Bancor Reveals BancorX, Prepares to Port Protocol to EOS Blockchain

The Bancor team has revealed that its platform, a major Ethereum decentralized liquidity-generating application, will soon be available on the EOS network. The effort, labelled as “BancorX,” will see the protocol allowing the conversion of a number EOS-based tokens.

The collaboration marks a victory for both projects.

EOS, a major Ethereum rival, receives a boost to its platform, which suffered after a hiccup-filled mainnet launch in early June. Bancor now expands its exchange offerings, which already has the distinction of having facilitated trades on the Ethereum network amounting to somewhere in the region of $1.5 billion.  

The Bancor protocol uses Relays, which are essentially smart contracts, to make instant trades between tokens, rather than matching orders between buyers and sellers. A significant feature under development is the ability to convert EOS tokens into Ethereum tokens.

Cross-chain protocols and liquidity is an aspect of blockchain that is being researched intensely as they make for a more cohesive blockchain ecosystem by allowing separate blockchains to communicate with each other.

Bancor has released an open-source smart contract and embeddable user interface on the Test Net that processes EOS token conversions. The first batch of tokens, 10 in total, that will be open to conversion are Everipedia (IQ), MEET.ONE (MEET), HireVibe (HVT), Lumeos (LUME), MyCryptoBank (MCB), Chaince (CET), CoArt (COAT), Prospectors Gold (PGL), HorusPay (HORUS) and DEOS (DEOS).

On the EOS network, Bancor expects transactions to take only 1 second, as opposed to the 10 or so seconds it takes on the Ethereum network. It will also be entirely free of transaction fees.

Bancor hopes that users will peer into the source code and highlight any flaws. To that end, they’ve also launched an EOS bounty program and allocated over 500,000 Bancor (BNT) tokens for developers who discover flaws and improve the UI.

EOS is not the first network to work with the Bancor protocol. In April, AI-application focused Dbrain (DBR) announced that it would integrate the Bancor protocol to let users convert native tokens into other currencies.

Bancor has been hovering in the $1 – $2 price range since reaching $10 during the hype phase of late 2017/early 2018. Its current price sits at $1.52 with a market cap of approximately $81 million. The Bancor Network exchange has had a 24-hour trading volume of just under $1.9 million, with Bancor, Kin (KIN) and OmiseGO (OMG) being the most traded tokens.

Related: The Race for Cross-Chain Communication: 11 Projects Working on Blockchain Interoperability