$6.2 billion worth of Binance’s BNB token “Magically” Appeared Onchain

If a blockchain is meant to keep a permanent, immutable record of transactions, shouldn’t it do so? Except that some transactions are more traceble than others, especially on BNB Chain.

Let’s cook up some BNB. (Photo by Artem Maltsev on Unsplash)

TLDR:

• US$6.2 billion of BNB tokens “magically” appear in a Binance Chain (BNB Beacon Chain) wallet without any transaction reflecting their transfer in.
• Token movements between the Binance Chain (BNB Beacon Chain) and Binance Smart Chain (BNB Smart Chain) have periodically not had transaction hashes to identify such transfers.
• Attempts to run a blockchain node on Binance Chain (BNB Beacon Chain) have proved futile as there are “breaks” in the chain every 24 hours.

By now, there are serious questions hanging over the “blockchain-ness” of cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s various blockchains (BNB Beacon Chain, BNB Smart Chain), and whether or not they’re really operated as blockchains or somewhat more cynically as nothing more than centralized databases with a veneer of “decentralization.”

In order to make sense of the madness, it’s important to start from the beginning — Binance’s BNB token.