CoinMarketCap takes a deep dive into a project that aims to tackle some of the most common challenges in blockchain.
Smart contract blockchains have long been hailed as a breakthrough technology for the financial industry, thanks to their capacity to transfer value across borders at a fraction of the time and cost of legacy systems.
But with most modern blockchains currently stretched to their limits, network congestion and high fees have dampened this prospect. Nonetheless, a number of high-efficiency platforms have emerged in recent years, looking to make good on this potential once and for all.
XinFin, an EVM compatible, proof-of-stake powered smart contract blockchain is one of the platforms leading the charge.
What Is XinFin (XDC)?
XinFin is a hybrid blockchain platform that is built to modernize the global trade and finance sector through an accessible, efficient, and highly versatile decentralized infrastructure solution.
XinFin is designed to complement the legacy financial ecosystem by providing a permissioned blockchain that governments, enterprises and private firms can use to overhaul their tech stack and power a range of novel use cases.
The platform was funded through an initial coin offering (ICO) in March 2018, which raised $15 million. The XinFin mainnet went live just over a year later in June 2019, becoming one of the first smart-contract blockchains to use proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus.
XDC is the fuel token of the XinFin network. Much like Ethereum's Ether (ETH), it is used for paying transaction fees and smart contract operations. It can also be staked to participate in XinFin's validator network and for deploying smart contracts.
The three co-founders of the platform, Atul Khekade, Ritesh Kakkad and Karan Bhardwaj, all have long storied histories in the blockchain ecosystem. Notably, Khekade is an experienced software programmer credited with founding several other tech firms and funding the XDC-powered Blockdegree education platform. Ritesh Kakkad is a serial entrepreneur with multiple ventures in the digital space. Bhardwaj, on the other hand, left the company in 2018 to pursue his own startup, Elatior Tech.
How Does XinFin Work?
XinFin's XDC01 is a hybrid protocol that takes the best parts of Ethereum and IBM's Quorum platform to provide a solution to the inefficiencies in the global financial markets.
The platform allows organizations to participate in the global trade market at a fraction of the typical cost due to its high-efficient smart contract and real-time settlement capabilities. XinFin believes this will make cross-border transactions far more efficient, while enabling both public and private use cases.
XinFin uses the financial messaging standard ISO20022 to ensure compatibility between its hybrid blockchain and legacy financial systems, ensuring firms and governments can easily convert their centralized systems into a more robust decentralized network benefitting from XinFin’s smart contract capabilities.
Being EVM compatible, developers are able to easily deploy their Ethereum smart contracts on XDC Chain with few to no modifications needed.
XinFin’s hybrid architecture enables it to support public, private and consortium chains that can be tasked for practically any purpose. So far, XinFin has been used for remittance and peer-to-peer trading platforms, blockchain-powered insurance, online digital asset-linked identity, end-to-end land registry record management and more — demonstrating the versatility of the platform.
As of May 2021, more than 100 institutions and individuals currently run a validator node. Since its launch, XinFin has rolled out its public net (mainnet), expanded its partner and product ecosystem and rolled out its first stablecoins (SGDg and EURg). Throughout the rest of 2021, there are plans to forge relations with digital asset custodians, integrate R3 Cordite and bring multi-sig capabilities to the platform.
What Makes XinFin Unique?
Self-described as a third-generation blockchain, XinFin is built to tackle some of the challenges faced by earlier blockchain-based systems — such as low throughput, high fees and poor developer experience.
One of the ways it achieves this is with its energy-efficiency consensus mechanism known as XinFin delegated-proof-of-stake (XDPoS). This leverages a decentralized network of validators to securely finalize transactions and defend against potential attacks. XDPoS uses a process known as double validation to re-check transactions before they are committed to the blockchain providing a solution to the “nothing at stake” problem.
According to XinFin, the entire XinFin network consumes around 0.0000074 TWh of electricity to maintain consensus, whereas the Bitcoin and Ethereum networks reportedly consume 71.12 and 20.61 TWh respectively to achieve the same. This makes XinFin one of the most environmentally friendly blockchains currently operating.
Unlike some competing platforms, XinFin ensures even basic consumer-grade computer hardware can easily run a masternode — making it highly accessible and maximizing decentralization. XDPoS features a self-KYC feature, which public masternode holders must use to complete identity verification before they can participate in consensus.
This ultra-efficient consensus mechanism also allows transactions to reach finality in under 2 seconds with near zero transaction fees.
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