XinFin (XDC) Cryptocurrency Review

Thanks to a capacity to transfer value across borders at a shorter time period and at a lower cost compared to legacy systems, smart contract blockchains have long been considered to be a disruptive technology for the financial industry. However, most modern blockchain networks are overburdened and have high fees, limiting their opportunities. Fortunately, several high-efficiency platforms have emerged in recent years to tap into this potential to shake up the financial world.

What Is XDC Network?

The XDC Network is a Singapore-based hybrid blockchain platform with a highly scalable and secure Blockchain architecture. Сreated by the non-profit eXchange inFinite (XinFin Fintech), it was launched to upgrade the international trade and financial industry via an efficient, accessible, and highly versatile solution. The XDC Network is the first-ever hybrid blockchain network geared towards trade finance that processes public and private blockchains simultaneously. XDC Network fees are almost non-existent, its transactions complete in mere seconds, and it aims to solve the scalability issues that many blockchain systems have.

Put this in contrast with the current landscape in trade finance. Cross-border trade transactions are notoriously slow, expensive, and complicated - and the XDC network reduces organizations’ reliance on the complex foreign exchange infrastructures that they have traditionally used. This greatly increases the efficiency and flexibility of managing liquidity for financial institutions.

XinFin Fintech stewards and helps facilitate the adoption of the XDC Network, with the primary goal of optimizing trade finance by enabling peer-to-peer financing between governments, corporations, suppliers, and buyers. The XDC Network has a global presence throughout various regions including Singapore, Europe, India, the United States. XinFin is currently working on several pilot projects across trade finance, banking, aviation, travel, solar power, and supply chain management.

XDC Network (XDC) is a fork of the Ethereum blockchain and enables the following features:

  • Hashing Algorithm: keccak-256
  • Block time: 2 seconds
  • Protocol Type: XDPoS
  • Total supply: 37 500 000 000 XDC

XinFin Fintech and XDC Network History

XinFin Fintech conducted its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in Q1 2018, raising $15 million. One year later, in June 2019, the XDC Network mainnet went live and became one of the first smart-contract blockchains to use proof-of-stake (DPoS) consensus.

Founders included Atul Khekade, a software programmer who also funded the XDC-powered Blockdegree education platform, Ritesh Kakkad, an entrepreneur with multiple ventures in the digital space and cloud computing.

How Does XDC Network Work?

The XDC Network blockchain runs on XDC01 protocol, built over its unique hybrid blockchain architecture to enable cross-border smart contracts and real-time settlement for institutions. Running up to 2000 transactions per second with near zero transaction fees, XDC’s protocol is designed to support scalable smart contracts and KYC masternodes.

XDC runs on XinFin’s Delegated Proof-of-Stake (XDPoS) consensus mechanism, which allows a web of KYC masternode holders to verify and sign transactions on the network. These masternode holders - currently numbered 108 - and 93 stand-by nodes, are required to have ten million coins as well as 99.9% uptime and a static IP address. In return for providing a foundation for the secure, decentralized XDC Network, these holders are rewarded through staking rewards. Through these masternode rewards, a new block of XDC is created every two seconds.

As the XDC Network is an EVM-compatible and scalable public blockchain, developers can easily launch their Ethereum smart contracts on the XDC Network with almost instant transaction confirmation and few modifications needed.

The XDC network consists of two network states:

  1. Public state refers to a part of the network accessible to all participants.
  2. Private sub-networks are available only for institutional and permissioned participants. Participants’ activities are not visible to the unauthorized public.

XinFin Security

XinFin Hybrid Blockchain is resistant to long-range attacks due to block finality and the order of block producers who create blocks at a specific point in time. This makes it impossible for hackers to create a longer valid chain, as other block producers will refuse it. Censorship attacks could only happen if 3/4 of block producers in the XDC Network were controlled by attackers. The XDC Network improves censorship resistance with its architecture, where masternodes have to stake a significant amount of coins to verify transactions and produce blocks. Moreover, the stakes of XDC Hybrid Blockchain masternodes are locked in smart contracts and unlocked after one month. So if any masternode misbehaves, it will be out and its stake cannot be used in any way for one month. Through these failsafes, it is virtually impossible for attackers to gain control of 3/4 of masternodes.

To strengthen blockchain security, XDC Network XDPoS protocol also provides:

  • Double validation, when a block is created by one masternode and must be verified by another one.
  • Randomization, when the user validating the most recent block is chosen randomly.

Additionally, a recent whitepaper was published which details the plans for XDPoS 2.0. This upgrade will give the network forensics capabilities with military-grade security and performance while still consuming a minimum of resources.

XDC Use Cases

  1. On September 20, 2021, XinFin partnered with Tradeteq, a UK technology provider for trade finance asset distribution, to complete the world’s first trade finance-based non-fungible token, or NFT, transaction. Among the members of the Trade Finance Distribution (TFD) Initiative, it is the only cryptocurrency/blockchain network.
  2. XDC Network Hybrid Blockchain can be used for processing decentralized value transactions and building decentralized applications (DApps).
  3. XDC Network is used for peer-to-peer and remittance trading platforms, online digital asset-linked identity, blockchain-powered insurance, end-to-end land registry record management, etc.
  4. XDC Network is used for issuing new tokens, as their XRC20 token standard allows transaction fees to be paid in the XDC coin itself
  5. The XDC Network is EVM compatible. It allows seamless interoperability with Ethereum and offers such advanced smart contract capabilities as asset tokenization and decentralized finance.
  6. Other use cases include international payments, supply chain management, institutional settlement, non-fungible asset tokenization in sports and/or entertainment, decentralized email, and decentralized storage.

XDC Network dApps

  1. TradeFinex is an enterprise-grade blockchain dAPP built for global infrastructure deficit minimization through retail investor participation, and efficiency increasing by workstream automation.
  2. MyContract.co is a dAPP for delivering automated services for token crowd-sale smart contracts.
  3. Plugin is a decentralized oracle platform, which provides low-cost smart contract solutions. Using Plugin one can run decentralized web3 APIs 24x7 without any centralized failure.
  4. XDCPay is a browser extension that lets the user create and manage their own identities (via private keys, local client wallet)
  5. LedgerMail runs on the XDC Network in order to facilitate decentralized, cryptographically secure email exchange.

What Is XDC Coin?

XDC is the native cryptocurrency that powers the XDC Network. As with Ethereum, the XDC coin is used for paying transaction fees and smart contract operations and helps run the network by providing a standard value for the chain. For masternode holders, this token can be staked to participate in XDC Network’s block production. It is also used to deploy smart contracts. XDC is currently a top 100 cryptocurrency according to CoinMarketCap, with a max supply of 37.5B XDC, and a circulating supply of 12.3B.

How To Buy XDC?

XDC Network was listed on a host of crypto exchanges, including KuCoin, Bittrex, Bitfinex, and Bitrue.

You can also buy XDC using Guarda Wallet. Just do the following:

  • Log in to your Guarda Wallet account.
  • Click Buy.
  • Find XDC in the list of cryptocurrencies.
  • Choose the needed amount.
  • Click Buy.

Where To Store XDC?

XDC is supported by several types of hardware and software wallets, including the native XDC Wallet.

We recommend you use Guarda Wallet. Guarda is a non-custodial multi-currency crypto wallet available on the web, mobile, and desktop platforms. It allows you to buy, store, and exchange XDC coins safely in one place.

To create a Guarda cryptocurrency wallet:

  • Open the Guarda website.
  • Click Create XDC Wallet.
  • Choose to create a new wallet if it is your first Guarda wallet.
  • Create a strong password and confirm it. Store your password in a secure place!
  • Download your wallet backup and also store it in a secure place and preferably offline.

Read our guide for detailed information.

XinFin and XDC Network Future (Roadmap)

In the near term, the XinFin Fintech, the XDC Foundation, and the XDC Network community plan to:

  • Drive rapid adoption of XDC powered DApps currently running on the XDC Network
  • To increase XDC adoption through marketing efforts that build awareness about the XDC Network’s protocol and benefits.
  • To achieve XDC integrations across hardware and software wallets.
  • To add more digital asset custodians and crypto exchanges.
  • To facilitate XDC liquidity to support trade finance liquidity
  • To develop innovative new technology solutions, such as state of the art blockchain explorers and software development kits, to make blockchain networks more user-friendly and streamline the adoption of blockchain technology
  • To provide unique technology solutions, which may contribute to the decentralization of the sports, entertainment, and finance industries
  • To create new monetization paths for content creators, including a short-form video NFT marketplace

Conclusion

The XDC Network’s hybrid protocol has strong potential, as it is built to tackle the challenges faced by earlier blockchain-based ecosystems - namely high fees, low throughput, and poor developer experience, without limiting the diverse use cases powered by another layer one smart contract-enabled platforms, such as Ethereum. The capability of processing both public and private networks opens new possibilities in the blockchain ecosystem, especially in the arena of trade finance.

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