What is THORChain?

THORChain (RUNE) is a decentralized liquidity protocol that aims to enable users to exchange cryptocurrency assets across various networks, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, without relinquishing full custody of their assets. The platform operates in a permissionless setting and strives to eliminate the need for order books to source liquidity. Instead, market prices are maintained through the ratio of assets in a pool. The native utility token of the THORChain platform is RUNE, which serves as the base currency in the THORChain ecosystem and is also used for platform governance and security.

How does THORChain work?

THORChain operates by aiming to enable native asset settlement, allowing users to swap Bitcoin, Ether, Stablecoins, and other coins across nine distinct blockchains. It does not wrap or peg assets, but instead aims to allow value to be exchanged from one coin on one blockchain to another coin on another chain. THORChain employs a system to help mitigate the issue of impermanent losses that a liquidity provider can experience when contributing to liquidity pools. It achieves this by using a slip-based fee to help ensure liquidity stays where it is needed. The protocol combines a range of technologies to facilitate cross-chain token swaps permissionlessly.

What are the potential use cases for THORChain?

THORChain presents a variety of potential use cases. It aims to enable Streaming Swaps, which allow large swaps to be broken up into many smaller swaps over time, significantly reducing swap fees for users. Apart from swaps, THORChain presents single-sided liquidity provision through Savers. Users can provide Layer 1 assets such as BTC and earn single-sided yield without impermanent loss. THORChain also has a Lending protocol where users can borrow against their native BTC or ETH and receive a USD-denominated debt in the asset of their choosing. The loans aim to have no liquidations, no interest, and no expiration.

What is the history of THORChain?

THORChain was initiated through an initial DEX offering (IDO) which launched in July 2019. Its single-chain chaosnet was initiated in April 2021, the multi-chain upgrade was initiated in April 2021 and Mainnet was live as of June 2022. The platform has no CEO, no founder, and no directors. Instead, the further development of the protocol is organized via Gitlab with nodes as the ultimate deciders of which codebase to run. Those currently working on the project are largely anonymous, which is stated to protect the project and ensure that it can decentralize. As of June 2022, there are 308.0 million RUNE in circulation out of a total supply of 500 million.