Steemit Crypto Academy Season 3 Week 7 | Homework Post for Professor @allbert - Blockchain Oracle (Band Protocol)
Good morning everyone and let's start a positive activity on this morning. I will start today with happiness and this morning I will continue my writing activities in the Steemit Crypto Academy community. To start this week's course, I will first take a class given by professor @allbert and the topic discussed in this class is about "Oracle Blockchain", very interesting of course.
Oracle is an intermediary service contained in the Blockchain network and is usually used in DeFi projects, it is a third party service that allows external Data to be received by Smart contracts contained in the Blockchain through an API (Application Programming Interface). Oracle verifies the on-chain Data in real-time in the real world and then sends the cumulative Data to the Smartcontract because Blockchain does not store on-chain Data in its ecosystem. On the other hand, the hackers who want to exploit the price will usually try to attack the Oracle Blockchain because this system is outside the Blockchain consensus mechanism so it is vulnerable to it.
There are various Oracle Blockchains out there, three of the most famous and pioneers are Chainlink, Compound, and Band Protocol. In this post I will choose to explain about the "Band Protocol" and there are four main questions that must be answered in this homework. Let's get started...
Q1.) History and Description. Does it have any Token or Cryptocurrency Associated? Explain
Band Protocol is an Oracle Blockchain developed by three great people from Thailand, they are named Soravis Srinawakoon, Paul Chonpimai, and Sorawit Suriyakarn. Soravis Srinawakoon is a CEO who also serves as a management consultant at the Boston Consulting Group company and has also been an engineer at Ericsson Software. They also have a high educational background and have won various awards at a young age.
Initially they only created a cryptocurrency-based Gambling website that used Bitcoin and gave prizes to users who managed to win the game. The funds that were collected from this project were then used to develop the Oracle project called Band Protocol and they successfully launched it in 2017.
In the early days after its launch in 2017 to 2019, Band Protocol was used as one of the Oracles running on the Ethereum Blockchain to support the provision of accurate and reliable information for the cryptocurrency community. But after that they finally decided to build their own Blockchain using Cosmos SDK technology and this Blockchain was named Bandchain. Bandchain is developed in stages through 4 stages since mid-2020 using the DPoS consensus algorithm. They have also successfully released Band Protocol v2.0 at the end of 2020. Until now Bandchain has undergone two updates.
Band Protocol is supported by many financial institutions and has also collaborated with several other cryptocurrency projects such as Elrond (EGLD) and ICON, they have also collaborated with several great companies such as Google, Microsoft, IBM, OMM, CREAM, Eden Network, etc. In addition, Band Protocol has also successfully launched its original token in September 2019 which was named BAND and this token has been traded on a number of well-known cryptocurrency exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, Huobi, Bittrex, and many more.
The BAND Token was initially distributed through the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) and IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) programs on the Binance Exchange. The ICO program was carried out in two stages, in the first phase from August to October 2018, the developer managed to get 3 million dollars from the sale of 10 million tokens at a price of $ 0.3 per token. In the second phase which took place in June 2019, the developer managed to get 2 million dollars from the sale of 5 million tokens at a price of $ 0.4 per token. Then in the IEO program on Binance Lunchpad, they managed to sell around 12 million tokens through the Lottery and Airdrop.
BAND Holders can derive some benefits from the assets they own, but currently there are a large number of accounts that have controlled large amounts of BAND. Holders of these tokens can contribute to the governance of the system and can earn rewards from the addition of Data sources they make. BAND is also a driving factor for Validators to create new blocks and answer the challenges of Data requests. By authorizing the Validator, token holders are also entitled to a share of Block Rewards so token holders will earn additional tokens from this process. In addition, BAND is also supported by high security standards on the Blockchain network.
Delegators are parties who have little power so they cannot act as Validators and they can only stake a number of tokens they have, then choose the Validator as they wish and when the Validator has received Block Rewards, the Delegator will also get his share according to the amount of contribution that has been they give. While the Validator is the party that takes the Data from outside and makes it available to the Band Protocol and then it is given to the Blockchain that needs the Data, then the Validator will get a number of Block Rewards for their performance. There are currently 59 active validators.
For additional information, here is the actual data of the BAND token based on the Coinmarketcap website.
| Cryptocurrency | Band Protocol (BAND) |
|---|---|
| Market Rank | 152 |
| Price | $ 8.38 |
| Low –High in 24h | $ 7.15 - $ 8.74 |
| Volume in 24h | $ 126,275,135 |
| Marketcap | $ 294,923,009 |
| All Time High | $ 23.19 Apr 15, 2021 |
| All Time Low | $ 0.2042 Nov 25, 2019 |
| Circulating Supply | 35,191,821 BAND |
| Total Supply | 100,000,000 BAND |
| Market Dominance | 0.02% |
Q2.) Functionalities and Real-life Applications
Oracle Blockchain such as Band Protocol is indispensable in the Blockchain world, especially in DeFi projects because of its use which is more efficient, reliable, scalable, user-friendly, secure, and fast in connecting Real-life Data required by Blockchain and then bringing it to in the Blockchain ecosystem through the API and then accepted by the smart contract. With the development of the DeFi platform and DApps, the demand for Real-life Data from Oracle services is also increasing.
Together with Chainlink and Compound, Band Protocol is one of the pioneers in the field of Oracle Blockchain technology and can be used on various Blockchain (cross-chain) with a fully decentralized system. Through IBC (Inter Blockchain Communication), Band Protocol can also provide various Data required by Blockchain connected to Cosmos. Band Protocol works very fast in just seconds, starting from data retrieval, then verifying it, and providing it as requested.
There are various platforms on Blockchain that require Real-life Data and they will use Oracle Blockchain such as Band Protocol to fulfill this, especially the need for price data. In addition, the application of the Band Protocol is also used in the case of Gambling and as an example is a sports match between team A vs team B in a famous league that is played in the real world.
I went in to place a bet and I chose to back team A to win the game. To find out whether I managed to become a winner or not, the application requires Band Protocol as one of the Oracles that can send data on the results of the match in the real world in real-time into the Blockchain and then the application will display the output on the user's screen in the form of " win or lose".
In addition to Gambling and the like, Band Protocol is also used in the field of Meteorology, especially in providing cumulative data from all Meteorological stations around the world for a Blockchain-based Meteorological Application.
Q3.) Pros and Cons
Pros
- Token holders can participate in governance system.
- Has been widely used and has proven credibility in providing Data.
- Can be used on various Blockchain networks with various smart contracts.
- Data can be synchronized quickly (in seconds) and precisely in every transaction by using a DPoS consensus algorithm that is safe against attacks.
- It has been decentralized and more transparent.
- Validators can bring new block ideas and play a role in choosing the authenticity of the Data.
- The number of Block Rewards received by the Delegator is proportional to the amount that has been contributed and is related to the number of BANDs that have been staked by the Validator.
- Data monetization process can be done on-chain without intermediaries.
- Operational costs for Data providers are constant even if you have used some decentralized applications as there are no additional costs after the integration process.
Cons
- Some people argue that Chainlink is better than Band Protocol because Chainlink has a reputation as the most famous Oracle.
- BAND has a much lower market capitalization when compared to LINK. In addition, most of the total BAND has been monopolized by a number of top holders so that they have more control in this matter.
- Band Protocol only supports free open APIs and is not fully usable in the case of paid APIs equipped with passwords.
- The BAND Token plays an important role in driving the performance of Validators on this network so that the Band Protocol cannot stand alone without the help of Validators and not all Investors can become Validators.
- Validator has control over Delegator so Delegator cannot do without Validator.
- Community Pool is entitled to 2% of the Block Rewards you earn.
- If data manipulation occurs, the user will be greatly harmed.
Q4.) Future Developments and New Projects
- The Band Protocol Team is also continuously working on various future developments with a number of plans including making decentralized applications easily accessible, Data being delivered more openly and reliably, expanding the Oracle cross-chain network with a fully decentralized system, and more -other.
- Two weeks ago the Band Protocol was used as standard at Starport to facilitate Data access for DApps developers on the Cosmos network and make the development of new projects on the Cosmos Blockchain even easier going forward.
- On August 6, 2021, Kraken announced that BAND has been listed on their exchange and this adds to the list of exchanges that have supported BAND trading as previously BAND has also been traded on a number of well-known exchanges.
- On August 3, 2021, Eden Network cooperated with Band Protocol to improve system reliability by reducing Miner Extractable Value (MEV) and Oracle Frontrunning Exploits.
- On 21 July, 2021, OMM Finance cooperated with Band Protocol in launching the Mainnet Open Money Market to improve trading quality.
- On June 29, 2021, Band Protocol announced a phase 2 upgrade to the Laozi Mainnet Bandchain after the previous period had successfully upgraded to phase 1.
- On June 11, 2021, Coin98 Wallet expands integration with Band Protocol to create greater transparency and experience for more than 268,000 users from all over the world.
- In May 2021, CREAM collaborated with Band Protocol in upgrading the lending & borrowing market on their platform.
- On April 15, 2021, Google Clouds collaborated with Band Protocol in facilitating researchers and developers to use Decentralized Oracle as an external Data source for applications built on Blockchain and Web2.
- On February 3, 2021, Band Protocol announced a new Roadmap with the main goal of being able to integrate more Blockchain and simplify the monetization process for Data providers.
Blockchain Oracle has played an important role in supporting the advancement of Blockchain technology and it continues to grow to this day. The Oracle blockchain is capable of being a “bridge” between the real world and the blockchain. With the help of the Oracle Blockchain, the need for external data from the real world desired by the Blockchain can be met quickly and the external data can be received by the Smart contract contained in the Blockchain through the API.
One of the best Oracle Blockchain at this time is the Band Protocol and this can be a good choice besides Chainlink, Oracle is also still developing to improve its services even better. Band Protocol can also be used on various Blockchain networks with a system that is fully decentralized and supported by the DPoS consensus algorithm, it has been widely used and proven safe.
To obtain various additional information, you can visit the following sites:
https://bandprotocol.com/
https://bandprotocol.com/whitepaper-3.0.1.pdf
https://github.com/bandprotocol
https://medium.com/bandprotocol
https://twitter.com/bandprotocol
https://reddit.com/r/bandprotocol
https://t.me/bandprotocol
Hello, @ Thank you for participating in Steemit Crypto Academy season 3 week 7.