Ruminations: Descriptors of THORChain

We always end our Medium articles on TCUniversity with this blurb about THORChain and Maya Protocol: Decentralized, permissionless, non-custodial, trust-minimized, open-sourced, economic-secured, non-wrapped, native-to-native cross-chain swaps, savings and lending!

To some, that just sounds like a jargon-filled marketing pitch. To us, every single word describes an essential facet of THORChain and Maya Protocol.

Below are some personal opinions on what each descriptor means, in the context of THORChain and Maya Protocol.

Decentralized

Enough said here: https://thorchain-university.medium.com/ruminations-on-decentralization-9083b16a6410

Quote: “THORChain’s anonymous, limited-delegation, constant-churning 100+ nodes and Threshold Signature Scheme (TSS) implementation puts it towards the decentralization end, especially when compared with other multisig or nominated wardens systems. THORChain is progressing towards more decentralization as time passes, and is still the most decentralized protocol offering native cross-chain swaps, savings and lending at scale!”

2. Permissionless

Anyone can use THORChain. As long as a valid transaction with the correct memo is mined/validated on any of the relevant blockchains, THORChain will observe and process those transactions, no questions asked. Uncensorable. No Know-Your-Customer business.

3. Non-custodial

This is entwined intimately with the concept of decentralization. Just as no centralized party runs the network, therefore there is no centralized party that custodies the funds in the network.

4. Trust-minimized

Swappers “lose direct custody” of their funds only for the duration of the swap.

LPs, Savers and Borrowers do need to “trust” the protocol and the nodes that run it; but 1) it is decentralized, and 2) code is open-sourced.

5. Open-sourced

There is no “black box” code that you need to trust. Anyone can peer into the code to confirm that it is doing exactly what it was claimed to do. With millions of dollars worth of assets handled by the code, there would be no shortage of both whitehats and blackhats scrutinizing each aspect of the code. Bugs get unearthed sooner, protocol gets more robust quicker.

6. Economically-secured

Pure open-sourced code can only get so far, without consideration of economic game theory. In the stark, merciless, decentralized, permissionless arena, any slight weakness/loophole will be brutally exploited by “highly profitable trading strategies”. THORChain’s and Maya Protocol’s economic design has been delicately crafted and tweaked not only to avoid economic exploits, but a design where the ideal state is when all parties are executing maximally profit-seeking actions.

7. Non-wrapped, native-to-native

Wrapped assets always introduce another layer of dependency and risk. Users depend on the wrapping party to protect the value of the wrapped assets. THORChain’s and Maya Protocol’s unique design works directly with native exogenous chains and assets. The Bitcoin that is swapped, saved, lent and stored is the real deal Bitcoin on the actual Bitcoin blockchain itself.

Onwards!

===

Feel free to hop into the TC University Discord to chat about this, or any other THORChain questions that you may have.

*New!* The Bifröst School: A robust, incentivized learning program focused on teaching users the mechanics, design, and features of THORChain.

Explore THORChain: Website, X, Telegram, Developer Discord.

Explore Maya Protocol, the first friendly fork of THORChain: Website, X, Discord, Telegram.

Decentralized, permissionless, non-custodial, trust-minimized, open-sourced, economically-secured, non-wrapped, native-to-native cross-chain swaps, savings and now, lending!