What is Wanchain (WAN) – All You Need to Know

Wanchain Introduction

Wanchain is a distributed financial infrastructure that will allow transactions of digital assets across different blockchains by implementing cross-chain transfers. Considering the broad number of digital coins and tokens that are currently in the crypto space, there still hasn’t been developed an efficient decentralized solution to enable an exchange between them.

Wanchain works as an independent blockchain; this links the accounts of other independent chains to form a network through which these digital assets are exchanged.

But this platform also has many other applications aside from cryptocurrency transfers. By using smart contracts, privacy protocols, and the Wancoin (WAN) token, you can create numerous use cases.

The Technology behind Wanchain

This entirely separate blockchain was created from an Ethereum fork. Its native Wancoin (WAN) is also not an ERC20-based token. The platform consists of many elements which seamlessly blend with each other, but the cross-chain communication protocol stands at the core of Wanchain.

1. Cross-chain Communication Protocol

The cross-chain communication protocol enables the data transfer between Wanchain and other blockchains. The protocol uses smart contracts to let you exchange assets between the platform and the other chains. It is composed out of the following functional modules:

• Registration module: Registers the chain from which a transaction came from, as well as the transferred asset.
• Cross-chain transaction data transmission module: Launches the cross-chain transaction request to Wanchain, recognizes if the validator node returns success or not, and enables the legal transaction between the validator node and the original chain.
• Transaction status query module: Monitors the transaction status.

 

2. Verification Node Consensus Algorithm

Like Ethereum, Wanchain will move to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus algorithm. The implementation of solutions such as Plasma and the Raiden Network is also expected. A PoS setup involves three types of verification nodes that sustain the overall network and distribute transaction fees:

• Vouchers: are cross-chain transaction proof nodes that receive a security deposit from the transaction fee. In exchange, they validate the transaction between the original account and the Wanchain locked account. If the transaction is invalid, the security deposit is subtracted from the holding account, and the Voucher will not be approving any more transactions.
• Validators: general verification nodes that register the transactional data on Wanchain’s blockchain for a share of the transaction fee. If online, transactions can still be executed with a minimum number of shares.
• Storemen: locked account management nodes that have to be online and keep their own key shares to get their part of the fee. If you don’t have sufficient Wancoin holdings to run a verification node, you can still run a general node.

3. Locked Account Generation Scheme

To secure funds and keys when more than one party is involved, Wanchain uses the Locked Account Generation Scheme. It is based on Shamir’s Secret Sharing Scheme, which separates a key into shares and issues it to all parties involved.

This way of distributing key shares has a few benefits, including increased decentralization and stability.

Any transaction with a locked account is run through the original chain, without needing validators.

4. Smart Contract Token Transaction Anonymity

Wanchain’s smart contracts are among the first to include privacy. To provide users with anonymity during transfers, it employs ring signatures and one-time address generation.

A ring signature mixes your sender signature with other fake accounts, making it difficult to track you. Also, for each transaction, the platform generates a new address to prevent detection of transaction patterns.

About Wancoin (WAN)

Wancoin (WAN) is Wanchain’s in-platform token. Transactions require a certain amount of WAN, as the cross-chain verification nodes need a WAN security deposit when a transaction is made.

During their ICO, 107.1 million tokens were sold, raising approximately 120,000 ETH. These tokens represent 51% of the total supply. The token sale funds will be distributed accordingly:  60% research and development, 10% community development, 10% marketing, 10% infrastructure and 10% daily operations.

• Wan Storage

WANs can be stored in the wallet provided by Wanchain. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. Even though it currently supports only WAN, it’ll soon accept multiple currencies. The download link can be found here.

• Trading and purchasing WAN

At the time of writing, WAN can be purchased on Binance and Kucoin, but more exchanges will be listing the coin in the future. The trading pairs available at Binance are WAN/BNB, WAN/BTC and WAN/ETH. On Kucoin, WAN can be traded with BTC and ETH

 

The Team Behind Wanchain

The Wanchain Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Singapore, which was founded by Jack Lu.  In the past, Lu co-founded Factom and launched Wanglu Tech, a company that is specialized in developing blockchain applications.

The Wanchain President, Dustin Byington, was also involved in various projects that involved blockchain. He founded Bitcoin College in 2014, also serving as a co-founder to Tendermint – a software that replicated applications across machines; and Satoshi Talent – a platform that linked blockchain entrepreneurs with developers.

The team only just launched their main net and presented a very ambitious roadmap for 2018. The 2.0 release in June will feature Ethereum cross-chain trading along with a wallet that will support multiple currencies. The 3.0 version will anchor to Bitcoin as well.

Verdict

Wanchain’s objective is to decentralize the financial industry by employing the best technological developments in the industry, including cross-chain smart contracts. This will enable businesses to create blockchain applications for transactions, investments, payments and much more.

Wanchain Contacts and Additional information:

• Telegram: https://t.me/WanchainANN
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/wanchain/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/wanchain_org
• Github: https://github.com/wanchain