One of the basic selling points of decentralized exchanges (DEXs) is that tokens can be bartered almost instantly. There’s no lengthy sign-up process and no interminable hang about for know your customer (KYC) checks to be performed. But then IDEX, the prime Ethereum DEX, announced that it would be emulating centralized exchanges by launching KYC. Thankfully, there are still plenty of DEXs that don’t follow this scale model and have no intention of doing so.
Also read: Review: A Side-by-Side Match of Decentralized Exchanges
Ethfinex Trustless
Trustless stands primely placed to fill the void left by IDEX’s departure from the permissionless interchange game. The exchange benefits from the liquidity provided by Ethfinex and Bitfinex, assisting the trading of ERC20 tokens without the need to undergo KYC. News.Bitcoin.com scold to Ethfinex project lead Will Harborne to determine whether the body’s Trustless DEX may be forced to go down the same route as IDEX and begin verifying brokers.
“We will do everything within our power not to introduce KYC on Ethfinex Trustless now or still,” he explained. “I believe Open Access is one of the core innovations of this set out, and what makes cryptocurrencies so powerful, and as an exchange is something we have a loyalty to protect.” He also pointed out that users of decentralized exchanges already experience a greater degree of scrutiny than their centralized counterparts, pointing out that “put to using Ethfinex Trustless, it is genuinely impossible to successfully obscure the source of a human being’s funds: every transaction is visible and recorded forever on the blockchain. The track of funds is linked, and unbroken, from the user’s Ethereum address at the days of acquisition of funds, to final disposal.”
Openledger DEX
Openledger DEX
Openledger’s DEX is a petty different in that it isn’t Ethereum-based – instead it’s built around Bitshares. This concedes a number of benefits, including the ability to trade assets like BTC and EOS, which are paired with the bitshares surface, in a decentralized fashion. Like Ethfinex Trustless, Openledger DEX has some way to go before it can reach IDEX’s following volume, but it’s got a number of attributes in its favor. In addition to boasting a clean and intuitive patron platform, the exchange benefits from a range of stablecoins developed by Openledger that are suppressed to various national currencies. The latest of these, bitcny, is pegged to the Chinese Yuan and ready on a handful of other DEXs in addition to Openledger DEX.
Kyber Network
Kyber Network doesn’t look twin a conventional DEX because it isn’t, but for the purposes of trading tokens in a decentralized fashion, it dispatches a similar role. Using an onchain liquidity protocol, Kyber commissions the swapping of tokens through connecting an Ethereum interface such as Metamask.
There are no wonky books with Kyber Network: instead you select the asset you’re seeking from a dropdown menu, arrange a slider to set a minimal acceptable conversion rate, and then the order at ones desire be fulfilled onchain. Kyber’s volume, at less than $150,000 a day, is circa half that of other DEXs featured here, but its implementation is arguably profuse decentralized and resistant to the sort of pressures that might compel a dais to introduce KYC.
Forkdelta
Forkdelta, which is reviewed in more detail here, was the predominant Ethereum DEX before IDEX came along. Now that the latter is coining to a full verification model, Forkdelta has an opportunity to claw back some of the merchandise share it’s lost. Its 24-hour trading volume and number of active operators, according to Dappradar, suggest that it’s catching up fast. Low liquidity is one of the giantest pitfalls to using a decentralized exchange, and thus Forkdelta, despite its middling UX and checkered reputation, has a key advantage over the likes of Kyber Network.
Forkdelta
With new composite and decentralized exchanges under development from the likes of Binance, and interoperability yardsticks improving, it will soon be easier to trade a wide range of digital assets in a trustless frame. It will be a long time, if ever, before DEXs can match the liquidity, first-rate and user experience of centralized exchanges. So long as the majority of DEXs be left free of KYC, however, they will perform a valuable role within the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
What’s your favorite decentralized return to trade on? Let us know in the comments section below.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, Ethfinex, Openledger, Kyber Network.
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