We are excited to announce the release of our long-awaited SwapperD along with the launch of WBTC. SwapperD facilitates cross-chain interoperability by providing a universal, user-friendly method for the entire industry to perform trustless swaps between blockchains.

WBTC and RenEx as a merchant

WBTC is now available to the public and we eagerly await the possibilities it opens up for the DeFi ecosystem. To support this, RenEx will be serving as a merchant for WBTC, which means we provide WBTC directly to consumers through RenEx. While there are a variety of merchants for WBTC, RenEx will initially be the only platform that can facilitate trustless BTC to WBTC swaps directly via the new SwapperD. Other platforms will be using ETH, WETH, and other ERC20 based token to purchase WBTC which has already been minted. This direct swapping functionality will initially be reserved for RenEx users only via the new SwapperD.

For more information on its launch, Ren’s role as a merchant, and how WBTC works, please check out the official website: https://www.wbtc.network

SwapperD: a wallet for cross-chain swaps

Initially, SwapperD will perform cross-chain swaps using traditional hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs). Any blockchain that supports HTLCs, such as BTC, LTC, ETH, ZEC, EOS, and countless others, will be supported by SwapperD while it uses HTLCs for cross-chain swapping.

While RenEx as an exchange requires KYC, simple use of SwapperD as a wallet does not require KYC, so anyone can use it as a standalone wallet, and other exchanges can integrate with it too. SwapperD is a daemon application, meaning it runs on your computer in the background but can be accessed via your web browser, similar to MetaMask. Download it like you would any other application and once installed, it functions like any other wallet. Create an account with a username and password, save your seed word phrase, and then log-in with a username and password from that point forward. You can restore your SwapperD wallet and all the funds on another computer with your seed phrase, so remember to store it somewhere safe!

To download SwapperD, please go to https://ren.exchange

For a more detailed set of instructions, please review our ZenDesk

SwapperD on RenEx

In addition to being a standalone wallet, SwapperD now serves as the default settlement layer for RenEx; meaning we have moved the entire RenEx settlement layer from smart contracts to SwapperD. This advancement ensures more efficient settlement and allows our ecosystem to be far more flexible with regard to interoperability. Initially the trading pairs available will be the existing ETH/ERC20 trading pairs (but now settled via atomic swap) alongside the additional BTC/WBTC exchange facility. Our intention is to soon transition all trading pairs to base pairs with BTC and stablecoins in an effort to provide greater cross-chain usability and liquidity. The trading pairs to be launched will be updated in future announcements as they become available.

Interoperability for everyone

While SwapperD is now a core component of Ren, it’s an open-source tool designed to be easily integrated into third-party applications, serving as a standard for cross-chain settlements. This flexibility paves the way for third-party web applications, exchanges, and servers to integrate with SwapperD and enable users and services to benefit from its interoperable swapping capabilities.

Decentralized exchanges, in particular, can benefit from SwapperD integration as it removes typical cross-chain constraints, which may serve as a catalyst for all decentralized exchanges to expand their token listings far beyond ETH and ERC-20s. While SwapperD uses traditional hash time-locked contracts (HTLCs) for the time being, it will soon allow on-chain Ethereum transactions to be conducted in complete privacy using zkProofs and once Ren zkTransactors have been completed for multiple blockchains, SwapperD will be upgraded to directly use RenVM for more efficient, more powerful, and completely secret cross-chain swaps. For more information regarding future capabilities, please review our recent Litepaper. In the meantime, our developer kit will be available for public consumption and if you would like to integrate SwapperD with your project, please email us at: partnerships@renproject.io

SwapperD has been in the making for quite some time as the team has strived to make it intuitive, user friendly, and complementary to the broader Ren ecosystem. It will be constantly improved through an iterative process and we hope you enjoy this addition to our ecosystem. Now that these components of the Ren ecosystem have come together, we turn our attention towards the RenVM migration, increased liquidity, new product development, and many more exciting additions.

— Loong Wang, CTO, Ren