Binance's Ethereum layer-2 scaling platform, opBNB, has been officially launched on the public mainnet today, following a thorough testing phase. The platform, which is based on the Optimism OP Stack, aims to offer decentralized applications in the BNB Smart Chain (BSC) ecosystem faster transactions at reduced gas fees.
The opBNB platform was constructed on the Optimism OP Stack, ensuring compatibility with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This compatibility allows for seamless interaction with Ethereum-based smart contracts, networks, and ERC-20 token standards. The technology at the heart of this solution is optimistic rollups, which scale transactions by presuming off-chain validated transaction data is accurate until proven otherwise.
During its testing phase, opBNB successfully managed over 35 million on-chain transactions and saw the deployment of more than 150 decentralized applications (DApps). BNB Smart Chain also reported that the platform reached a peak of 4,000 transactions per second during a stress test evaluation.
Arno Bauer, BNB Chain’s senior solution architect, highlighted the essential criteria the platform strived to meet before launching. "This included high availability, 4K transactions per second, rigorous stress testing, reduced gas costs under 0.2 gwei, fast finality under 1 second, and enhanced security with several external audits," Bauer said.
Despite its potential benefits for transaction scalability and cost reduction, some critics point out the potential week-long hold of funds during validation check processing inherent in optimistic rollup technology. However, daily transaction volumes and the number of daily active addresses on Optimism have been increasing, indicating continued relevance and value of the layer-2 solution to users and DApps.
Several leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms have integrated with Optimism to leverage its scaling capabilities. These include prominent names such as Uniswap, Aave, 1inch Network, SushiSwap, and Curve Finance.
BNB Chain's core development team initiated the opBNB testnet in June, followed by a controlled mainnet release in August, exclusively accessible to a select group of infrastructure providers. With today's launch, opBNB is now officially available to the public. BNB Chain is expected to provide more in-depth information on opBNB’s progression and any other potential scaling solutions the ecosystem might have explored.
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