OKC is one of the fastest and most affordable blockchains currently live. Specifically optimized for trading, the network achieves up to 2,000 transactions per second at a fraction of the cost of other smart contract-enabled blockchains.
OKC supports a growing number of innovative decentralized applications. Completely open-source, anyone can develop a decentralized application and deploy it on the network. This results in a lively, creative developer ecosystem with new protocols coming online regularly.
This guide will introduce you to OKC. Beginning with its technology, it’ll go on network architecture and other need-to-know features. It will also outline some of the more popular application types already deployed on the rapidly expanding network.
What is OKC?
OKC is a high-performance, decentralized, smart contract-enabled blockchain, optimized for trading. The network can achieve up to 2,000 transactions per second and fees are consistently lower than those common on alternative Layer-1 blockchains.
The network’s native cryptocurrency is OKT. Like other Layer-1 blockchains, OKT is crucial to security. The network issues OKT as rewards to transaction validators who add a new block of valid transactions to the chain. OKT is also used as a medium of exchange and within the network’s decentralized, on-chain governance mechanism.
The OKC network is a delegated proof-of-stake blockchain, meaning that OKT holders can delegate crypto to validators to share network-issued rewards. The network uses Tendermint for its general architecture. Tendermint is a protocol consisting of a consensus mechanism and an interface — the Application Blockchain Interface, or ABCI — to allow blockchains to communicate with one another.
In an increasingly multichain landscape, interoperability between chains is vital. OKC achieves this by being 100% Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible, and its interoperability with the Inter-Blockchain Communication Protocol ecosystem affords it even greater flexibility.
Thanks to its support of established crypto industry standards, developers should enjoy a sense of familiarity when building on the OKC. Code written for other blockchain networks can be deployed seamlessly and for a fraction of the gas fees.
Which applications are available on OKC?
OKC supports all the decentralized application types available on other smart contract-enabled blockchains. In fact, some use cases, like GameFi, make a lot more sense on OKC than other networks, thanks to its extremely low transaction costs and fast settlement times.
DEX
Central to any monetary blockchain ecosystem is a decentralized exchange. Most DEXs are simple swapping protocols. They often use an automated market maker model, which involves users pooling assets to facilitate trades. Providing liquidity to these pools earns the contributor a share of trading fees and is a popular way to generate passive income on your crypto holdings.
OKC supports several DEXs, including the soon-to-be-revealed product hosted on the OKX website. Other DEXs on OKC include:
- CherrySwap
- Transit Swap
- BXH
DeFi
OKC is optimized for trading, which makes it ideal for decentralized finance. DeFi users discouraged by the high gas fees and long waiting times of other blockchain networks will welcome OKC’s low-cost, almost-instant transaction settlement.
DeFi is a more open and less restrictive reconstruction of the traditional financial system. Existing on public blockchains and deployed via smart contract technology, DeFi provides entirely permissionless access to a range of financial services.
Like in the traditional financial system, lending and borrowing protocols are among the most used DApps in DeFi. OKC hosts several lending and borrowed applications, such as Flux Protocol and WePiggy.
For those wanting to take passive income generation to the next level, protocols like Pickle Finance and AutoFarm feature powerful yield aggregators. Users can quickly deploy cryptocurrencies to take advantage of the most profitable opportunities available.
GameFi on OKC
GameFi is a sector that offers a lot of promise but was held back by restrictive transaction fees on older smart contract blockchains. With higher performance chains like OKC, monetizing gameplay becomes economically feasible.
GameFi is all about bringing finance to video gaming while play-to-earn models reward gamers for time spent on a title. Although games have had their own economies for a long time now, they previously existed in closed ecosystems. Thanks to blockchain-based cryptocurrencies and NFT technology, video game economies can evolve in ways that were impossible before now.
GameFi developers have flocked to the OKC for its low fees and straightforward interoperability. Despite still being at an early stage in GameFi’s evolution, there are several titles live on the network today. They include:
- Celestial
- Shambala
- CryptoBlades
- Plato Farm
- Blade Warrior
NFTs
High transaction costs can price some potential enthusiasts out of NFT trading and collecting. Like other smart contract-enabled blockchains, OKC supports minting, buying and selling NFTs.
NFTs are a rapidly expanding sector in blockchain technology. Short for nonfungible token, an NFT can represent any unique item, either digital or physical. Common NFT applications include artwork, in-game items, event tickets and domain names.
Within OKX’s Web3 portal, you’ll find the NFT marketplace — a powerful NFT trading platform. The NFT marketplace’s “Primary/IGO” section has a curated launchpad for new projects. Meanwhile, trades on the secondary market have 0% platform fees, considerably less than those charged at other established NFT platforms.
Elsewhere on the OKC, you’ll find other NFT-focused protocols, including multichain NFT wrapping service Envelop, and the marketplaces Radio Caca and TofuNFT.
Web3 and tools
Web3 is a reimagined internet that redresses the power balance between internet users and corporations providing services. In Web3, users give up only the information necessary to use a service. Consequently, their personal data cannot be monetized in ways that might make them uncomfortable. Community ownership, collective decision making and privacy are also key cornerstones of the Web3 movement.
OKC supports various tools for developing Web3 applications and other blockchain infrastructure. Supercharge Web3 apps with Pocket Network’s powerful blockchain API or spin up a decentralized autonomous organization with XDAO — the tools to participate in the latest internet iteration are right at your fingertips.
OKC: Supercharging the blockchain revolution
OKC builds on the innovation that started with Bitcoin and expanded only with Ethereum’s launch and the on-chain smart contracts it brought to the industry. Fully EVM-compatible, OKC offers a higher-speed and lower-cost alternative to the dominant smart contract network — and it will feel familiar to developers immediately.
DeFi, GameFi, NFTs and Web3 are still very young, and the pace of new technological breakthroughs makes them some of the most exciting and potentially lucrative sectors on Earth. OKC’s interoperability and clear advantages in terms of throughput position it perfectly to support the ongoing blockchain revolution.
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