Binance announced the integration of the MakerDAO project governance token, Maker (MKR) and its decentralized stablecoin DAI. The initiative appears to be a step towards the decentralized finance ecosystem (DeFi) by Binance, which has also announced other efforts along that path.
The exchange will initially support eight trading pairs for MakerDAO tokens. Both MKR and DAI will be able to be exchanged with Bitcoin (BTC), Tether (USDT), BNB and BUSD, the native token and stablecoin of Binance.
The news comes amid the growing boom in the DeFi ecosystem. In recent weeks, DeFi has been registering consecutive historical maximums in terms of the total value blocked in the different protocols that comprise it. A Binance spokesperson commented on the initiative:
DeFi is a hot topic for the Blockchain industry this year. We get a lot of requests from our users [to list the tokens].
DeFi already has more than USD $ 2 billion in BTC and Ether (ETH) blocked as a guarantee for the operation of stablecoins. Of all the existing protocols, MakerDAO ranks at the top, just above the Compound that competes for the throne.
It should be noted that Binance is not the only popular exchange that has listed MRK and DAI this year. The initiative follows Coinbase's efforts last year to list the two tokens. Also other exchanges that support MKR and DAI include OKEx and Bitfinex, as well as DEX Uniswap and Balancer protocols.
But this does not seem to be the only effort Binance is making to enter the world of decentralized finance. An integration with Chainlink and a new set of tools to delve into the DeFi market also speak to the intentions of the exchange.
As reported by various news media, Binance's dual-chain architecture, called Binance Smart Chain (BSC), is now integrating Chainlink (LINK) data oracles.
Integration with Chainlink will allow Binance to extend the usability of its Smart Contract-enabled Blockchain; in particular, in areas such as decentralized finance, payments and asset management. Chainlink provides data from intermittent chain sources called oracles for decentralized applications (dapps). The network has been integrated with numerous DeFi projects such as bZx during the first half of 2020.
For his part, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov said the integration will save BSC developers time and effort. "Now, they can simply use Chainlink as an abstraction layer to create universally connected, secure and reliable smart contracts."
The integration also highlights Binance's intention to create an alternative platform for decentralized applications (DApps) running on Ethereum, specifically targeting the DeFi market.
Notably, Ethereum is the largest Blockchain Dapp network by market cap at around $ 25 billion, so the question arises that the Binance Smart Chain initiative is a competition for Ethereum. In addition, Binance included in its document numerous parameters, such as transaction speed, waiting capacity and scalability, within the framework of its hybrid delegated proof of stake (PoS) and proof of authority (PoA) algorithm that would surpass Ethereum at a theoretical level.
At the moment, Ethereum has the upper hand: Its main DeFi project, MakerDAO, went live in 2015. Now, five years later, many are interested in the ecosystem while other chains like Tezos and the BSC itself are trying to catch up.
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