Hacken continues cross-chain expansion to Binance Smart Chain

4 min readJun 15, 2021

After a successful launch of the Hacken bridge to Ethereum last year, we are excited to announce our next step in becoming a cross-chain project — the launch of the bridge to the Binance Smart Chain.

What are blockchain bridges?

Blockchain bridges are connections used to transfer tokens between different blockchain protocols while allowing for interoperability between different blockchain networks such as Ethereum, Vechain, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC).

Why do we need bridges?

In the future, cross-chain interoperability will be an indispensable characteristic of DeFi and crypto tokens. We do not want to restrict our community from trading on popular DEXs such as Uniswap and Pancakeswap. That is why Hacken created a pair on Uniswap in the middle of 2020.

From now on, users will be able to transfer their tokens between different EVM-based blockchains, trade on the best DEX platforms, and make deposits to centralized exchanges in a more convenient way. Also, compatibility with Ethereum and BSC simplifies listing on the top exchanges.

We keep on expanding this list to support non-EVM-based blockchains with our Solana bridge for ensuring lightning-fast transaction speed and further interoperability for our vaults.

How do the Hacken bridges work?

Circulation limitation

Our maximum circulating supply will never exceed the total supply of 1,000,000,000 HAI. Originally, the whole supply was minted on the VeChainThor blockchain, but since the launch of our bridge to the Ethereum network, more than 2,500,000 HAI tokens have moved from VeChain to the Ethereum network.

We are now taking the next step by allowing a part of our supply to move to the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network.

To prevent the maximum supply from increasing, whenever tokens are moved from one blockchain to another, our smart contracts will lock the HAI on the former blockchain to prevent our supply from increasing.

We have decided to limit the circulating supply on Ethereum to a maximum of 50,000,000 HAI, while the supply on both VeChain and BSC is unlimited. We have decided to limit the supply on Ethereum until Ethereum fixes its high transaction costs and moves away from Proof-Of-Work to the more environmentally friendly Proof-Of-Stake. Right now, our bet is on the VeChain and BSC ecosystem in these regards.

How to use the Hacken Cross-Chain Bridge

To swap tokens to other networks a user must follow the instructions provided on the bridge page.

To get the swap address, the user must choose the bridge direction and click on the “Swap” button.

After funds are sent to the corresponding address, the same amount (excluding fee) will be transferred to the same user address in the selected network.

Token burn

We burn 50% of the collected bridge fees each quarter. So if 2,000,000 fees are collected after the bridge, then 1,000,000 will be burned.

Fees

Here is the fee scheme for each network:

Vechain to BSC fee — 100 HAI
Vechain to Ethereum fee — 250 HAI*
BSC to Vechain fee = 100 HAI
BSC to Ethereum fee = 250 HAI*
Ethereum to BSC fee = 100 HAI
Ethereum to Vechain fee = 100 HAI

*The fees for swaps from and to Ethereum are higher because of high transaction costs.

How to create a similar address on the Ethereum Network and Binance Smart chain?

To create a similar address on Ethereum just follow these simple steps:

Install MetaMask (when you have the MetaMask Account, then simply skip this step):

a. Visit https://metamask.io

b. Click on “Install” MetaMask (Supported browsers: Google Chrome, Firefox, Brave, and Edge).

c. Create a new wallet with MetaMask. Please, don’t forget to write down your seed phrase.

2. Import a new account (If you already have MetaMask Account):

a. Click on “Import Account” on the menu pad (please read the instruction via the link)

b. Paste your private key used in the VeChain Wallet from which you have sent your HAI tokens (see next Step 3).

c. Click on “Import”.

3. Get the private key from your wallet:

a. For HackenAI App: Dashboard -> Settings -> Private Key

b. For other VeChain wallets*: Extract your private key according to the manual of your wallet.

4. Import the private key to MetaMask.

To connect Metamask to Binance Smart Chain, follow the official guide.

What about plans for the future?

We are going to expand this list even further to support non-EVM-based blockchains and develop the Solana bridge for HAI. Right now the bridge infrastructure supports the token exchange between Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Vechain.