No, it's about how to get the lubrication to be somewhat in the vicinity of where it's needed. The compromise with ball bearings in hubs and the like is to use a somewhat fluid lubricant which can flow into the shearing zone which is a part of the ball/race contact, having been dragged into the conflict by the rolling balls. In order to keep the grease from being ejected, and to keep everything else out, the bearing has shields or seals. This works well at the low speeds involved; high speed rolling element bearings use oil, but that needs more complex containment than is practical in most bicycle components.
A bicycle chain does not have the ability to retain a fluid lubricant for long, or to keep it clean, and the main contacts are sliding rather than rolling, so there is little mechanism to drag lubricant into the shearing zone. On the other hand, the pressure between plates is low enough that a solid wax will not be ejected, so metal to metal contact can be largely avoided in this region. It's not clear that wax alone will do much in the high pressure areas around the pins and rollers, but it can act as a carrier for other solid lubricants such as MoS2
No, it's about how to get the lubrication to be somewhat in the vicinity of where it's needed. The compromise with ball bearings in hubs and the like is to use a somewhat fluid lubricant which can flow into the shearing zone which is a part of the ball/race contact, having been dragged into the conflict by the rolling balls. In order to keep the grease from being ejected, and to keep everything else out, the bearing has shields or seals. This works well at the low speeds involved; high speed rolling element bearings use oil, but that needs more complex containment than is practical in most bicycle components.
A bicycle chain does not have the ability to retain a fluid lubricant for long, or to keep it clean, and the main contacts are sliding rather than rolling, so there is little mechanism to drag lubricant into the shearing zone. On the other hand, the pressure between plates is low enough that a solid wax will not be ejected, so metal to metal contact can be largely avoided in this region. It's not clear that wax alone will do much in the high pressure areas around the pins and rollers, but it can act as a carrier for other solid lubricants such as MoS2