THORChain 2021 RECAP
Bitcoin blockchain came into existence in 2009. Ethereum, a protocol supporting smart contracts in 2014. Both of them have touched a marketcap of over $1 trillion and $500 billion respectively.
But even after being in existence for so long, there hasn’t been any decentralised solution to swap these assets in a decentralised manner.
This changed with the THORChain protocol launch in April 2021.
Founded in 2018, THORChain development began using Cosmos-SDK. A big role played here is of Threshold-Signatures (TSS), which made it possible for node operators to operate without revealing their private keys to each other.
Lets come back to the recap of 2021, the year where decentralised Native cross-chain swaps went live!
Note: We have only covered the most important updates in our opinion, and those which we are able to find. 2021 was a crazy year for THORChain, and there is a possibility of missing few important updates which weren’t pushed on all channels.
Above is an image of 2020 Christmas where the team gave an overview on what can be expected in early 2021. Happy to say that all above targets are achieved, with various THORChain interfaces going live this year.
Only Synths is left, which is tricky and something for the THORFi period.
January
1) A New community-built Website
In January 2021, A THORChain OG (mehowbrainz) published a community-built THORChain Website — THORChain.org.
The V0.1 website was filled with content for new-comers. With a “But sir?” approach to queries. This was an incredible idea and was appreciated a lot by the wider community. Few suggestions were given and a new version was promised (and delivered recently, Read details here check out the Website!)
2) SCCN THORNode Service-Provider Diversification Incentives
The team was made efforts to decrease SCCN Node Operators’ dependency on AWS service provider. Incentives were given to move to another service providers.
3) THORChain Treasury in Jan 2021:
THORChain handled a total of ~$14 million at beginning of January. Diversified in BTC, USD, RUNE and little BNB. Grants were being given to bootstrap the ecosystem.
Blog: https://medium.com/thorchain/monthly-treasury-report-dec-2020-fb943e516e6d
RUNE price was $1.40 at beginning of the year.
4) ERC20 RUNE on Sushiswap
THORChain opened a bridge to move between BEP2 RUNE and ERC20 RUNE. ERC20 RUNE was out to have more awareness and exposure about THORChain protocol in other dominant network.
3 RUNE pools were out on Sushiswap, and all of them were given Impermanent Loss Protection from the Treasury.
Sushiswap uses fixed-fee approach (0.3%) while THORChain uses dynamic-fee approach. This initiative helped in gaining more data that dynamic-fee model is better.
February
1) Multi-Chain TestNet went Live
In February 2021, the Multi-chain TestNet went live with 5 chains (BTC, ETH, LTC, BNB and BCH). The Native $RUNE also went live on TestNet, and the community was encouraged to try and report any bugs (rewarded with Bug Bounty).
Details: https://medium.com/thorchain/thorchain-multichain-testnet-live-ae1f68f542a6
The TestNet link is here: https://testnet.asgard.exchange/
Interestingly, the Website is now owned by SKIPSwap. An interface to interact with THORChain.
2) THORChain Collectibles were Distributed
Along with the MCTN launch, THORChain Collectibles were also distributed to RuneVault Stakers. A total of 2325 Collectibles were distributed, to 1500 Unique Owners.
THORChain OG Collectibles on OpenSea: https://opensea.io/assets/thorchain-collectibles
Another Interesting observation is that $DOGE and $XHV (Haven) integration was marked as “complete” in Late Feb, Early March 2021. 👀
(Source: Weekly Dev Update #82 and #84)
March
1) Affiliate Fees for Interfaces
In late March, an article was published which further explained how an interface can charge affiliate fees from THORChain swaps.
This means that an interface doing the THORChain integration won’t only give their users a “native cross-chain swap” feature, but the interface would also be able to “earn” from these swaps.
Team also acknowledged to work with various dominant wallets/exchanges in future to support this integration.
2) Brokkr Initial Phase
In Weekly Dev Update #86, it was revealed that Block42 team was working on a synthetics swapping application. Soon a name was chosen for the Project: Brokkr Finance.
3) LP University went Live
LP University is a place where Liquidity Providers can go learn about Liquidity Pooling in theTHORChain protocol. The discord server is filled with resources for newcomers, and deep-discussions on LP strategies are also encouraged there.
LP University Discord: https://discord.com/invite/RUjJaXVstA
April
1) Multi-Chain ChaosNet went Live
In April 2021, a long-awaited wish of the crypto community became a reality.
Multi-Chain ChaosNet was launched which enabled decentralised native cross-chain swaps between BTC, ETH (ERC20s), BNB (BEP20s), LTC, BCH and RUNE [6 chains]. This was seen for the first time in the history of crypto.
Note: It was named “ChaosNet” as Chaos was expected. This was an untouched territory and thus caution was advised. Caps were also placed on liquidity to dis-allow any overflow of funds from the community.
Announcement: https://medium.com/thorchain/thorchain-launch-multichain-chaosnet-bb9f60008a03
Key Notes from the Announcement:
2) ShapeShift Integrates THORChain Protocol
On the same day of MCCN launch, ShapeShift, one of the pioneer exchange in the crypto industry, announced integration of THORChain in their exchange.
ShapeShift strongly believes in the ethos of decentralisation and privacy. Thus this move was made by their team asap, enabling and providing native cross-chain swaps to millions of their users.
C) XDEFI Wallet Early Access
In the same month, the THORChads on telegram were given an opportunity to try out a new multi-chain Web extension: XDEFI Wallet.
Private beta access was given to 2000 members. XDEFI Wallet also rewarded the community for their testing help later on.
D) #RAISETHECAPS
In Early April, a highly engaged THORChad (TheThorLady) reached out to the team with a marketing proposal to create the most engagement on important MCCN events. This community-initiative was accepted by the team and it showed incredible result soon afterwards.
E) An Introduction to THORChain
Couple of days after the MCCN launch, Erik Voorhees, Founder of ShapeShift, shared a blog explaining THORChain. Though this blog is very comprehensive, it consists of the simplest explanations of THORChain components.
This blog acts as the go-to blog for normies.
Blog: https://erikvoorhees.medium.com/an-introduction-to-thorchain-for-bitcoiners-3f621bf0028e
MAY
1) THORWallet Arrival
In May, another protocol emerged from the community, focusing on a multi-chain mobile wallet- THORWallet.
This initiative was also acknowledged and funded by THORChain treasury soon afterwards.
June
1) THORName Service
In June, THORNames went live for free-registration and pre-ordering.
“THORNames, aka vanity addresses allow anyone to register cross-chain wallet addresses to a 1–30 long string of hexadecimal characters which include special characters -_+. This makes them compatible to represent emojis ⚡️”
THORNames are to be resumed sometime in 2022 (around mid-year, rough estimate). Stay tuned for that.
A quick and good explanation on THORName: https://twitter.com/THORChain/status/1402070362477666306?s=20
2) THORSynths on TestNet
THORSynths TestNet went live in late June. Brokkr Finance and THORSwap both supported the TestNet on their interface.
July
1) SingleChain ChaosNet Halt
In early July, SCCN (BEPSWAP) was halted and Liquidity Providers were encouraged to remove their funds or wait for auto-refund.
This was announced before and done at a slow pace to “gradually” move the funds from SCCN to MCCN.
Impermanent Loss Protection was also paid out to BEPSWAP participants (this wasn’t promised, but something done for the benefit of the long-term supporters).
2) ETH Router Exploits
July was a tough month for THORChain. THORChain ETH Router was exploited twice. In both the cases the exploiter was able to trick the THORChain Bifrost in reporting assets as received which, in reality, weren’t received.
A total of ~$16 million was stolen in the exploits.
Post-Mortem and further Details: https://medium.com/thorchain/post-mortem-eth-router-exploits-1-2-and-premature-return-to-trading-incident-2908928c5fb
3) ERC20 RUNE Exploits
Because of the design choice of ERC20-RUNE, it became an easy attack vector for scammers.
Interacting with an unknown airdropped token is never recommended. These malicious airdrop tokens/contracts led to loss of funds for various ERC20 RUNE holders.
4) Immunefi Bug Bounty Program
After the exploits, Audits were initiated with team from Halborn and Trail of Bits.
A Bug Bounty program of $500K also went live with the help of immunefi team: https://immunefi.com/bounty/thorchain/
Bug Bounty Details: https://medium.com/immunefi/thorchain-joins-immunefi-with-500-000-bug-bounty-52a5ddcb2713
August
1) Security Measures Adopted
In response to the exploits, a bunch of security measures were adopted and merged in the protocol.
- Automatic Solvency Checker: An ability for each node to scan wallet balances using their Bifrosts and report negative discrepancies between the on-chain balance and what THORChain thinks it has.
- Granular Network Pause Controls: Pause Trading. LP Actions for Specific or all Chains.
- Node Timeouts: A new feature now grants each node a unilateral ability to call
PauseChainGlobalon the network, once per churn cycle, and only for 720 blocks (1 hour). - Outbound Throttling: This feature throttles the outbound queue so that during spikes of large amounts of funds leaving the network the swaps out are delayed.
- Node Broadcast Bot: This feature allows node operators to stay anon but still broadcast help or emergency messages to the rest of the dev community at any time.
- Live Monitoring: A second bot scans the network for any abnormal activity and immediately broadcasts the issue. This is just an ability for the network to monitor unusual spikes and investigate closer.
2) THORSec: Always-on Red Team
To help the core team in securing the protocol, NineRealms made an initiative and formed a “Red team”. The objective of Red team was to review the existing protocol code, review the new Pull/Merge Requests and to participate in critical go/no-go decisions of the protocol.
This initiative immediately started showing incredible results and the wider THORChain community appreciates their efforts immensely.
Announcement from Nine Realms: https://twitter.com/ninerealms_cap/status/1422697290314047493
3) BEPSWAP Ragnarok
In August, The Single-Chain ChaosNet finally came to an end as the network was ragnaroked (shutdown). The SCCN ran for ~12 months and received high participation from the community.
After the ragnarok, all participants’ funds were slowly returned to them.
4) THORNOOB Initiative
In mid-August, your own THORNOOB went live.
Initial focus was on giving regular updates on THORChain progress and to cover all important THORChain announcements. But it quickly expanded to also cover the important THORChain ecosystem updates.
THORNOOB’s 2 months work was recognised by THORChain, and it got funded later in Q4 2021. Tweet: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs/status/1444725727526408192
September
1) Greymatter Reseach Report
In September, Greymatter Capital shared an in-depth research report on THORChain. They covered almost all aspects of THORChain, and this report acts as a good reference to new users now.
Research Report: https://greymattercapital.substack.com/p/thorchain-analysis-and-valuation
2) BNB, BTC, BCH & LTC Chains Resumed
- In late September, THORChain resumed Trading and LP actions for Binance chain.
(Announcement: https://medium.com/@THORNOOB/whats-happening-with-thorchain-bc0fc0d082ba) - Two days later, THORChain also resumed Trading/LP Actions for BCH and LTC chain.
- Another two days and the BTC chain was also fully resumed. (Announcement: https://medium.com/@THORNOOB/thorchain-resumes-deposits-swaps-withdrawals-of-bitcoin-48dbb68b208b)
This means that in a matter of a week, 4 out of 5 supported chains were resumed on THORChain (BTC, BCH, LTC and BNB Chain).
October
1) ETH Chain Resumed
In late October, The most tricky chain was resumed on THORChain. With this step, THORChain became fully operational again.
Announcement: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs/status/1452319470354145280?s=20
2) First THORChain Twitter Weekly Space
To improve communication and keep the community updated on THORChain progress, a weekly Twitter Space event was also organised. October was the month when the first Twitter Weekly took place.
First Weekly Space Podcast: https://www.runebase.org/podcast/tcw001-introducing-thorchain-weekly/
3) Rango Exchange — A multi-chain Dex Aggregator
It was in October when we realised that a true multi-chain dex aggregator is live, and it has already integrated THORChain in its protocol.
This meant that native cross-chain swaps between “any token to any token” became possible. This was an incredible achievement. Such integration helps in boosting volume on THORChain, as all swaps to Native $BTC will be done through THORChain protocol only.
4) Chain Bridges being worked on
It was a recurring question from the community. Thus we worked on a list of chains which were being worked on. Currently, 5 are live with DOGE and LUNA being worked on “StageNet”. It will be merged on ChaosNet after few weeks of testing.
Tweet: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs/status/1453422122928246790
November
1) Biggest Cap Raise
In Early November, THORChain did the biggest Liquidity Cap Raise of 5 million $RUNE (~$100m at that moment).
5M $RUNE was 1% of total supply, and 50% of THORChain liquidity at that point.
2) THORChain Monthly Stats went Live
Tracking Network Stats on Monthly basis was a good idea. It helps us to know how THORChain is progressing over the time. Various network stats are covered, and suggestions are always appreciated.
As of now, 2 Monthly Stats has been published, while the 3rd one to be out in couple of days.
3) THORChain Treasury in November
From the start of the year to the latest Treasury update, the THORChain treasury did a ~20x(from ~$14m to ~$273m).
December
1) KillSwitch (retiring the switch bridge)
Discussions were made on how to fasten the switch to Native RUNE.
KillSwitch was suggested where the BEP2/ERC20 -> Native RUNE switch loses its value over time (receiving less and less as time passes).
The date for KillSwitch to go live is not yet decided, but THORNOOB worked on how-to guides (on both Medium and Youtube) to help the community.
Guides: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs/status/1474485147068080128
2) New THORChain Website went Live
THORChain.org had a big revamp. The new website now has lots of educational material for the newcomers, but in a much simpler interface.
Attribute me tool also went live and integrated on the website, which means that any marketer/influencer/ecosystem member will be able to track what their users/followers does in the website, and what actions they make in the THORChain protocol ($$ value it brings).
More info: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs/status/1473738687791906827
3) Delphi Digital’s Research Brief on THORSynths
At the end of the year, the Delphi Digital team removed the paywall on the “Top 10” research briefs of 2021 (picked by Delphi Staff). Research brief on THORSynths was one of them.
Research Brief: https://members.delphidigital.io/reports/out-from-chaos-comes-thorsynths/
Other Notable Events:
- Lots of interfaces went live (THORSwap, Rango, ShapeShift, Asgardex, THORWallet, Dragon Dex, Crosschain Quest)
- Token of Ecosystem Projects went live (XDEFI Wallet, THORSwap, THORWallet, THORGuards, PixelTHOR, VanirThreads)
- Various Commuity-built Tools went live (thorchain.net, viewblock, thorchain.live, thormon, DecentralFi, THORChain Alerts, RuneBalance, THORYield, Flipside Crypto, Runedata, Attribute me, SKALD, THORChad Glitch, Churn Countdown)
- GrassRoots Crypto headed the youtube explanation of THORChain components (Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuC_PiCEsNIT6HH88r7vCsw)
- Russian Community showed great support throughout the year, with even a NFT giveaway collaboration with Little Big Band (Details: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs/status/1465394124387803140)
- Node 04yd became a THORChain insider meme during the year. The node which is always late to update the software and halt the network for hours.
We hope you liked the THORChain 2021 Recap. This was the year when true decentralised cross-chain swaps went live, for the first time in the crypto history.
There is much more yet to achieve. More wallet integrations are expected when THORChain achieves MainNet. More features like Synths, Composites, Lending, Borrowing, Interest-Earning Vaults, Leverage is also expected in 2022.
We will likely work on a “THORChain 2022” blog too, covering upcoming milestones a bit. Stay tuned for that. :)
Do Follow us on Twitter to not miss any important updates about THORChain and its Ecosystem: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs
Website (WIP): https://www.thornoob.com/
Medium: THORNOOB — Medium
Youtube: THORNOOB — YouTube
Twitter: https://twitter.com/THORNOOBs
