The Bancor (BNT) project is a liquidity focused protocol developed by the Bancor Foundation, and was founded by Eyal Hertzog, Guy Benartzi, Galia Benartzi, Yudi Levi. The name comes from the supranational currency proposed by John Maynard Keynes and E. F. Schumacher during World War II.
Going with the tagline “Freedom of currency is a human right”, Bancor’s mission is to drive adoption for cryptocurrencies by increasing its liquidity, without which cryptocurrencies cannot become a global currency. In addition to increasing liquidity, Bancor allows for the easy launch and expansion of new currencies, something only previously accessible to nation states or teams with extensive resources.
A liquidity protocol allows for any asset, however low the liquidity, to be traded for other assets using smart contracts on the blockchain. This association with other currencies with no geographic barriers means that even the smallest currencies are unobstructed for general use.
The project’s BNT token acts as a “smart token” which is a representation of other assets on the platform. These smart tokens quickly make the conversion between various ERC-20 assets for users, who do not have to rely on something like cryptocurrency exchanges making the conversion for them. This also means that users do not have to wait for buyers and sellers to match before an exchange can be executed - conversions can take place at any time.
During the 2019, the team achieved some major milestones. This includes the unification of the Ethereum and EOS networks into a single interface, called the Unified Wallet. This allowed for conversions between the two blockchains. As for adoption, Bancor hit a major breakthrough when it was announced that Samsung would use Bancor in its Samsung Galaxy S10. Bancor also introduced 12 new tokens in this quarter. Bancor has also been working with communities to assist these communities economically with the advantages of cryptocurrencies and to increase adoption. The Sarafu Network in Kenya has seen 100s of new wallets created.