On behalf of the entire REN team, I’m excited to announce the release of the RenVM Testnet. Acting as the testing grounds for a future Mainnet, the Testnet is the first time developers are able to build applications powered by RenVM. It’s a truly exciting time and I look forward to seeing the new era of decentralized finance (DeFi) applications able to access cross-chain liquidity.

So what is RenVM?

Put simply, RenVM brings interoperability to decentralized finance (DeFi).

RenVM itself, is a virtual machine that replicates itself over a decentralized network of thousands of physical machines known as Darknodes. What makes RenVM unique is that it does everything in secret using zero-knowledge proofs and our newly developed sMPC protocol. The state, inputs and outputs of all programs in RenVM are kept hidden from everyone, including the Darknodes that power it. This allows RenVM to securely manage private keys on different blockchains, making it possible to shift tokens between these blockchains in a trustless and decentralized way. If you would like to learn more, check out our documentation.

Although RenVM can be used to power all kinds of secret applications, its focus is on interoperability between blockchains. RenVM allows smart contracts on various blockchains (starting with Ethereum) to accept and spend tokens on other blockchains (starting with Bitcoin and ZCash). This empowers DEXs to begin offering new pairings that were not previously possible without centralized parties. With all of this said, RenVM is not a product or an application in and of itself but is a network (and an accompanying SDK) that allows developers to bring multi-chain functionality to their applications.

For Developers

The RenVM SDK is a JavaScript library and a collection of smart contract examples designed to make integration as simple as possible. The SDK can be integrated by any application, whether it be a decentralized exchange, lending, collateralization, or leveraging platform. The digital assets initially supported are Ethereum (ETH), ERC-20 based assets like DAI, Bitcoin (BTC), and Zcash (ZEC). We are focused on bringing BTC and ZEC to Ethereum as a first step, but we will quickly be expanding to other blockchains once Mainnet is released.

Our development team has been working hand in hand with third-parties to provide all the necessary resources for an easy integration process. These components are also being released so that developers can begin building and testing their ideas right away.

If you are interested in bringing these capabilities to your DeFi application check out the above resources, but also let us know by filling out this form or reach out to us on Telegram. Whether you need help, or just want to give us some feedback, our team is always happy to assist. Further, as you play around with the SDK, if you have ideas on features that you would like to see, please submit a feature request on our GitHub.

As an additional resource, we have established a private working group to acquire feedback on the design and refinement of RenVM. We couldn’t be happier with the input we’ve received on design and third-party tooling; as a result we are opening the working group participation to the larger development community. If your project has a unique perspective and would like to participate in the working group, let us know!

The Testnet Demo

To demonstrate RenVM’s capabilities we have built a simple x*y=k decentralized exchange. This interactive demo allows the public to try our technology and trade BTC and DAI (testnet tokens).

An additional purpose of Testnet is not just to give the community demos, and devs something to build against, but it’s about preparing for Mainnet, and the biggest part of that is catching bugs that we haven’t. This is our first release of RenVM Testnet, and we expect to find bugs and for things to break. Therefore we encourage all who utilize the demo or SDK’s to test our products under a variety of circumstances, try to find bugs, and then report them to us via this form.

It is a necessary part of the process, but also incredibly useful to the Ren dev team to have people using it, so expect things to break in the first few releases as we iron things out. We encourage all members of our community to read the FAQ, test it out, and let us know what you find. We pride ourselves on open development, and this approach will allow us to expedite our ability to find bugs, so happy hunting!

GIF of the demo

This Testnet Demo DEX is a demonstration of what RenVM can do and it will remain on Testnet; we are not building a formal exchange. The team’s core focus is RenVM, it’s SDK, and making integration as easy as possible for other DeFi applications.

Looking Forward

Our foremost task will be bringing stability and security to Testnet. This will be done via rigorous in-house testing, but also through feedback from the public and our working group. Furthermore, we have a Testnet pipeline which includes a series of events that our team will be pursuing during Testnet to bring more exposure to the various aspects of RenVM. You can view this on our Github if interested.

Once this stage is complete and we are happy with the security of RenVM, we’ll be submitting it and all of its ancillary code for a security audit. In the meantime, our team will continue to assist third-parties with integration and ensure RenVM and its SDK are as robust as possible.

We are looking forward to getting this technology out to the broader ecosystem and can’t wait to see what is in store for the future!

Onwards and upwards,

— Taiyang Zhang, CEO

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About Ren

Ren is an open protocol that enables the permissionless and private transfer of value between any blockchain.

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