues at launch, this multi-stage process is designed to ensure all validators are onboarded smoothly and achieve stability from initial deployment. This is particularly important as our community of token holders will be able to stake BAND tokens for BandChain’s block validators in the current release.
Each of the stages below will follow each other in a continuous step for the entire month of June to ensure the smoothest and safest transition.
Stage 1 — Mainnet Deployment with Genesis Validators
BandChain will have a Genesis Ceremony with our set of 17 genesis validators that comprise top blockchain infrastructure DevOps/security firms and enterprise-grade validators. Our initial set of validators have been participating in Wenchang’s Testnet #2 for the past 47 days to produce over ~2,000,000 blocks with zero downtime at an average block time of 1.9 seconds.
This is critical to ensure the stability and decentralization of the BandChain network from deployment with a selected set of validators.
Timeline: 10 June 2020
Stage 2 — Onboarding Ecosystem Partners & Enabling Staking
Shortly after the first stage, BandChain ecosystem partners such as wallets, exchanges and staking pools will be onboarded to ensure that all Band Protocol stakeholders have accessibility and opportunity to utilize ecosystem support tools.
During this stage, token transactions and staking will be enabled for BAND token holders to secure BandChain and contribute to sourcing and aggregating data for decentralized applications in return for block rewards. We will slowly onboard our community nodes that have been running our testnet#2 successfully in a batch of 3–5 nodes.
Timeline: After the successful rollout of Stage 1
Stage 3 — Onboarding Public Validators
The third stage will allow general validators to participate by following a guide that will be published shortly after the mainnet launch. Please note that this is an ongoing phase where validators will be onboarded gradually to raise the degree of decentralization while being able to mitigate any unforeseen issues. Anyone in the general public is welcome to stake their tokens and join our open network.
In the meantime, we encourage all community validators to start by running a node alongside 45+ other validators on Wenchang Testnet #2 (chain-id: `band-wenchang-testnet2`).
The genesis file is available here and the recommended release is v0.2.4.
Follow the instructions here:
We also have dedicated support and incentives for validators who join pre-mainnet. Don’t miss out and sign up using this form below!
Timeline: After the successful rollout of Stage 2
After a successful rollout of all stages and careful network monitoring, we will turn our focus and energy into formalizing our phase 1 Guan Yu with full-fledged oracle functionality.
Our Priorities For Wenchang Mainnet Launch
- BandChain is up and running with high throughput and consistent block productions.
- BAND token holders can smoothly migrate tokens from the Ethereum network to BandChain native tokens.
- BAND token holders can stake and delegate to reputable validators with easy-to-use tools and supported wallets.
- Onboard high-quality validators to operate BandChain to the highest degree of decentralization in preparation for launching Phase 1, codenamed Guan Yu, with the oracle functionalities.
- Malicious actors who double-sign and underperforming validator with high downtime get token slashed.
- Each node has skin-in-the-game. While there is no direct penalty slashing for bad data yet, each node needs to stake BAND tokens to become a validator. This means if they coordinate to attack the network or act maliciously, they risk driving down the value of their holding.
- At a protocol level, there is a crypto-economic guarantee to prevent bad actors as there is real economic cost associated with being a bad actor.
What Does This Mean For You?
Whether you’re a developer, validator, token holder or community member — the mainnet launch is a major milestone and will have beneficial implications for all stakeholders.
Validators
Shortly after our Genesis Ceremony and onboarding of ecosystem partners, selected community validators will be gradually onboarded to run nodes (Stage 2–3) on the BandChain oracle network to contribute to the sourcing and aggregation of data.
Validators will be able to earn block rewards based on the token economics of Band Protocol.
Token Holders/Delegators
All BAND token holders will be able to stake and delegate tokens to the initial set of validators at 2:00 PM June 10 2020.
While our genesis validators are all industry-leading reputable and established blockchain infrastructure firms, it’s advised that all delegators perform due diligence before choosing a validator as misbehavior or node downtime on BandChain will result in a portion of validator stake and delegated stake being slashed.
We have announced the majority of our genesis validators on Medium to help with the due diligence process through transparency and visibility.
Developers
While the Phase 0 mainnet is focused on the stability of the decentralized network, developers are able to monitor and track the performance of BandChain through CosmoScan.
In doing so, a holistic and transparent understanding of Band Protocol can be achieved while oracle functionality can already be integrated with decentralized applications on the Phase 1 devnet. Developers can utilize built-in oracle scripts, create new custom script themselves or reach out to the Band Protocol team to create a customized one with any specific data source and aggregation method.
Community Members
Band Protocol will always retain community-first focus and utilize feedback to continuously improve the protocol, community outreach and team efforts.
Help us by sharing the word of our developments, recommendations for improvement — if you ever have any questions you can reach out to us on Telegram.
Next Steps
With our newly released block explorer, website, and technical specification that is fully up-to-date with Band Protocol v2 — let the two-week countdown to official Wenchang mainnet begin!
We will be releasing more details on token migration and staking instructions in the next few days. Stay tuned!
About Band Protocol
Band Protocol is a cross-chain data oracle platform that aggregates and connects real-world data and APIs to smart contracts. Blockchains are great at immutable storage and deterministic, verifiable computations — however, they cannot securely access data available outside the blockchain networks. Band Protocol enables smart contract applications such as DeFi, prediction markets, and games to be built on-chain without relying on the single point of failure of a centralized oracle. Band Protocol is backed by a strong network of stakeholders including Sequoia Capital, one of the top venture capital firms in the world, and the leading cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.
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