Bancor (BNT) – Beginner’s Guide, Information & Review

Written by Adolph Obasogie - Reviewed by Coin Review Team

Published: Jun 20, 2018 | Last Updated: Mar 14, 2019

2024-10-15T06:12:07+00:00

What is Bancor?

Bancor Network is a decentralized liquidity and exchange network. It facilitates P2P-trading of tokens on its network and allows anyone to swap his/her tokens directly against any other token that is supported by the network.

These trades are executed at an automatically calculated price, and there is no counterparty or order book involved. All of the buying and selling is done by the use of smart contracts.

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The problem that Bancor is trying to solve is the illiquidity of many tokens. Bancors solution is the use of so-called “connector modules”, which are smart contracts that hold balances of different ERC20-tokens.

It always holds reserves of different kinds of digital assets stored in smart contracts. The prices of these tokens are constantly recalculated by the Bancor formula. To do this, Bancor issues so-called “smart tokens”, which are a new type of cryptocurrency, and Relay tokens.

Smart tokens are build on smart contracts with “connectors” to other tokens. So they can be bought and sold for any tokens that are connected with them, at steadily re-adjusted prices based on the Bancor formula.

Relay tokens are tokens that hold two connectors, a random ERC20 token and BNT, both with 50% weight. This allows for backward compatibility for existing tokens that users want to convert to the network.

The native asset of the network is called Bancor Network Token (BNT) and can be converted to any other token within the system or used as an intermediary to convert tokens between each other. BNT is used as the hub network token of Bancor. BNT is an ERC20-token as well.

History

Bancor is supposedly named after English the planned world reserve currency that was planned by English economists after World War 2. The ICO of the Bancor network was one of the biggest that was ever held, collecting 156 million USD in about 3 hours.

It was held on 12. June 2017 and clogged the entire Ethereum network in the process. The demand was huge.

It is led by the Bprotocol Foundation based in Switzerland. Bernard Lietaer is the president of this Foundation.

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Can Bancor be mined?

No, BNT is a Utility token and cannot be mined or staked.

What differs it from other Cryptocurrencies?

Bancor Network solves the problem of the often illiquid token market by providing liquidity reserves based on smart tokens and automated pricing mechanisms. Trades are executed through smart contracts and without third-party intermediates.

How much is it worth today?

What is the total and the circulating supply?

The total supply of BNT is 75,843,715 and the circulating supply at the time of writing is 51,767,412 BNT.

Where can you buy BNT?

You can buy BNT on several cryptocurrency exchanges, most notably Binance, OKEx and on Bancor Network itself.

Can BNT be sold for cash?

You can sell BNT for cash directly at several cryptocurrency exchanges, most notably HitBTC and on the Bancor Network itself.

Future Development

The Network is live. According to the roadmap, Android/iOS-Apps are planned for Q3 of this year, and developer APIs and advanced trading tools are scheduled for Q4 2018.

Cross-blockchain support is planned for 2019. Overall development is very active.

Verdict and Rating

2.5/10 Although it is a clever idea, I don’t see the use-case of the BNT token. ETH could have been used instead of BNT as a reserve currency. The Bancor Network token itself does not do much besides acting as an intermediary between different tokens.

The Bancor Network itself provides Liquidity, eliminates counterparty risk and allows users to create and issue their own smart tokens. Really interesting from a technological point-of-view but rather unappealing from an Investors view.

Blockchain Whispers, the most accurate crypto website in existence issued a warning about the limited growth potential of BNT to its members. If you haven’t visited the site yet, I highly recommend you to bookmark Blockchain Whispers, as your must-have arsenal for crypto intelligence. You can visit here https://blockchainwhispers.com/premium/

2.5 / 10.0

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Disclaimer

The writer’s views are expressed as a personal opinion and are for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Seek a duly licensed professional for investment advice.