Binance Chain, Binance Smart Chain morph into BNB Chain

• Binance has renamed its blockchain ecosystem to reflect changes the chain has undergone since its launch
• The exchange also introduced 'MetaFi', an amalgamation of cutting-edge DeFi infrastructure and projects, including the metaverse.

The world's largest crypto exchange Binance has rebranded its Binance Chain and Binance Smart Chain blockchains into a single unified name; BNB Chain, or Build and Build Chain. The new name is expected to take a more prominent role in the blockchain's branding.

According to an announcement made on Tuesday, Binance said the BNB Chain shows the evolution of the Binance Smart Chain. The 'new' name would represent the crypto exchange's governance and staking platform BNB Beacon Chain (previously Binance Chain) and its Ethereum-compatible proof of stake consensus platform, BNB Smart Chain, formerly Binance Smart Chain.

The company said the new name is liberating for the chain as it would allow more freedoms and opportunities to stretch towards any direction of innovation. However, the rebrand stops at the name as functionality will ideally remain the same.

Binance unveils MetaFi

With the rebrand, the exchange has also introduced a new MetaFi concept. MetaFi provides advanced, sophisticated infrastructural support to projects including GameFi, SocialFi, NFTs, the metaverse, and other nascent Web3 applications available at a one-stop location. This would play a leading role in the charge towards deploying large-scale applications.

Binance did not provide further details on its plans to achieve such an ambitious feat – housing all these crypto products under one roof and achieving interoperability. As each individual component that Binance intends to integrate under its umbrella is already present in competing layer one chains, it will be interesting to observe the evolution of the exchange's plans.

The BSC has frequently been at the receiving end of criticism over concerns with too much centralisation of the chain. Centralisation often leads to vulnerabilities, and a good example is Bunny Finance, which suffered quite some exploits.

Binance said that with the changes, it increased the number of validators on the chain from 21 to 41. This should boost the decentralisation and scalability of the platform. Besides, it had previously invested about $1 billion into the BSC ecosystem. This investment will play a significant role in supporting the chain's community.

"The BNB Chain community will benefit from the previously launched $1 billion in funds and receive financial and operational support, as well as an introduction to the industry's leading experts, mentors, and investors. The ecosystem will bring a range of these programs from live mentorship events and workshops to hackathons and in-person meetings," BSC Ecosystem Coordinator Samy Karim told Cointelegraph.