Tl;dr: pNetwork protocol is a cutting-edge cross-chain routing protocol that facilitates the seamless transfer of assets, NFTs, and metadata across various blockchains, sidechains, and L2 networks.
pNetwork is an open-source multi-chain routing protocol for providing interoperability across a variety of independent blockchains. pNetwork was born in 2019 and is one of the first blockchain bridges in the whole history.
It was born for a specific reason: creating connections across blockchains, sidechains and L2 networks with a unique user-friendly process, in order to develop a seamless multichain world for dApps and crypto enthusiasts.
In an era of multiple blockchains, L1s, L2s, sidechains, in an increasingly complex ecosystem pNetwork facilitates operations by enabling the transfer of assets between different blockchains, reducing the risk of fragmentation, increasing liquidity, and mitigating the risk of fraud and hacking, allowing for greater interoperability and accessibility for users.
Nowadays the protocol powers connections among 16 blockchain environments (with more being added), including major networks such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Algorand, BNB chain, Polygon, Arbitrum and several EOS-like Achains, allowing the transfer of more than 50 different tokens.
Since 2020, pNetwork has continuously evolved with pNetwork v1/v2 (and the upcoming v3 😉) having processed more than $1 Billion volume in cross-chain transactions, with an all-time high TVL of more than 280 million dollars.
You can browse real-time data on our Analytic Dashboard.
The core pillars of pNetwork
pNetwork is built on three core pillars:
- Decentralization
- Community-drivenness
- Interoperability
These pillars are at the heart of the project's mission and values, and they guide everything that the team does.
Decentralization
Decentralization is an essential aspect of the project, as it ensures that pNetwork is not controlled by any central authority or organization.
Instead, it is governed by the pNetwork DAO and its decentralized network of nodes.
The pNetwork DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) allows PNT token holders that staked their tokens to participate in the decision-making process and help shape the future of the project.
In addition to the decentralization of the project, pNetwork also places a strong emphasis on decentralizing the product itself. The team is currently working on pNetwork v3, which has new logic and a redesigned infrastructure that improves the decentralization of the protocol. More details about pNetwork v3 and pNetwork DAO can be found in the Roadmap section.
Community-drivenness
The second pillar of pNetwork is community-drivenness.
The project is designed to be driven by the community, and the team actively encourages participation and input from members of the community. This includes developers, token holders, and anyone who is interested in the project. The team has also developed a number of tools and resources that help facilitate community engagement, such as forums, social media channels, and a developer portal.
Interoperability
The third pillar of pNetwork is interoperability. This refers to the ability of different blockchain networks to work together seamlessly. pNetwork is designed to be interoperable with a wide range of blockchain networks, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain. This means that users can transfer assets between different blockchain networks with ease, without having to worry about complex technical details.
History
The pNetwork project was launched in late 2019 (it was originally called pTokens) as a cross-chain solution connecting multiple blockchains and assets, with its first cross-chain bridging solution connecting Bitcoin and Ethereum going live in production on March 5th, 2020.
This was followed by the launch of a variety of other cross-chain connections to enable the movement of assets and, later on, NFTs and data across ecosystems, for a better and improved blockchain interoperability.
Today, pNetwork powers connections across over 16 networks (including multiple very different blockchain environments and Ethereum scaling networks).
In parallel, the protocol experienced subsequent evolutions with the goal of making the infrastructure increasingly decentralized. This push towards decentralization was the impetus for the introduction of the pNetwork token PNT which serves as the governance token for the pNetwork DAO, the staking currency for pNetwork nodes.