BNB Chain: 4 Years of Supporting Blockchain to Onboard The Next Billion Web3 Users

On September 1, 2024, BNB Chain celebrated “BNB Day” as it turned 4. This event not only marks a key moment in our history but also reflects the core values that drive us: supporting and empowering startups and developers, facilitating their journey to real business success, and crossing the chasm. Our ultimate aim is to onboard the next billion Web3 users through a cost-effective, scalable, and secure infrastructure, powering the next generation of decentralized applications (Dapps). We’re excited to share our main takeaways for our fourth birthday: 

• One BNB Strategy: Launched a unified multichain ecosystem integrating BNB Smart Chain (BSC), opBNB, and Greenfield, driving fully on-chain Dapps across AI, gaming, DeFi, and more.
• Developer and Startup Support: Expanded initiatives like the MVB Program, BNB Incubation Alliance (BIA), grants, and LaaS packages, supporting hundreds of projects and boosting innovation in the Web3 space. Between Q3 2023 to Q2 2024, we allocated US$7 million year to date in nurturing the BNB Chain ecosystem. 
• Community and Ecosystem Growth: Grew to close to 800  live Dapps, reaching 1.2 million DAUs on BSC and 2.7 million DAUs on opBNB, while increasing BSC's TVL by 40.4% to $4.82 billion.
• Performance and Scalability Enhancements: Achieved 10,000 TPS on opBNB, introduced Blob-carrying transactions, and optimized gasless transactions to improve user experience and reduce costs.
• Security and Governance: Strengthened security measures, reducing total loss by 87% year on year, and enhanced governance with BC Fusion, unifying BNB Beacon Chain and BSC for a more secure and efficient ecosystem.

From its inception, BNB Chain has been defined by its strong and collaborative community, united by a shared vision of expanding access to decentralized technologies. Originally launched during DeFi Summer, BNB Chain has grown into a diverse ecosystem, welcoming innovative Dapps across fields like AI, gaming, DeFi, and more.

Today, BNB Chain remains committed to continuously pushing the boundaries of what's possible. Our 2024 "One BNB" strategy exemplifies this forward momentum, integrating BNB Smart Chain (BSC), opBNB, and Greenfield into a unified multichain ecosystem. With a robust user base of 1.2 million daily active users (DAU) on BSC and 2.7 million DAU on opBNB, BNB Chain continues to empower developers and drive the next generation of Dapps. 

As we celebrate our fourth anniversary, we remain steadfast in our mission to support the Web3 community and lead the charge toward a decentralized future.

Bringing Web3 To The Next Billion Users With One BNB

In 2024, BNB Chain introduced the "One BNB" strategy, a comprehensive multichain approach tailored for DeFi, fully on-chain gaming, AI, DePIN, DeSoc, and the broader Web3 economy. This strategy seamlessly integrates BNB Smart Chain (BSC), opBNB, and Greenfield into a cohesive ecosystem, ensuring smooth interaction between decentralized computing and storage solutions.

As the Web3 industry pivots towards fully on-chain (FoC) Dapps, developers face the challenge of transitioning their applications from basic Web3 models to robust, fully on-chain frameworks. The One BNB strategy addresses this by easing the scalability of large-scale Dapps, catering to both computational and storage needs within a multi-chain framework.

Continued Support and Incentives

To realize our vision, we’ve implemented targeted actions across various phases. During the ideation phase, we offer the MVB Program and host hackathons to support early-stage projects. Additionally, in 2024, we introduced the BNB Incubation Alliance (BIA). BIA is an incubator that aims to support and expedite the growth of early-stage blockchain projects through a series of global events – a collective endeavor alongside prominent venture capitalists, incubators, and robust developer communities. A key highlight of the program is the opportunity for winning projects to be fast-tracked into the prestigious Most Valuable Builder (MVB) program, and receive BNB Chain grants.

In 2024 alone, MVB Season 7, over 700 applications were submitted with only 13 standout teams chosen for their extraordinary talent and innovation in the Web3 space. These projects enjoyed access to the Launch-as-a-Service (LaaS) package, valued at $300k and four of these have secured investments from Binance Labs, significantly boosting their potential and impact. MVB Season 8 has just recently announced its call for applications. 

The BIA Program on the other hand saw 38 project pitches being evaluated by 21 judges over 2 events (EthCC in Brussels and Bitcoin 2024 in Nashville) with 5 projects being awarded. Additionally, BIA Singapore has just been announced. These initiatives provide unparalleled access to resources and strategic partnerships essential for growth and innovation within the BNB Chain ecosystem.

For projects in their deployment phases, BNB Chain’s grants and Kickstart Program provide crucial funding and services that can be pivotal. Post-launch, we offer continued support for projects through our TVL and DAU incentive programs. Adding to these, 2024 also ushered in our Airdrop alliance program and our Memecoin Trading Competitions to enhance project visibility and growth.

Impact Across Sectors

In 2024, BNB Chain has allocated over US$7 million across several key initiatives, supporting projects and further strengthening our ecosystem. Below is a breakdown of the initiatives and their impact:

• Global Online Hackathons: Across three global hackathons, we’ve allocated close to $1.5 million in prizes and have received over 560 submissions, demonstrating strong developer engagement and innovation. The 2024 Q4 Hackathon will be announced shortly in October. 
• TVL Incentive Program: We distributed $620,000 in prizes, attracting over 150 participants, which significantly contributed to the growth of our Total Value Locked.
• DAU Incentive Program: With a $200,000 prize pool, this initiative engaged over 170 participants, effectively boosting daily active user (DAU) metrics.
• Gas Grant Program: Offering over $1 million in rewards, this program has attracted 45 participants to date and remains ongoing, providing support to projects looking to optimize their gas consumption.
• Trading Volume Incentive Program: This program allocated $250,000 in prizes, drawing 32 participants to increase trading volume across the BNB Chain.
• Memecoin Innovation Support: To encourage innovation within the memecoin sector, we have committed up to $1 million in prize pools. This program is currently active and continues to attract participants.
• Launch-as-a-Service (LaaS) Packages: BNB Chain has also supported project acceleration through LaaS packages:
  • BNB Incubation Alliance (BIA): $1.5 million worth of LaaS credits awarded to five promising projects.
  • Most Valuable Builder (MVB) Season 7: $1.2 million worth of LaaS credits allocated to four standout projects. Season 8 applications are now open here. 

Achievements in 2024

Community Growth

• Ushering In New Dapps: The total number of active Dapps continues to grow and there are now close to 800 Dapps building on BNB Chain, reflecting the vibrant ecosystem. Year to date, 189 new Dapps have joined the BNB Chain ecosystem. 
• Daily Active Users (DAU): BSC achieved an average of 1.2 million DAUs, marking an 8.5% increase over the last 12 months. opBNB also showed strong performance with significant DAU growth in 2024; as of the end of Q2 2024, the average DAU on opBNB was 2.7m.  

Source: BSCScan

• Community: The total number of unique wallets on BSC grew 30.4% to over 458m wallets in the last 12 months ending Q2 2024. While the number of total unique wallets on opBNB grew to 438k within the first two quarters of 2024. Currently, BNB Chain is supported by 53 Martians who help curate and grow the BNB Chain community culture. You can learn more about their fascinating journeys here.

Transaction Metrics

• Daily Transactions Growth: BSC processed an impressive average of 4 million transactions daily in the last 12 months, all while maintaining high speed and efficiency. For context, in the preceding 12 months, the average daily transaction was at 3.5 million. opBNB, on the other hand, processes an average of 4.8 million daily transactions year to date. 

Source: BSCScan

• Average Transaction Fee: In 2024, BSC's average gas price went down to 2.61 Gwei, a 42% drop in the last 12 months. While opBNB’s average gas price remains low at 0.0013 Gwei at the end of Q2 2024.

Source: BSCScan

Total Value Locked (TVL)

• BSC TVL: The TVL on BSC increased to $1.39 billion in the last 12 months, reaching a total of $4.82 billion in TVL by the end of Q2 2024. This was a 40.4% increase from the previous year.

Source: Defillama

Furthermore, opBNB attracted $28.9m in TVL at the end of Q2 2024.

Source: Defillama

Market Performance

• BNB Price and Market Capitalization: The price of the BNB token increased by 134.6% in the last 12 months, closing in on $581.47/BNB at the end of Q2 2024. In the same period, market capitalization grew by a similar percentage to $41.8 billion.

Source: BSCScan

Security

• BNB Chain experienced a decrease of ~87% in total amount loss in Q2 2024 in comparison to Q2 2023. This demonstrates the success of security measures and the continuous commitment to enhancing the security of the BNB Chain ecosystem.

Expanding Capabilities: Validator Growth, MEV Integration, and BNB Fusion

Expanding Capabilities: BNB Fusion, MEV Integration, and Advanced Validator Operations

Advancing Consensus and Governance Structures:In 2024, BNB Chain significantly enhanced its governance and consensus mechanisms through a series of strategic upgrades. BC Fusion successfully migrated the governance of BNB Beacon Chain to BNB Smart Chain (BSC), creating a streamlined and more secure governance framework across the ecosystem. This unification optimizes security and governance efficiency, fortifying the overall structure of BNB Chain.

Enhancing the MEV Landscape:A major advancement in 2024 was the implementation of Proposer-Builder Separation (PBS) through BEP-322. PBS established a transparent and fair MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) market on BNB Chain, fostering healthy competition among block builders. By Q2, 73% of blocks on BNB Smart Chain were produced using the Builder API Specification, with 19 active block builders contributing to the network. This ensures equitable MEV distribution, aligning with our commitment to transparency and fairness in block production.

Gasless Transactions with EOA-Based Paymaster:BNB Chain introduced an EOA-based paymaster to support gasless transactions, greatly enhancing the user experience on the network. This development removes the friction associated with gas fees, making decentralized applications (Dapps) more accessible and cost-effective for users.

Reducing L2 Transaction Costs:We also implemented Blob-carrying transactions on BSC and transitioned opBNB data availability from calldata to blobs. This move significantly reduces Layer 2 transaction costs, particularly for opBNB, which is now optimized for efficiency. By lowering these costs, we’ve created a more scalable and cost-effective environment for L2 solutions on BNB Chain.

Performance Optimization on opBNB:

opBNB, the Layer-2 scaling solution for BNB Chain, significantly boosts transaction processing capabilities, making it ideal for high-frequency trading dApps and interactive games. In 2024, opBNB raised its block gas limit to 200M/s, achieving a performance milestone of 10,000 TPS. 

Upcoming Enhancements:Looking ahead, BNB Chain will continue to evolve with a series of upcoming upgrades:

• Hint-Based Parallel EVM: Introducing parallel execution for both BSC and opBNB to enhance efficiency.
• Consecutive Block Production: This feature will optimize block production speed, further improving the network’s operational efficiency.
• ZK Fault Proof for opBNB: This will position opBNB as a Stage 1 rollup of BSC, adding an additional layer of security and scalability to the network.

Focused on User Experience and Ecosystem Growth

All of these efforts, from performance optimizations to user experience improvements, reflect our dedication to providing a seamless, secure, and efficient infrastructure. The BNB Chain ecosystem continues to thrive, with emerging projects in SocialFi, DeFi, Web3 gaming, and more, all contributing to a more robust and dynamic ecosystem.

Looking Ahead

As we look ahead, our goal remains clear: to support developers and users alike in building the future of decentralized applications, guided by our mission to deliver cost-effective, scalable, and secure solutions for Web3 innovation.

While we celebrate four years of innovation and growth, BNB Chain remains dedicated to transforming ideas into real-world applications. The following are some of our focus for the rest of 2024: 

• We will complete the BNB Chain Fusion process. By mid-August, BNB Beacon Chain will cease operations, and the BNB Chain ecosystem will consist of BSC, BSC Layer-2 solutions, and BNB Greenfield.
• Introduction of New Rust-Based Node Clients. We are introducing a new Rust-based Ethereum and BSC node client, Reth, in collaboration with the Paradigm team. This new client will complement our existing clients based on Geth and Erigon, contributing to our ongoing efforts to develop high-performance node solutions.
• New State Storage Model and State Expiry. To address the growing challenges related to state size, we are exploring a new state storage model. This approach aims to improve performance and manage unused state more effectively, ensuring the network remains efficient and sustainable.
• Enhancing Real-World Use Cases. In the latter half of 2024, BSC and its Layer-2 solutions will focus on improving support for real-world applications with high throughput and low latency. Planned improvements include consecutive blocking for better throughput, parallel EVM with transaction DAG hints, and new P2P models for consensus and Layer-2 topology.
• Gasless Transactions and Improved Wallet Infrastructure. We are working towards full support for gasless transactions, which will allow dApps to interact with users without requiring gas tokens. This will include features such as smart contract-based paymasters and updated infrastructure APIs.
• Infrastructure to Support User Acquisition. We will introduce a new B2B2C infrastructure to assist dApps with real-world use cases like payments. These resources will be available at no cost to help dApps grow their user base.

With our One BNB strategy and continued support, we are committed to advancing the Web3 ecosystem and supporting widespread adoption. BNB Day is more than just a celebration—it's a reflection of our incredible journey and the unwavering support of our community, who have played a pivotal role in shaping BNB Chain into what it is today. As we celebrate our 4th anniversary, we not only honor the remarkable milestones we've achieved together but also renew our commitment to empowering developers and startups to turn their vision into real business success. Our mission remains clear: to lead the way in blockchain adoption and onboard the next billion users to Web3. We invite everyone to join us in celebrating BNB Day as we continue to grow and achieve this vision together.

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