Today I want to focuse on another decentralized exchange, but before I dive into that one, I want to provide a brief recap of the decentralized exchanges that I've covered recently.
IDEX
Similar to EtherDelta in that its a DEX built on the Ethereum blockchain. This one has a better UI and is a bit more user friendly in general. You’ll need to import your Ethereum address onto their platform and deposit your ETH onto your account there to begin trading. Keep in mind the minimum trade and withdrawal requirements so you don’t end up with tokens stuck on this platform. IDEX functions as a website so you don’t need to download anything onto your computer.
BlockNet
The Blocknet DEX is one application for the Blocknet protocol. Blocknet is its own blockchain and this protocol is designed to facilitate cross chain transactions. The Blocknet DEX already facilitates the exchange of many different cryptocurrencies and this team is eager to help others add their coins to this list. The DEX is a built in component within their wallet so if you want to try this one out you’ll have to download this wallet onto your computer.
CryptoBridge
Cryptobridge is bull on the Bitshares graphene blockchain so they can take advantage of the fast and inexpensive transactions. The layout is similar to the OpenLedger DEX, except CryptoBridge hosts a huge number of alt coins to trade with. When you create an account here you’ll need to be sure to save your private key and make a safe backup. If your private key is lost they will not be able to help regain access to your funds on that account.
Bisq
In my opinion, Bisq is a great example of what a decentralized exchange should be. This one allows you to make trades with national currencies and cryptocurrencies. Because Bisq doesn’t use a website as its medium of interaction there’s no threat of malicious actors taking advantage of and URL. You’ll need to download the Bisq application onto your computer. When you create an account the application does a great job of guiding you to the right steps to take for securing your account.
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Each of these decentralized exchanges take a different approach towards achieving a decentralized way to exchange cryptocurrencies, and the DEX I’m talking about today takes yet another different approach, this time with smart contracts and atomic swaps.
Today’s focus is on the Kyber Network.
Even though I firmly believe that the future of trading cryptocurrencies lies in the hands of DEXs, there’s still one big hurdle that is preventing a lot of people from using them more regularly, and that is the issue of liquidity.
Kyber is addressing this issue of liquidity by having their own reserves of the tokens that they list on the exchange. They also will provide third parties to establish their own reserves to guarantee liquidity for themselves as well.
Since Kyber has designed their exchange to use smart contracts you’ll never deposit your tokens onto the exchange.
You will have to import your wallet that you’d like to interact with, but the funds can be exchanged without having to be removed from your wallet.
Since Kyber is an on-chain protocol for the Ethereum blockchain, it is specific for exchanging ETH and ERC20 tokens only. This obviously limits the types of coins you can trade, but it also makes it convenient with the fact that all ERC20 tokens and ETH can be stored on the same wallet.
Since Kyber allows for trading EOS tokens, it’s really important to be aware that after the EOS mainnet is launched in June this year, these ERC20 tokens will be nontransferable.
One other thing to note about this exchange is that the trades are organized as atomic swaps, meaning the trades either execute correctly or else it’s called off and each party is reimbursed their original tokens.
The future for Kyber includes:
Plans for offering derivatives for those wanting to take advantage of market movements, and they’ll also be offering payment APIs which will allow you to send or receive payments in the tokens that you prefer, even if the other party prefers a different token.
They’ve just released their public Beta a couple weeks ago so if you want to go ahead and check this one out, just keep that in mind. Also if you find any bugs or notice anything about the experience that you think could be improved feel free to contact their team and help be a part of the process of improving this exchange.