Announcing pNetwork Portals, a new way to enable cross-chain smart contracts
The pNetwork is the increasingly decentralised layer powering and governing the cross-chain pTokens solution. The project is focused on enabling meaningful connections between multiple blockchain environments.
As the first tool launched by pNetwork, pTokens enable DeFi composability and cross-chain movement of assets’ liquidity for any and every blockchain and token — a feat made simple thanks to our 11 different cross-chain connections, including Bitcoin and Litecoin on EOS and Ethereum, as well as EOS-compatible DeFi tokens: pETH, PNT, pMKR, pLINK, pYFI and PTERIA.
As pTokens continues to scale, adding more bridges and integrations, it’s only fitting that the team expands upon its pTokens technology and usher in a new era of unchained liquidity.
Today, we are announcing pNetwork Portals. Built on top of pTokens, pNetwork Portals enable smart contracts living on different blockchains to interact with each other as if they were on the same network.
In other words, Portals can be used to enable a bunch of new use cases, for instance:
- they enable DEXs on different blockchains to borrow liquidity from each other granting DeFi dApps and traders with more liquid trading pairs;
- they enable NFTs to be transferred cross-chain and be used within gaming and collectable dApps, an industry consistently growing across multiple blockchain environments (as reported by dappradar.com);
- they enable lenders and borrowers to operate across multiple chains and potentially combine opportunities across multiple lending platforms;
- and much more: any smart contract on a given chain can virtually be connected to a foreign one via a dedicated Portal
Liquidity unchained
Every blockchain is a walled garden, locking out other cryptocurrencies and locking in their own liquidity. The ability of cryptocurrencies to move between blockchains seamlessly is a key component for Decentralized Finance to grow.
The pNetwork aims to unlock the value of the entire $500+ billion cryptocurrency market, letting liquidity flow instantly, transparently and frictionlessly between different blockchains, expanding the world of DeFi.
The project is filling the gap between 5 different blockchains via 11 pTokens bridges live in production today. This currently accounts for $9.3 million and is set to grow larger as more cross-chain connections and functionalities are enabled.
Following the recent growth in terms of Total Value Locked, we are thrilled to introduce new functionalities to pNetwork.
Announcing pNetwork Portals
pNetwork Portals enable smart contracts living on different blockchains to interact with each other as if they were on the same network.
While pTokens provide a simple and secure system for assets’ value and assets’ liquidity to be moved cross-chain, new synergic elements are being added to the pNetwork’s toolset.
Once implemented, pNetwork will include the following features:
- pTokens bridges (now on mainnet)
○ on top, support for cross-chain transfer of metadata (new)
- pNetwork DAO (active and open to new members via Aragon and Eidoo).
- pNetwork Portals (new)
Adding support for metadata within pTokens bridges is a crucial feature to enable more advanced interactions across smart contracts. While being a technical-facing feature, the integration of metadata is a powerful and mandatory step needed for expanding the range of features offered by pNetwork.
pNetwork Portals use that to enable a closer connection between smart contracts on different platforms. Use-cases for this range from collectables such as NFTs, DeFi applications and decentralized lending.
From a technical perspective, they work as adapters converting actions on one blockchain into actions on another network. No change is required on dApps side for pNetwork Portals to interact with them.
Previous market trends in the crypto market have highlighted a significant increase in trading volumes happening as a result of positive market trends. While traditionally traders have operated on centralised exchanges, the recent rise of Decentralised Finance has opened up new opportunities for market operators such as market makers or liquidators. Volumes processed by Ethereum DEXs experienced a substantial increase in the last 12 months with Uniswap alone processing over $2.5 billion trading volume in the past week. Based on this, we can expect decentralized exchanges to play a central role in the next financial wave for the cryptocurrencies market.
As positive market trends affect crypto assets, systems like pTokens and pNetwork Portals become key players in DeFi.
While the DeFi movement has experienced impressive growth during 2020, platforms within decentralized finance still present some open challenges. Liquidity protocols and DEXs present a smaller range of trading pairs available with liquidity not always aligned across platforms. Traditionally, this would be solved by regulation, but being that the rules of the crypto market are still a grey zone, opportunities are here for the takers.
Among other use-cases, pNetwork Portals enable cross-chain interoperability across DeFi dApps.
As an example, a pNetwork’s Uniswap Portal would enable traders on non-Ethereum blockchains (such as Algorand, EOS or the Binance Smart Chain) to benefit from Uniswap’s liquidity while staying within their blockchain of choice. On the other hand, Uniswap LPs would benefit from higher trading volumes and a larger audience of traders, that result in more Uniswap trading fees being distributed among its liquidity providers.
In this case, the pNetwork’s Uniswap Portal would be opened whenever the origin DEX is not able to satisfy a trading request because of lack of liquidity. The user request would be transferred via the pNetwork Portal and processed on Uniswap, then its outcome would be returned back to the user.
A win-win situation where users don’t need to leave their blockchain of choice, origin DEXs/LPs can grow their liquidity over time and destination platforms (such as Uniswap) can benefit from added trading volumes, fees distributed to LPs and a new audience.
Looking at the collectables and gaming industry, a pNetwork NFTs Portal could be implemented to enable the cross-chain transfer of NFTs. Decentralised gaming is on the rise within a variety of networks, including Ethereum, EOS, WAX or Ultra — pNetwork Portals could enable cross-overs among different gaming platforms and collectables.
Coming to you December 2020!
Letting multiple blockchain networks come together leads to a stronger growth for the entire ecosystem. With the release of its new Portals feature, pNetwork aims to make the decentralized ecosystem flourish.
