Even though major cryptocurrency protocols such as Bitcoin and Ethereum already offer a wide range of features, there’s always room for more competition. The Kyber Network is a great example of this, as their protocol is based on Ethereum for the most part. However, their focus is very different, as the main bread and butter involves instantly exchanging and converting digital assets and cryptocurrencies alike. It is an ambitious goal, but there’s no reason to think this project cannot succeed in the long run.
What is Kyber Network Exactly?
As mentioned before, Kyber Network has nothing to do with ICOs or projects such as CryptoKitties. While it is based on Ethereum technology, the team purposefully moved in a very different direction. By focusing on instantly exchanging cryptocurrency and digital assets, they are tapping into a market where competition is hard to come by. It is somewhat similar to decentralized exchange models, as all transactions take place on the blockchain without any centralized platform being involved.
How Will This Vision be Achieved?
Kyber Network’s vision is solid, but turning it into a working project is something else entirely. With a main focus on trustless solutions, instant services, and high liquidity, there is a lot of work to be done by the developers. Unlike the centralized exchange model, Kyber Network aims to remove all security vulnerabilities from the equation. With no centralized platform, logins, or identity verification documents present, there is no information to be stolen from a centralized entity.
On-chain decentralized exchanges are slowly becoming more present in the world of cryptocurrency. Even though most of these concepts are still in the early stages of development, there are some solutions on the market already. It will be interesting to see how well Kyber Network performs in this regard, as the removal of a centralized interface often means solutions like these are less convenient for users. Transfers are seemingly simple, though, as the protocol has an interface nonetheless.
Liquidity providers on the Kyber Network are known as reserve entities, whereas the people providing funds to these entities are known as Reserve Contributors. There’s also a Reserve Manager, which will take the form of a Kyber Network contract to maintain the trustless nature of this protocol. This same contract can also add and remove Reserve Entities if needed, which is pretty interesting. Liquidity on the protocol will be maintained through a dynamic reserve pool to prevent monopolies from forming in the future.
What Comes Next for Kyber Network?
The year 2018 will be pretty significant for Kyber Network as a whole. During the first quarter, we will witness the first mainnet launch which will support trading between various tokens and Ethereum. Arbitrary token pairs will be added in the next quarter, followed by advanced financial instruments later this year. Cross-chain trading will not go live until early 2019, which means most of the work has yet to be done. It does give people lots to look forward to, though.
