Cryptocurrency was created to accommodate a fully-decentralized, global economy. Still, as new blockchains continue to pop up year over year, many don’t consider how their chain will interact with those that already exist. This issue defeats the purpose that many of these digital assets set out to achieve. WanChain’s goal is to solve this issue by connecting the isolated blockchains and allowing the world’s digital assets and data to flow freely between the various chains.

WanChain So Far

WanChain first released its ICO in October 2017. With the assistance of their fundraising specialist, Benn Godenzi, WanChain raised an impressive 122,000 ETH during its ICO phase. 

WanChain swiftly began working on its cross-chain infrastructure after its ICO phase, and in December 2019, WanChain switched from a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus to proof-of-stake (PoS). Their move to PoS made the project more environmentally conscious than before. Alongside the change in consensus, Wanchain released a proof-of-stake-enabled desktop wallet.  

In early 2021, WanChain introduced the world’s first decentralized bridge between BTC and ETH. The BTC-ETH bridge was the culmination of nearly five years of hard work, and shortly after, in August 2021, WanChain officially released its WanChain Web tool. WanChain Web gives users the ability to initiate cross-chain transactions without the need for intermediary networks. WanChain Web supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, EOSIO, Binance Smart Chain, Litecoin, Wanchain, XRP Ledger, Moonriver, Avalanche, and over a dozen other cryptocurrencies.

Most recently, WanChain partnered with Polygon to build a layer-2 cross-chain bridge for Polygon and Arbitrum. The partnership was announced in December 2021 and marked the first time a cross-chain bridge will utilize decentralized liquidity pools to power the bridge. Liquidity pools are essential but often misunderstood tools that many decentralized-finance projects need to run smoothly. Centralized exchanges often use a “maker and taker” model in which buyers and sellers are matched on either side of the transaction for people to buy and sell assets. Alternatively, liquidity pools serve as an automated way for people to process these transactions without needing a buyer or seller to accommodate the trade.

Blockchain Interoperability Alliance

In 2017, Benn Godenzi helped WanChain, Aion, and ICON launch the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance; this alliance allowed the three interoperability-focused companies to assist each other in creating a brighter future for cryptocurrency enthusiasts. 

Much like WanChain, Aion builds trustless technologies that pass assets from one blockchain to another without intermediaries. Likewise, ICON aims to solve the same problem as WanChain and Aion. It makes sense that the three entities would work together to improve blockchain interoperability. Still, before forming the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance, WanChain, Aion, and ICON were taking three different approaches to solve the problem.

Since the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance came to be, all three companies have made tremendous progress towards true interoperability. There’s no doubt that WanChain owes a portion of its success to the information-sharing and collaboration from the alliance.