Much of the the worldwide groundswell of interest in digital currency over the past year has been funneled through major exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken. With their simple interfaces and mainstream-ready infrastructure, these centralized exchanges have brought billions of dollars of value to blockchain projects and digital currencies. The growth has been exponential — over 3400% in 2017 alone!

The list of centralized exchanges is long: Bithumb, Bitfinex, Bittrex, Poloniex, Kraken, GDAX, Coinbase, Gemini, just to name a few, but there are hundreds popping up all over the world. However, centralized exchanges are subject to a whole host of problems like hacking and scaling issues, and are beholden to a centralized perspective that does not fall entirely in line with the decentralized ethos of digital currencies and blockchain tech.

All signs point to an evolution in value transfer — decentralized exchanges — taking the lead in the cryptocurrency space in 2018 and beyond. Decentralized exchanges like SingularX provide a more secure and fair way for users to exchange digital assets for a whole host of reasons, and as the general public grows in blockchain savviness, we’re likely to see a move towards holders of digital assets wanting more control and security in their engagement with exchanges.

Amongst the most pressing issues with an over-reliance on centralized exchanges is security. Every week it seems, there is a new report of a major hack at a centralized exchange, with stolen amounts ranging in the hundreds of millions of dollars. This kind of hack is only made possible because centralized exchanges store vast amounts of users’ digital asset holdings in hot wallets that are susceptible to attack. Considering this threat, the decentralized model is preferable, as users get to maintain custody of their own assets and engage directly with a smart contract to exchange tokens with other users in a peer-to-peer fashion.