Bringing Balanced to the Interchain
Balanced is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol designed for ease of use. Home to a cross-chain stablecoin and exchange, you can swap and transfer native assets between connected blockchains and use crypto as collateral to borrow bnUSD.
With 8 blockchains connected and many more to come, Balanced is on a mission to become a leading cross-chain DeFi protocol. You can use Balanced within the interchain, and beyond.
Why Balanced Adopted IBC
Balanced can connect to any blockchain with smart contracts, so it aims to connect as many as possible. The Inter-Blockchain Communication protocol (IBC) makes it easier for Balanced to connect to Cosmos SDK-based chains, so adopting IBC was a logical choice.
All connections are powered by ICON’s General Message Passing (GMP), a cross-chain messenger that’s compatible with interoperability protocols like IBC. When a transaction occurs, GMP sends messages between chains using a minimum of two relays, and includes multi-protocol verification to ensure security.
During the IBC implementation, the developers were challenged to write smart contracts that could open communication channels — without requiring a hard fork on every IBC chain Balanced connects to. Their approach succeeded, so Balanced retains IBC’s high security standards without compromising the stability or flexibility needed to connect to a wide variety of blockchains.
Balanced: cross-chain DeFi crafted for simplicity
Balanced is designed to reduce complexity, so it provides a native experience whether you use it on one blockchain or all of them at once. You can swap and transfer crypto between connected chains, and deposit AVAX, BNB, BTC, ETH, or INJ as collateral to borrow bnUSD, Balanced’s cross-chain stablecoin.
Each blockchain connection includes support for the native token (wrapper-free), which makes it instantly available to trade from all other connected chains. Balanced unlocks the ability to transfer value between previously siloed ecosystems, and its trading possibilities increase exponentially with each connection.
A cross-chain exchange is only as valuable as the liquidity it holds. To make sure there’s enough liquidity to support the launch of each connection, the Balanced community agreed to an economic enshrinement with the ICON Network. ICON uses a portion of its blockchain emissions to purchase the native asset for each connected chain, which it supplies as liquidity alongside bnUSD. In return, Balanced uses 50% of its revenue to buy and burn ICX. Balanced provides transparent on-chain data, so you can view the amount each party has contributed via the ICON enshrinement section on the Balanced Stats page.
All liquidity supplied to Balanced is held on the ICON blockchain and sent to its destination chain at the time of a swap. And to simplify the experience, multi-variant assets like BTC and ETH are represented by a single token, each with a single liquidity pool. Balanced’s approach to unify liquidity prevents fragmentation, so it can provide a seamless, low-slippage trading experience.
How Balanced contributes to the Interchain
Every blockchain Balanced connects to will benefit from all current and future connections. With connections to Archway and Injective already complete, you can transact with blockchains beyond the Cosmos, like Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, BNB Chain, Havah, and ICON.
Connected chains also gain access to the cross-chain stablecoin, bnUSD, which you can borrow against INJ and use wrapper-free on any supported chain. With the recent launch of cross-chain loans, connected chains can unlock the value of their native assets by borrowing a stable currency with ever-growing utility and reach.
Go cross-chain with Balanced
Balanced makes it easy to swap, transfer, and leverage crypto across multiple blockchains. It lists new chains and tokens regularly, so visit app.balanced.network to explore the possibilities.
Want to know what’s coming next? During the last four months of 2024, Balanced will launch a number of updates to increase utility, including:
- Connections to Optimism, Polygon, Solana, Sui, Stacks, and Stellar
- Concentrated liquidity (allows Balanced to provide low-slippage trades with less liquidity)
- A cross-chain token standard (allows dev teams to create a core liquidity pool on Balanced, so people can use their token wrapper-free across connected chains)
To learn more about Balanced and how to use it, visit the website, try the demo, and read the documentation. You can also follow Balanced on Twitter and join the Balanced community on Discord.
