Wanchain (WAN) wrapped up its initial coin offering at a coin price of $0.34 in late 2017, before going on run that saw 2,817% gains in the run up to May 3rd’s all-time high of $9.92.
Wanchain aim to create an interoperable blockchain banking system suitable for the cryptocurrency generation, complete with all the features of a regular bank. While the completion of those plans are still some way off, Wanchain has already demonstrated cross-chain interoperability with the Ethereum blockchain, and aims to be the bridge that connect’s all the world’s blockchains.
Ultimately, the aforementioned 2,817% spike in April leading into May experienced a huge reversal, and WAN has fallen 91% in value since May 3rd to its current price in the $0.80 range. That marks WAN out as one of the worst performers over the last two quarters, and at its current price presents an intriguing proposition for altcoin hodlers, after all, few coins or tokens can point to such recent and enormous highs.
Whether such highs can be reached again is another matter, but in the meantime let’s take a closer look at what Wanchain has to offer.
Cross-Chain Interoperability
With the release of Wanchain 2.0 in July 2018, the WAN blockchain is now interoperational with that of Ethereum’s. As Wanchain are quick to point out, the WAN blockchain was only forked from Ethereum and does not constitute an ERC-20 token itself.
Achieving cross-chain functionality is no doubt helped by the fact that the two blockchains share the same DNA, but the process is further secured by secret key sharing, multi-user verifications and smart contracts.
This allows ETH to be transacted across the WAN blockchain where it can be represented in a 1:1 ratio in the form of WETH – the Wanchain equivalent of ETH. At the moment, WAN can’t be represented similarly on the Ethereum blockchain, although the similarities between the blockchains allow for WAN sent mistakenly to an Ethereum address to be recovered quite reliably, as detailed in this lengthy Reddit post.
As per the project’s roadmap, the team expect to add interoperability with one or two more blockchains by the end of the year, with a focus on ERC-20 chains and BTC. In the long term, cross-chain interoperability is one of the main concepts the project hangs its hat on, and the plan to gather all blockchains under the Wanchain roof cannot be faulted for its ambition.
Unlike many altcoins which can exist for years on the promise of some nebulous, future technology, Wanchain has laid out some clear markers for its own success. If cross-chain interoperability ultimately proves to be a non-starter then the project could just quietly disappear; not with a bang but with a whimper.
Anonymity and Ring Signatures
Wanchain employs ring signatures to obscure the identity of someone making a transaction on the blockchain, and creates new addresses for every transaction. Wanchain claim to be the first at many things, including being the first blockchain to include privacy functions within smart contracts.
Barely a month goes by without a supposedly private blockchain being exposed for its lack of real privacy, and WAN’s combination of ring-sigs and secret key-sharing will undoubtedly be put to the test before long. In the meantime, Wanchain offers both public and private send functionality.
Ethereum and Beyond
The team plan to follow Ethereum in its proposed adoption of Proof-of-Stake (PoS), and have confirmed that they will also likely adopt such implementations as Plasma and the Raiden Network – if or when they arrive.
With the Bitcoin blockchain also undergoing its own updates in years to come, it will be interesting to see how Wanchain reacts to a constantly changing blockchain landscape. Ethereum compatibility is one thing, but will cross-chain compatibility hold up after a round up updates and upgrades have altered all of the corresponding blockchains? That remains to be seen.
Wanchain’s plans for 2019 see the group aim to:
“..encourage more developers to use Wanchain’s cross-chain mechanism to develop cross-chain functionality of tokens on other chains and will reward developers for accelerating Wanchain’s cross-chain integration with more public blockchains.”
Source:Hacked.com