A DEEP DIVE INTO BICONOMY

Biconomy is a multi-chain relayer protocol that addresses transaction management, gas fees, and bridges for Web 3 applications. In this article, we’ll discuss Biconomy, and explain how it enhances the user onboarding and transaction experience on decentralized applications (dApps).

TL; DR

• Biconomy is a multi-chain relayer protocol that facilitates the mass adoption of Web3 by offering developers the tools required to build Web3 applications.  

• The robust APIs from Biconomy eliminate many of the challenges that come with Web3 applications as users can perform transactions and engage with dApps without worrying about gas costs, in addition to being able to pay for gas with a variety of tokens.

• The node operators, who also act as validators and executors, are in charge of running the Biconomy chain. Validators record transactions from supported chains into the Biconomy chain. These transactions are then carried out by the executors.

WHAT IS BICONOMY?

Biconomy is a multi-chain, noncustodial plug-and-play relayer protocol that was designed to regulate transaction management, gas fees, and bridges for Web3 applications.

Biconomy promotes the mass adoption of Web3 by offering developers the necessary tools required to build easy-to-use Web3 applications. Users of Biconomy benefit from a straightforward multi-chain encounter where they can link their wallet to any decentralized application, instantaneously access their funds on any chain or layer two scaling solution, and take advantage of a gas-free experience.

Biconomy ensures that all the advantages of web3 are incorporated with the usability of web2. This streamlined web3 experience guarantees lower drop-off rates, thereby boosting user adoption. As of the time of writing, Biconomy's multi-chain relayer infrastructure had processed over 20 million transactions for more than 70 dApps including Zed Run, Perpetual Protocol, Showtime, Curve Finance, Decentral Games, Sapien, and lots more.

Biconomy's whole architecture has been designed to be blockchain agnostic as it currently supports several blockchain mainnets including Ethereum, Polygon, xDai, Binance Smart Chain, Moonriver, Moonbeam, Edgeware, Arbitrum, and Fantom.

OVERVIEW AND HISTORY OF BICONOMY

Biconomy was established in March 2019 by three blockchain zealots; Ahmed Al-Balaghi, Sachin Tomar, and Aniket Jindal.

Ahmed holds a Bachelor of Science degree in economics, statistics, and mathematics from the Queen Mary University of London. Ahmed has years of experience in the blockchain industry and is the co-founder and co-host of the Encrypted podcast, and currently serves as an Advisor to the Polygon network.

Sachin is a graduate of computer science from Dr. Ambedkar Institute Of Technology. Sachin had experience with software development and worked with Samsung Electronics as a software engineer, before taking a new role as a senior software engineer at MakeMyTrip. Sachin also has experience in smart contract development and has served as the blockchain lead for Stacks city.

Jindal is a graduate of electrical engineering from Punjab Engineering College. Jindal has experience with marketing and management and has worked with leading firms such as Binance, Nucleus Vision, WeStart, and Encrypted.  Jindal currently serves as an Advisor to the Polygon Network.

In January 2021 Biconomy completed a $1.5 million seed round led by Eden Block, and Fenbushi Capital. In July 2021 Biconomy completed a $9 million investment round led by Mechanism Capital and Digital Asset Capital Management. Biconomy is backed by leading blockchain venture capitalists such as Binance, Coinbase Ventures, Huobi Ventures, mechanism capital, and lots more.

In August 2021 Biconomy launched Hyphen to facilitate seamless cross-chain transactions, and one year after its launch it processed a total volume of $200 million worth of cross-chain transactions.

In October 2022, Biconomy launched Hyphen 2.0 which came with a few modifications such as arbitrage opportunities, LP staking, and a new user interface. As of the time of writing, Hyphen had a total value locked of over $3,900,000 spread across several blockchains.

HOW DOES BICONOMY WORK?

Biconomy incorporates a non-custodial, gas-efficient relayer network with a concept known as meta transactions which allow users to conduct transactions on the blockchain with a balance of zero and allow any third party to cover the user's transaction costs. Hence,  developers or any other third party can choose to pay the gas fees of users for a certain period as there is a gas tank correlated with every decentralized application on the network.  

The Biconomy chain is managed by node operators who serve in dual capacities as validators and executors. Validators record pertinent transactions from other chains into the Biconomy chain after taking notice of them. These transactions are seen and carried out by the executors.

Biconomy offers three major products that power its ecosystem:

• Mexa:

Mexa gives developers the option of enabling gasless transactions for dApps using either a customized transaction implementation or the EIP-2771 standard solution. With the EIP-2771 implementation, developers may accept verified calls from an approved forwarder rather than having to explicitly include Biconomy's transaction validation logic into their contracts.

In order to foster gasless transactions, developers must first add native tokens to the Biconomy's dApp gas tank as each dApp is equipped with a gas tank module that confirms that the Biconomy relayers have enough gas to cover the transaction costs and that the fees are relayed without interruption.

• Forward:

Forward was developed to make it easy for your users to pay their gas fees in ERC20 tokens.  Forward was built to be easily integrated with any dApp on Ethereum, however, it works best with DeFi protocols.

By accepting several tokens, including DAI, USDC, and USDT, Forward offers users more options when paying for gas expenses.

• Hyphen:

Hyphen makes token transfers across several blockchains faster and less expensive by keeping token liquidity on both chains and receiving tokens on the first chain before instantaneously transferring tokens to the second chain. Bridge tokens are limited to few major stable and ecosystem tokens ($USDT, $USDC, $MATIC, $ETH, etc) and Biconomy’s native token, $BICO.

Thanks to Hyphen the complication and time delay involved with moving tokens from Layer two to Layer one blockchains have been alleviated. Furthermore, the pools that make this possible are built in such a way that it rewards users for balancing the pools in the event of a lopsided demand.

ABOUT THE BICO TOKEN

BICO is the native token of the Biconomy ecosystem. BICO is used for the payment of transaction fees, incentivizing stakeholders, and participating in on-chain governance. As of the time of writing, BICO had a market capitalization of over 89.344 million US dollars and was trading at $0.4321, representing a drop of roughly 95.07% from its all-time high in December 2021 when it traded for $8.1839.

Node operators – validators and executors – contribute to the security of the Biconomy chain by staking their BICO tokens to earn BICO rewards proportional to the amount they staked. Holders of the BICO token can also bolster the security of the network by delegating their tokens to node operators to receive a share of the BICO rewards.

ABOUT THE BICOSYSTEM

The Biconomy ecosystem which provides support to the pioneers of Web3 is known as the Bicosystem.

As of the time of writing, the Bicosystem was home to over 35 decentralized applications. In addition to about 180 dApps that utilize its products. These dApps include tools, – such as Coinshift, EthSign, and Socket – DeFi projects, – such as Curve, Tidal, Oddz, Solarbeam, etc. – NFT projects, – such as UNXD, Lazy Lions, Rario, etc. – and gaming projects – such as the Sandbox, Zombie Rampage, etc. – that leverage the multi-chain stack of the Biconomy chain to facilitate a seamless transaction experience to their end users.

Some of the top dApps in the Bicosystem include:

• Perpetual Protocol:

Perpetualal Protocol is a decentralized finance project that facilitates the exchange of perpetual contracts by creating a new version of an Automated Market Maker (AMM) called the Virtual Automated Market Maker (vAMM) which was designed specifically for price discovery rather than spot exchange.

• MARBLE.CARDS:

MarbleCards is a distinctive platform that combines blockchain gaming with an NFT marketplace. Users can utilize a URL to create a unique trading card that they can trade in the marketplace or use to engage in combat with other users.

• Huddle 01:

Huddle 01 is a platform for real-time interaction, communication, and collaboration. As a video meeting solution for Web3, Huddle 01 offers users  web3-rich capabilities such as  token-gating, NFTs, live streaming, meeting recordings, and lots more

FINAL THOUGHTS

Biconomy is working to make Web 3 experiences more simple in order to spur widespread adoption. Cutting-edge layer-one solutions like Aptos also share the same goal of facilitating the mass adoption of Web3 and have created the most secure and scalable layer-one blockchain to expedite this process. The Aptos chain offers protocols for integrated on-chain change management which helps Aptos developers quickly implement new technological advancements and enable fresh Web3 use cases.

Aptos currently outperforms most contemporary layer-one blockchains in terms of speed, cost, security, and scalability. In addition to incurring near-zero fees and the ability to handle up to 160,000 transactions in one second with sub-second finality.

Pontem, a leading product studio that facilitates global financial inclusion is the gateway to the Aptos blockchain and is developing the infrastructure and decentralized tools necessary for the adoption of the Aptos blockchain.  The Pontem wallet enables its users to connect to decentralized applications, explore the Aptos ecosystem, and exchange tokens; Liquidswap which is the first Automated Market Maker (AMM) on Aptos makes it seamless for users to swap tokens in a safe and decentralized manner, in addition to offering liquidity pools and a bridge that facilitates asset transfers across blockchains.

ABOUT PONTEM

Pontem is a product development platform that fosters global financial inclusion through blockchain technology. As a result of its partnership with Aptos, Pontem can create the foundational dApps, EVMs, AMMs, and other infrastructure needed to adopt its layer one blockchain.