ConsenSys is now supporting Leverj in their upcoming token launch. To learn more about the project, visit leverj.io.

Capital is rushing into crypto. This economic boom is driven by a capability that has never existed before: The ability to send value over distance without giving up custody to an intermediary. This elimination of custodial risk has unleashed new business models and eliminated waste.

The extension of this capability from the currency layer into upper layers of finance could trigger a much larger boom, but so far attempts to build even a decentralized exchange have failed spectacularly. Part of the reason is that these attempts have conflated “decentralization” with the topology and technology used in the base layer, rather than the value gained by its users.

Decentralization is about control, not topology or technology. This is the reason 15,000 or so banks (topologies) and permissioned blockchains like R3 or Hyperledger (technologies) have had minimal impact on the crypto revolution.

The trouble with pure on-chain exchanges

When exchanges put their order books and matching on-chain, it causes intolerable latencies for slow block times. Even with fast block times, the order or fill could be on multiple chain tips and may never make into the final blockchain. This makes hedging and other trading strategies unfeasible.

Matching on-chain is also self-limiting in terms of scaling, as blocks congest with higher usage. If the product is traded elsewhere, it’s simple for bad actors to clog the network and take an arbitrage trade once movement is observed in other markets. This may change in the future as high-speed blockchains and tangle-based back-ends become production-ready. But for now, Leverj keeps our order books and tracking in centralized servers.

The Goldilocks approach

With Ethereum, it’s feasible to have non-custodial accounts and P&L settlements on-chain. Treading on the blockchain lightly and settling at fixed durations enables Leverj to provide high speed trading. We combine the UX of a centralized exchange with the non-custodial benefits of decentralization.

The need for high speed

Time is money, and if nothing else there is opportunity cost. In practice, we see that traders on high-latency systems lose out to traders on systems that can react immediately. Even on moderately volatile products, being late by a few seconds can mean the difference between winning and losing a trade. Leverj simply does not compromise on speed because in the long run, it makes no economic sense to have a decentralized trading system if it means reduced profit. That’s why when it comes to our order books and matching we take the higher-speed centralized approach.

Leveraged Trading

Most decentralized leveraged trading today essentially locks money in a smart contract for a duration and settles P&L based on an oracle price at close. This approach simply means there is no way to manage positions, adjust risk or take early profits. Traders see these constraints as impractical and such systems have found no traction even though they have been around for years. Leverj is the first fully featured leveraged trading platform where traders can perform optimally with position and risk management using an order book with stop and market orders with the safety of non-custodial accounts. We believe that trading should be enjoyable with fast feedback on user actions in a rich ecosystem.

The value ecosystem

A decentralized exchange is a small part of the trading ecosystem. An exchange should have rich interaction with market data providers, charting services, trading rooms, managed trading services and many other participants. Automating and decentralizing this interaction would give a big boost to the trading community.

Leverj Tokens will enable ecosystem participants to interact with each other in addition to the exchange. We hope this unlocks a huge market of services that is not yet developed in the cryptosphere.

Leverj Features

The Bitcoin version of the platform already has the following features in production:

Decentralized Identity: Use a bitcoin address as your identity. You are no longer controlled by your email provider or ID provider. You are resistant to phishing.

Split Multisig with Hardware wallet support: Funds not in trade are parked in a 2-of-2 multisig. Coins cannot move from this account without signature from your private key. Use a hardware wallet for extra security.

Segregated accounts and 100% proof of reserve: All balances for user accounts are on blockchain. Unauthorized moving even a single satoshi would be noticed immediately by the entire world.

Zero-knowledge authentication and API keys: Enables access rights without pre-registration or sharing secrets over a side-channel.

Proof of audit: Hash of settlement data embedded in blockchain as OP_RETURN.

The Ethereum version will add non-custodial accounts and the token ecosystem.

Our Team

Our team is made up of people with deep experience in finance, technology and economics. Our CEO is a 10-year wall street veteran and a professional trader with his own trading blog. Our CTO has 10 years of experience building a high-speed forex trading platform. Our Head of Marketing is a 20-year veteran with deep experience in digital marketing. Our economist is a well-respected figure in crypto and a trader. Our COO has 20+ years experience in corporate strategy, consulting and operations. Our community manager runs her own crypto community in addition to Leverj.

Leverj & ConsenSys

ConsenSys will serve as a technical advisor to Leverj and support our forthcoming token launch. Employing top experts in smart contracts, token design, and cryptographic security, ConsenSys brings deep experience building software on the Ethereum platform.

Haven’t had enough?

Visit our website and read our whitepaper. Join our telegram group and we will be glad to discuss more.

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