Chainport Research

Johnnie_Jacks

8 min readFeb 13, 2022

Overview

Project name: Chainport

Cashtag: $PORTX

Type: Utility token

Website: https://www.chainport.io/

Whitepaper: (No single document but they have a gitbook) docs.chainport.io

Genre: Cross chain bridge

Twitter: twitter.com/chain_port

Medium: medium.com/chainport

Telegram: t.me/chainport (7115 members, Feb 2022)

Chains supported: 7

Total value locked (before token launch): $350 million+

Introduction

ChainPort is a permissionless crypto bridge that allows you to port any crypto token to different blockchains within just seconds

ChainPort supports 5 blockchains and have announced that they will be supporting all big EVM in Q1 2022 and non-EVM starting in Q2 2022

ChainPort is live and has over 80 tokens already using ChainPort with a daily average volume of $5M and 480M+ in TVL

It has positioned itself in the top 5 biggest bridges in the space, and #84 by TVL between all dapps and DeFi protocols in the market

Chainport has full interoperability creating a full cross-chain portal

Tokens can port across multiple chains without reverting to the original token

ChainPort offers permissionless ports between chains with a simple UI and 7 wallets already supported

It is also the only bridge that currently offers custodian security

ChainPort secures all assets with a multi-layer technology that combines the latest developments in Multi-Party Computation cryptography by the biggest MPC provider- FireBlocks, Gnosis, and hardware isolation

Use case and current product viability

A cross chain bridge in crypto is not a new idea

As such, the market size, growth rate and competition is very well established

The only way to gain significant market share in this space is by sheer technological supremacy

Having been live for less than half a year, Chainport has already made its place in the top 5 bridges by TVL

ChainPort USD volume in Q4 2021 stands at $516M

This can be seen as a testament to their superior technology

How is one bridge distinguishable and better than the other?

There are various metrics: Security, speed, low fees, and interoperability

Security

There is always a trade off between using Trust based bridges for low fees vs Trust-less for higher fees

Chainport offers a unique solution by providing custodian level security along with Multi-sig Cold Wallet Protection for free (currently chainport has 0 fees but they will implement a fee structure in the future)

Key features

Fund Segregation

Instead of leaving all funds in a single storage, each bridge’s funds are stored in three distinct segregated storage mechanisms.

This is how all major CEX exchanges store their assets

As such, this provides a security edge over all the funds wrapped by smart contracts improving resistance against hacks

Multisig Cold Wallet Protection

95% of the assets are secured in multi-sig cold vaults while only up to 5% are stored on hot-bridge contracts

A congress with a set number of signatories is established

Both the total number of signatories and a minimum quorum must be reached before enabling access to the cold vault

These signatory thresholds can vary between bridge pairs

Contract Level Security

The bridge smart contracts hot wallet is by default the most exposed attack vector

In order to further mitigate risk, Chainport added a freeze mechanism designed to pre-empt attempts to misappropriate funds

Any unusual interaction pattern leads to an immediate freeze of the bridge

Dedicated Fireblocks MPC Secure Transfer Environment

Chainport collaborated with Fireblocks to create mechanisms in an attempt to eliminate all network and host-based Man-in-the-Middle attacks on deposit addresses and protect against physical, insider, and side-channel attacks

Independent Audits by CertiK and CyberUnit

Certik: https://www.certik.org/projects/chainport

Cyberunit: https://chainport.io/audits/cyberunit

Continuous Monitoring by CertiK Skynet

Another security USP that chainport details is a standing deal with Certik to continuously scan their smart contracts rather than a one time audit

Speed

ChainPort is a very fast bridge -12 confirmation on Ethereum, only 2.5 minutes on average

It is the only bridge with the capability to port at speeds at par with Synapse

ChainPort offers an API for direct on-chain contract calls and is already used by market makers, arbitrage players, and exchanges

Their availability on many chains and supporting all major wallets just increases the use case beyond measure

Fees

Chainport initially launched as a free service

They do however, have a defined fee structure in place and will likely implement it alongside their token launch

Thee fee structure is competitive

Basic fee — Users

The basic ChainPort fee will be 0.3% for each port, paid at the ported token, or 0.2% when paid with $PORTX

Users will stake $PORTX in advance in a dedicated staking-fee contract, and discounted fees will be automatically deducted

Users will be able to pre-buy the discounted fees and earn rewards for this staking

ChainPort for Businesses Fee

ChainPort will soon introduce a full custodian service for businesses who choose to have a private bridge, open or closed by demand, and own one of the multi-sig keys for higher redundancy

This service will be charged on TVL basis, weekly, 0.03% (~1.5% yearly), or 0.02% ( ~1% yearly) when paid in $PORTX tokens

NTFs Fee

Once ChainPort supports NFTs, they will introduce a fixed fee per port and discounted fee when paid in $PORTX.

Unique Selling Points

Chainport has even more security measures in development

Their insurance program if launched successfully would increase the transparency and security for the bridge to set the market standard

Most bridges have “utility” tokens that have no other use case other than staking for rewards

The decision to prove efficiency first and then go for a token release puts them ahead of many “whitepaper only” competitors in the DeFi market

Interoperability is a big buzz word in cross chain bridging right now

It is essential to generate more value for the tokens themselves

They are not the first to do this but combining the reach with the security measures certainly sets them apart

Verfied tokens

Verified Tokens are tokens that were ported with the help of the ChainPort Team

When you port a Verified token, they guarantee that there is liquidity on the other side of the bridge for you to trade on the desired blockchain like BSC for PancakeSwap

List of verified tokens: docs.google.com/spreadsheets

Chainport for businesses is another addition where businesses get access to a private customized bridge

With increased fees, it is also an additional revenue stream for the project

Tokenomics

Chainport does not have a live token at the moment but have a detailed tokenomics structure ready to integrate one in the near future

They have already conducted their seed, strategic and private rounds

*Source: cryptorank.io*

Total Supply: 1,000,000,000

TGE Market Cap: $2.9M

Token economy:

Basic fee: Users

For Every port made on ChainPort, the fee taken will be utilized.

*PORTX buyback — In case the fee wasn’t paid in PORTX, 20% will be utilized to buy back PORTX. Some to all of this amount may be used for continued R&D funding and/or removing tokens from liquidity (burns).

* Added liquidity provision — This portion will be utilized to add liquidity in the various DEXs. Half of this amount will be used to buy PORTX, and the other half to purchase the base asset on the DEX pools with PORTX.

ChainPort for Businesses Fee

The fee from TVL charged from projects utilizing the business solution will be utilized as follows

Please note some of the utilizations are like those taken from the porting fee, which means that for tokens of projects signed up for the business tier there will be generated extra staking rewards, buybacks and liquidity provision to the benefit of the entire PORTX community

*PORTX Buybacks (+TBA) — In case the fee wasn’t paid in PORTX, 20% will be utilized to buy back PORTX. Some to all of this amount may be used for continued R&D funding and/or removing tokens from liquidity (burns). We make no initial or apriori guarantee to the usage of these funds, except to state they will be utilized in full to progress the token economy and/or the underlying R&D, marketing and bizdev.

*ChainPort development + custodian costs — This portion will be mostly utilized to cover the costs for top tier custodian level security for the funds ported, and the support for continued R&D, marketing and growth for the project.

NFT fees: Once NFT ports are available, the following fee structure will be implemented