THORChain & BitMax.io to Launch decentralized Finance on Binance Chain This Year

THORChain is partnering with BitMax.io (BTMX.io) to list its native asset, RUNE, and launch a novel method to stake BEP2 assets in order to solve a key problem with decentralized finance applications.

THORChain has built secure on-chain staking of assets in what they call “continuous liquidity pools” – a mechanism to bond tokens together with “always-on” liquidity. The team describes how anyone seeking to exchange one asset for another can accomplish this by transferring an asset to THORChain’s continuous liquidity pools, effectively interacting with liquidity provided by other staked assets, to facilitate an on-chain swap. The continuous liquidity pools serve as “lit markets” given that pricing is completely transparent, and the on-chain nature of the pools democratizes access to the market.

THORChain’s first demonstration product is BEPSwap – a platform for users to swap BNB and BEP2 tokens (assets on Binance Chain are called BEP2 tokens) across these pools. Users holding BEP2 tokens can also elect to stake assets in pools to generate a return from transaction fees by providing liquidity – captured whenever someone initiates a swap. BEPSwap mainnet launch is currently planned for Q4’19. THORChain claims to have over $200 million in upcoming staking partners with BEP2 tokens ready to use the interface, including several high-profile projects such as Matic Network, Harmony, and Elrond.

Solving the Oracle Problem

A key innovation of the technology described by the team is that since the pools provide open and fair access, and the pricing is always transparent, then the price of the assets in the pools should always reflect the prevailing secondary market price for relevant assets. This apparently solves the Price Oracle problem — one of the most difficult problems to solve in decentralized finance, and what normally is an “Achilles heel” to so-called “DeFi” apps. Platforms like MakerDAO and Compound Finance on Ethereum source their price feeds from centralized “admin” keys, which become an attack vector. On the other hand, BEPSwap’s price feeds are based on pool assets which create economic exposure to anyone trying to manipulate them, and thus much more difficult to attack. The team hopes that these price feeds will become a trustless source of accurate pricing for all BEP2 assets, enabling a wave of DeFi innovation on Binance Chain.

BEPSwap’s Future Roadmap

The team behind BEPSwap have an exciting roadmap for BEPSwap with support from BitMax.io along the way, which includes swapping and staking of BNB and BEP2 assets, stable coin pools, developer tooling to integrate the protocol, as well as more interesting features such as lending, borrowing and potentially financial derivatives built on the BEPSwap trustless price feeds.

BitMax.io and THORChain will work closely together with the RUNE token just being announced to list on BitMax.io, the first centralised digital asset trading platform for listing. BitMax.io is one of the early adopters of Binance Chain, including being the first platform with support for many BEP2 projects.