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BNB Smart Chain (blockchain platform)
Public blockchain platform From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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BNB Smart Chain (formerly Binance Smart Chain) is a public blockchain platform that uses a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism and provides smart contract functionality. The platform's native cryptocurrency is BNB. Blockchain was founded in 2017 by Changpeng Zhao and Yi He, as a parallel “smart contract” branch of the Binance ecosystem.[2][3]
Designed to support decentralized applications and high-throughput transactions, BNB gained traction as a competitor to Ethereum.[4]
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Characteristics
According to the blockchain's white paper, BNB Smart Chain runs on a proof of stake model.[5] The New York Times and Financial Times described the coin as an alternative to Ethereum.[6][7]
History
BNB originated in 2017 as an Ethereum-based token for Binance exchange users, becoming the native coin for the separate Binance Chain in 2019 via a token swap. In 2020, the parallel Binance Smart Chain (BSC) launched, adding smart contract functionality, and was rebranded as BNB Smart Chain in 2022. The unified BNB Chain was introduced in 2022, combining the functions of the original Binance Chain (now BNB Beacon Chain) and BNB Smart Chain into a single blockchain ecosystem.[8][9] At that time, Binance Smart Chain was also renamed to BNB Chain. BNB Chain had previously been criticized for being overly centralized, which had led to several exploits on the network.[10][11]
![[icon]](#/media/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (October 2025) |
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Criticism and controversies
After the BSC Token Hub bridge exploit on October 6–7, 2022, validators coordinated a temporary halt. BNB Chain speakers described this as a “synchronized pause and resume”[12], and major outlets reported the pause as part of the containment effort. Iindependent security tallies have found BNB Chain to be the most targeted chain by incident count in 2023 (Immunefi recorded 133 incidents, 41.6% of those tracked), with industry coverage and vendor reports highlighting rug pulls as a frequent loss vector on the chain that year.[13]
Since 2023, regulatory exposure has been cited due to links with Binance and the BNB token: the U.S. SEC filed a civil complaint in June 2023 alleging unregistered offers and other violations; in May 2025 the SEC announced a joint stipulation to dismiss the case with prejudice.[14]
See also
References
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