WanChain: Facilitating Blockchain Interoperability

Scortik
7 min readMar 17, 2023

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While the majority of blockchains attempt to produce something fresh and inventive, too many of them continue to make the same mistakes. Each blockchain or cluster of blockchains exists as an autonomous network that feels disconnected from the web3 and the future. According to Wanchain, the objective of web3 is to develop peer-to-peer interaction as the foundation of a networked ecosystem. Ultimately, the objective of a decentralised ecosystem is to enable the trustless, permissionless interchange and sharing of data.

Source: https://scortik.com/learn-about-wanchain-network/

Yet the challenge is how each blockchain can be integrated into this interconnected universe. The solution is to develop a network of blockchains that would ease the interchange of data and assets. Here comes Wanchain’s character.

What exactly is Wanchain?

Wanchain is a decentralised finance and blockchain interoperability platform that connects several blockchains. Interoperability refers to the capacity of a blockchain to see, access, and exchange data with other blockchains. Consequently, Wanchain connects private and public blockchains, allowing for the free exchange of data and digital assets. In addition to enabling cross-chain transactions, blockchain interoperability increases the value of blockchains for users.

Wide Area Network is the shorthand for WAN when discussing computer networks. Hence, the Wanchain network functions as a “Wide Area Network” of blockchains to generate an interoperable, fully decentralised future that will facilitate the development of highly secure and equitable solutions. Using the Wanchain network, previously incompatible blockchains can now communicate with ease. With the Solidity programming language and Wanchain, you can develop strong smart contracts. Using Wanchain, developers can create not just smart contracts, but also decentralised applications and both fungible and non-fungible coins.

Wanchain is essentially an Ethereum-based global public ledger. Cross-chain and intra-chain transactions are made possible via the Wanchain network. To validate cross-chain transactions, incentive- and consensus-based techniques are applied. Cross-chain transactions on the Wanchain network begin with the registration of participating blockchains and assets on Wanchain for unique identification. A protocol for asset registration is available for this purpose.

Wanchain for financial services

Wanchain intends to decentralise financial services by transferring all asset and value transfers to the blockchain. Wanchain, a blockchain connecting other blockchains, enables proxy-based value exchanges. The following factors have enabled the Wanchain network to successfully connect with legacy financial systems.

Initially, Wanchain was an Ethereum ERC20 coin. Currently, the network is a solitary hard fork.
Wanchain, like Ethereum, is a blockchain that hosts dApps and smart contracts. It is created specifically for the financial sector.
Wanchain utilises on-chain proxy to connect blockchains to one another for the purpose of facilitating inexpensive and rapid asset transactions.
Wanchain Foundation, WANlab, and other developers are collaborating to create a robust decentralised application ecosystem.

Wanchain may be seen well-positioned for success on account of these features. Wanchain is a promising blockchain network that will be discussed in depth in the next section.

The most notable characteristics of WanChain

Wanchain is a powerful blockchain network with an abundance of incredible features. Let’s examine the top five aspects of the Wanchain blockchain.

Inter-blockchain transactions

Wanchain’s capacity to conduct asset trades across several blockchains is one of its most alluring characteristics. Suppose John desires to transfer Myra Bitcoin worth $1,000. Myra, though, prefers Ethereum.

Without visiting a central exchange, John might use Wanchain to send Bitcoins and convert them to Ethereum. Wanchain eliminates the need for a third party in the creation of such transactions. As a result, costs, transaction times, and risk are reduced.

Makes ICOs available to a broader audience.

The popularity of initial coin offerings is constantly increasing. Unfortunately, ICOs have a significant limitation: primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum are accepted. This implies that if you have another cryptocurrency, like as Litecoin, you cannot directly donate to your selected ICO.

Wanchain permits ICO-issuing enterprises to accept tokens from any blockchain that has been integrated into the Wanchain ecosystem. As Wanchain expands, it will support more blockchains. If, for example, Wanchain is capable of supporting 100 blockchains, an ICO planned with Wanchain will be able to take contributions from users of all 100 blockchains.

Privacy

You likely understand the significance of privacy in cryptocurrency investments. Privacy is a fundamental aspect of the Wanchain ecosystem, which is made feasible through the use of one-time accounts and ring signatures.

Single-use account scheme

Wanchain only permits the creation of a single account per wallet. If necessary, users can create several “one-time accounts.” Hence, you can create a one-time account to send your friend 1 BTC, which will establish an additional public and private key.

These keys can never be utilised for any other transaction. This makes it incredibly challenging to track your or your friend’s primary accounts using this1 Bitcoin transaction.

Ring signatures

Monero users are aware of the significance of ring Signatures. Wanchain employs the Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Ring Signature Technique in a manner nearly identical to that of Monero.

This method conceals the signatures of transactions by combining numerous bogus signatures with the actual one. This method makes it nearly impossible for a third party to distinguish between real and false signatures.

Combining established institutions

According to the Wanchain White Paper, one of Wanchain’s objectives is to merge with consortiums. The formation of consortium chains by traditional institutions such as banks has also increased.

Consortium chains reserve the capacity to update the ledger for a limited number of participants. Contrary to public blockchains such as Ethereum. Banks are collaborating to develop such blockchains. In the future, these chains may make it possible to make traditional investments utilising cryptocurrency.

Wancoin

Wanchain’s own cryptocurrency, Wancoin, can be utilised for blockchain transactions.

Wanchain: Its background and scope

Wanchain is currently being developed by the Wanchain Foundation, a Singapore-based international non-profit. Wanchain intends to establish a decentralised financial market with blockchain technology. The team behind Wanchain intends to achieve this objective by concentrating on three pillars: interoperability between blockchains, privacy, and smart contracts. Wanchain envisions a diverse array of financial service networks and use cases, such as decentralised exchanges, loans, stablecoins, and multi-currency settlements and payments. In 2016, Jack Lu, a former co-founder of Factom, created the Wanchain Initiative.

The project encourages the expansion of digital assets. This covers the tokenization of traditional assets such as bonds and equities and their interaction with current blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Wanchain has developed the T-Bridge Framework, a universal, standard framework that enables the exchange of assets and data between blockchains.

Users can conduct private transactions utilising ring signatures and one-time addresses. This allows users to remain anonymous and promotes the fungibility of assets.

Members of Wanlabs and the Wanchain core community have collaborated to develop a number of decentralised applications. Wanchain now provides eight decentralised applications, including Instant Cross and WanSwap.

Wanchain cryptocurrency was introduced in October 2017 via an initial coin offering. The idea garnered considerable interest and was completely sold out inside a day. Current CEO Jack Lu and former president Dustin Byington founded Wanchain, which now has operations in Austin, Texas, and Beijing, China, using their prior blockchain skills and experiences. On March 23, 2018, the Wanchain cryptocurrency token began trading on Binance. It is presently available on Binance, Kucoin, and Huobi for trading. Based on total market value, it was the seventieth-largest cryptocurrency corporation in August of 2018. This is a decline from its regular position within the top 50.

How do the cross-chain bridges of Wanchain function?

Wanchain provides numerous cross-chain bridges, such as Layer 2 Bridges, Direct Bridges, and NFT Bridges.

The majority of Direct Bridges in Wanchain use the lock-mint-burn-unlock mechanism. The Bridge Group encrypts the underlying asset of a cross-chain transaction on the source blockchain before minting a wrapped token on the destination blockchain. The user can burn the wrapped token at any point to obtain the underlying item.

If a user wants to transfer 1 ETH from Ethereum to Wanchain, they must first lock the 1 ETH on Ethereum. On Wanchain, a new token, say wanETH, will be created. This 1 wanETH can be exchanged at any moment for 1 ETH.

Layer 2 For bridging assets, bridges use decentralised liquidity pools. This solution permits both the source and destination blockchains to have an existing asset pool in a Bridge Group-managed account. Users initiate cross-chain transactions by depositing assets to a pool on the source blockchain, and the equal number of assets are then released on the destination blockchain.

NFT bridges are designed for each project, however they are more similar to the lock-mint-burn-unlock technique. The exchange of all characteristics and NFT IDs between blockchains.

Wanchain enables interoperability between the subsequent blockchains:

From 2017, Wanchain’s cross-chain infrastructure has been in development. Early in 2021, it created the world’s first decentralised Ethereum-Bitcoin bridge. Wanchain’s decentralised, non-custodial bridges connect the following:

XRP Ledger

XDC Network

Wanchain

Tron

Polygon

Polka Dot Chain Relay

OKC (OKX Chain) (OKX Chain)

Moonriver

Moonbeam

Litecoin

Fantom

Ethereum

EOS

Dogecoin

Garnet Parachain

BNB Linkage

Bitcoin

C-Chain, Avalanche

Arbitrum

All of Wanchain’s decentralised cross-chain bridges are supported by unified, decentralised collateral pools that are managed by Bridge Nodes.

Endnote

The Singapore-based startup Wanchain’s objective is to connect the world’s digital assets. The company enables applications created on its platform to access digital assets available on many blockchains and to realise the full potential of bitcoin and blockchain technology. With periodic upgrades, its long-term objective of creating a network that connects both public and private blockchains is being fulfilled gradually.

If you are interested in learning about the performance of the Wanchain network, its ecosystem score and ranking, the foundation tools it offers, and more, you may consult the Wanchain review and rating on Scortik.

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