What Is Onyxcoin and the Onyx Protocol?

In March 2022, Onyx Protocol (formerly Chain) rebranded its token from CHN to XCN and saw widespread success. The shared, multi-asset, cryptographic ledger has seen considerable market attention and increased in value by almost 50% in the first few months post-launch.

Then, after implementing upgrades that included the likes of Chain Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO), the beta release of the Onyx Cloud product, XCN staking, as well as listing on several crypto exchanges, Onyxcoin (XCN) reached its a new all-time high price. An honorable feat for the Onyx ecosystem considering that the greater crypto market was in a decline.

What Is Onyx protocol?

Onyx is a cloud blockchain infrastructure that allows companies to create and provide improved financial service solutions through their unique closed-ended blockchain network. This gives them the opportunity to upgrade to blockchain technology without carrying the risks linked to bigger public networks. The platform then allows them to issue, store and transfer digital assets on the company's private independent networks through several Chain ecosystem products.

According to the platform's whitepaper, the Chain protocol defines that it "allows participants to issue and control assets programmatically using digital signatures and custom rules."

Designed to improve on the current downfalls within the financial settlements industry, the Onyx protocol offers improved solutions for everything from transfer fees to transparency to settlement delays, as well as security issues and the reversibility of transactions.

Other Onyx ecosystem products include a standard and premium option of both an RPC/API (Remote Procedure Call API) product and a ledger-as-a-service option known as Sequence.

The standard RCP/API provides users access to various services within the Onyx Cloud that allows them to develop products on public blockchains. The premium access options provide added solutions and the opportunity to build on private networks. This option charges an annual fixed amount charged in XCN.

Sequence provides users access to Onyx's cloud blockchain accounting service where they can manage balances in a tokenized format. Again, there is a standard option or a premium access option with added benefits, payable in XCN.

The protocol also offers users end-to-end solutions covering the “design, development, compliance, sale and utilization” of NFTs through its Sequence NFT product.

The Onyx Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) runs the whole Chain Protocol, which is governed by XCN token holders. To participate in the Onyx DAO and governance of the Chain, XCN holders must stake their tokens.

Who created Onyx protocol?

The Onyx blockchain network was founded in 2014 by the venture capitalist Adam Ludwin with the backing of several other venture capital firms, providing a solution to modern financial systems. The developers launched Chain Core after raising over $40 million through funding and strategic partnerships from the likes of Nasdaq, Orange, Capital One, and Citigroup.

In 2018 the platform was sold to Lightyear Corp., a division within the Stellar Development Foundation, but as of 2021, the company is now operating as a privately held corporation with new offices, shareholders, and a new board of directors.

How does the Onyx protocol work?

Onyx allows for multiple, independent blockchain networks to exist and work together, even if they're operated by different firms. Using the principle of least authority keeps control over assets separate from control over ledger synchronization so that everyone stays safe.

The Onyx cloud protocol allows any network participant to define and issue assets by creating their own "issuance programs." After they've been issued, units of an asset are kept in custody by "control programs," which are written in a flexible and Turing-complete programming language that may be used to create sophisticated smart contracts for blockchain networks.

A group of "block signers" secure each network. The system is protected against forks as long as a majority of the block signers follow the protocol. To make things more efficient, the protocol delegates block creation to a single "block generator." Any node on the network can validate blocks and submit transactions too.

The Onyx Core software is an enterprise solution that uses the Onyx Protocol. An open-source developer edition of Onyx Core is available for download, and Chain operates a freely accessible testnet to manage the Chain blockchain network.

What are XCN tokens?

XCN is the native token to the Onyx ecosystem and acts as both a utility token and a governance token. Holders are allowed to vote on community programs and protocol improvement plans through the Onyx DAO. The cryptocurrency also provides discounts on premium plans, a payment method for Onyx Cloud and Sequence fees, and node deployment.

Alongside the rebranding of CHN to XCN, Chain also launched its new Onyx Token smart contract on the Ethereum blockchain. Holders of CHN were given XCN tokens at a 1:1,000 ratio. Onyxcoin (XCN) has a maximum supply of 48.4 billion.

The Onyxcoin (XCN) has a total and maximum supply of 48,470,523,779 coins, with approximately 23,576,983,951 (44%) currently in circulation (at the time of writing). During the launch phase, 15 billion tokens were allocated to the foundation and ten billion to the DAO, with monthly distributions of 200 million and 100 million coins, respectively.