For many in the crypto community, centralized exchanges are the thorn in the hoof of a truly trustless system of digital currency. Whilst the blockchain tech which underlies crypto assets provides excellent security credentials, the exchanges where those assets are bought and sold are vulnerable to attack in just the same way as traditional financial institutions. The exchanges are the trusted third party which the immutability of the blockchain is supposed to render obsolete. So Binance’s unveiling of an early version of their decentralized exchange (DEX) will have many in the space sitting up and taking note.
The world’s leading crypto exchange performed the first public demo of their DEX platform, dubbed “Binance Chain”, earlier this week. During the demo an engineer displayed functionality including the creation of a new crypto token and the listing of it on the exchange, and then created and filled an order using two laptops connected to the Binance Chain network. The processes were demonstrated using a command line interface rather than a graphic interface since the exchange is still in a “pre-alpha” phase of development, but the functionality is clear to see.
Of course Binance isn’t the first to offer a crypto DEX. Waves, IDEX and CryptoBridge are just three projects which already have platforms up and running, but many of these existing platforms have been criticised for maintaining a degree of centralization or due to security-related failures, and indeed Waves was hacked just last month after a high-profile launch. There are also some serious projects with products in development including 0x (ZRX) and OmiseGo (OMG), whilst OKEx and Huobi also have DEX platforms in the pipeline. It’s a crowded market, but with an unrivalled track record, surely few would bet against Binance Chain taking a significant slice of this lucrative pie.
