Frequently Asked Questions

👏 Understanding the Basic

What are oracles and why are they needed?

To be secure and useful, it is imperative that smart contracts have access to reliable real-world data. For example, all prominent decentralized finance projects rely on a price oracle to function and receive precise time-sensitive data. Betting dApps determine payouts based on a verifiable random number or real-world event from an oracle. To ensure complete decentralization, there must be a secure bridge between trustworthy off-chain data and dApps.

What is Band Protocol why is it needed?

Band Protocol strives to become the go-to decentralized oracle for dApps across multiple blockchain networks by ensuring maximum security, speed, and low cost.

Although there have been multiple attempts to solve this problem, most projects either (1) are insufficiently decentralized by design, (2) are difficult for developers to integrate with or (3) lack economic incentive for data providers to sustainably feed high-quality information.Illustration: Band Protocol as a bridge between Web 2.0 and Web 3.0

Band Protocol provides a cheaper, faster, and easier-to-integrate decentralized oracle that solves all the problems above.

What are some of the resources that I can access?

• Official website: https://bandprotocol.com/

• Medium: https://medium.com/bandprotocol

• Whitepaper & technical spec: https://github.com/bandprotocol/bandchain/wiki

• Developer doc: http://docs.bandchain.org

How can I join Band Community?

• Telegram: https://100x.band/tg

• Discord: https://100x.band/discord

• Reddit: https://100x.band/reddit

• Github: https://100x.band/github

Who are Band Protocol's investors?

• Sequoia Capital

• Dumamu & Partners

• Binance

• Spartan Group

• SeaX Ventures

• Woodstock

• Alphain Venture

🗄 BandChain

What is BandChain?

BandChain is a high-performance blockchain built for data oracle. Based on Cosmos state-of-the-art SDK, BandChain can process thousands of transactions per second with instant finality and the ability to send oracle data across multiple blockchains.

What features will BandChain support?

BandChain will be rolled out in 4 phases with incremental supports on features:

• Phase 0: Enabling token transfer and staking

• Phase 1: Enabling data request via data oracle scripts

• Phase 2: Enabling private APIs and on-chain payment

• Phase 3: Enabling access to enterprise services and APIs

How does Band oracle works?

1. A decentralized application (dApp) sends a request to BandChain and specify the Data Oracle Script it needs to make a query.

2. The Data Oracle Script contains information that BandChain validator nodes need to fetch the data, such as data sources, aggregation method, and the cost associated with the query

3. A randomized set of validators is then selected to query the data from the sources.

4. The results are then aggregated and recorded on the BandChain, making them available for dApps to use.

5. The dApp fetches data and the proof of validity from BandChain

6. Data and proof are batched with smart contract call details. The oracle data is then used in the contract in a trustable and verifiable manner.

What are the benefits of building BandChain on Cosmos compared to Ethereum?

Building BandChain on Cosmos enables the oracle to have a fast block confirmation time and instant finality, which drastically improve the UX of the dApps using oracle. Cosmos also allows BandChain to significantly lower the cost of transaction, and thus allows the oracle to offer a significantly lower price comparing to other oracles built on Ethereum.

What is the block time of BandChain?

2-3 seconds per block

How much do I earn from staking?

The inflation rate varies from 7%-20%, with the targeted staking rate of 66%.

How to stake BAND tokens on BandChain?

• Staking on CosmoScan (Ledger required): https://medium.com/bandprotocol/ec3da0ee92dd#b143

• Staking on Binance and other exchanges/wallets: Guides coming soon

How to become a validator node?

After completion of stage 2 of the Mainnet roll out, we will be publishing the guide on how to run validator nodes for the Mainnet. In the meantime, anyone can run a validator node on the testnet. Please follow the instruction here: https://medium.com/bandprotocol/76bc4180ddd7.

What happen to BAND tokens on Ethereum once the BandChain is launched?

BAND tokens will exist on both BandChain and Ethereum. The token swap happens through either exchange or a manual swap process. Please read here for more info: https://medium.com/bandprotocol/f4254c80853

How is BAND token used?

There are 2 use cases for BAND tokens on BandChain:

1. Staking for validators

2. Paying for gas and data request fees

📦 DApp Integrations

What blockchains does Band Protocol support?

Band Protocol currently supports EVM-compatible blockchains and Cosmos SDK. See latest supported blockchains at https://docs.bandchain.org/dapp-developers/supported-blockchains.

If I want to build a dApp with Band oracle, where do I start?

Please read the developer docs: https://docs.bandchain.org.

What is Band Protocol "bridge" smart contract?

Bridge smart contract performs light-client verification and validate that an oracle data is constructed currently on BandChain.

How do I apply for the developer grant?

Please send us email at: [email protected].

If I have questions on the integration, where do I ask?

The best channel to ask for any technical questions is over developer channel in our discord.