Not too long ago, we touched upon the concept of Ethfinex, an exchange platform which is scheduled to launch soon. It turns out there is a lot more to this platform than most people would assume. A platform designed specifically for the Ethereum community needs to be pretty versatile. With the roadmap finally unveiled, things are getting quite interesting. Below are some of the upcoming developments which caught our attention.

3. Hybrid Decentralized Exchange

This particular business model is not something one will find anytime soon in other Ethereum-oriented exchanges. The Hybrid Decentralized Exchange Model will be a game changer when it comes to the future of decentralized exchanges as a whole. With new exchange protocols maturing, capitalizing on the momentum becomes the name of the game. Ethfinex wants to be a place for experimentation and innovation.

The project will focus on the distribution of APIs and open source smart contract tools. The latter aspect is especially intriguing, considering how accessing smart contracts has been a big challenge for most developers. This will also allow integrating and interfacing with other projects and exchange protocols moving forward. For now, planned integration includes Melonport, 0x, Blocknet, and a few others.

2. Grenache

The Ethfinex platform will combine some tools from Bitfinex with some new technological developments. One of those developments is known as Grenache, which serves as a micro service architecture. It is a high-performance micro service framework, focused on decentralization and optimized for large-scale performance. The goal is to build a network between peers allowing all users to send RPC commands to one another. This intriguing approach could play out quite well.

According to the Grenache GitHub page, this particular framework should be capable of indefinite scalability. That is a pretty bold claim, although the launch of Ethfinex will show us whether or not this is actually feasible. Grenache will also play a role in the community-driven platform for research, discussion, and the crowdsourcing of information provided by Ethfinex. It will be very interesting to see how this particular venture plays out.

1. Ethfinex Nectar Token

Ethfinex will create its own custom token and distribute it to platform users accordingly. The Ethfinex Nectar Token will initially be owned by the exchange itself, but will serve as a reward in the long run. Distribution of this token will depend heavily on how the issuance and governance mechanisms evolve over time. It is unclear how much value will be attributed to ENT at the initial stage, considering that they will be created out of thin air.

There is also no indication as to whether these tokens will yield any dividends on other financial value over time. This is not an IOU such as the token issued after Bitfinex got hacked. We are looking forward to finding out more about the Ethfinex Nectar Token in the near future, as there is a lot of information that needs to be filled in. It still sounds pretty exciting, as multiple exchanges have issued their own native tokens as of late.