Despite being a centralized entity, Binance has strived to stay ahead of the DeFi trend, and the nearly two-month-old Binance Smart Chain has seen tremendous growth so far. Many argued that one of the world’s biggest centralized exchanges of aggressive moves, especially its version of a decentralized public blockchain, into the fast-growing world of DeFi was its attempt to become an Ethereum killer. However, dismissing those claims, Binance CEO, CZ tweeted,
#BSC is not a #ETH replacement or killer. I believe ETH 2.0 will be awesome, when it comes out… Until then,#BSC is more like a #ETH 1.8. 100% backward compatible, faster and lower fees (97% lower).
— CZ 🔶 BNB (@cz_binance) October 29, 2020
The main reason behind the creation of the parallel chain was essentially for Binance to join the ongoing DeFi revolution by offering protocols that serve as an alternative to the Ethereum blockchain. Considering Ethereum’s perennial inability to accommodate the high amount of transactions that the decentralised hysteria had created both users and DeFi protocol operators sought alternative solutions to build on.
In a bid to fill in the gap, Binance Smart Chain was created scalability continued to remain one of the most challenging hurdles to blockchain development. Let’s recall the closing thoughts that Binance echoed while introducing PancakeSwap on BSC:
“The developers of PancakeSwap cite high fees and slower speeds of the Ethereum blockchain as a driving factor in building on Binance Smart Chain. Ethereum may have kick-started the DeFi trend, but initiatives like PancakeSwap suggest that the wave of innovation is destined to spread to other chains. The PancakeSwap contract has not yet been audited.”
Hence, innovation is much needed and a monopoly of just one network would not be fair in a decentralized ecosystem.
Binance Smart Chain Growth
In terms of the total number of distinct addresses on BSC, the figures climbed to 262,452. It can be noted that the figures have followed a steady upward trajectory and it was not until the second week of October when a sharp spike was observed. This was the same time when the Malta-based exchange announced the funding for six projects on BSC as part of its $100 million commitment to a DeFi accelerator fund that targeted to bridge decentralized finance and centralized finance solutions.
Another factor that has driven BSC’s growth could be attributed to multiple launch and roll-outs of a wide range of products and services as well as services of late.