Greetings to all! We are glad to share everything we found about Komodo with you again. Unfortunately, Komodo, an open and composable Smart Chain platform, has only a few news.
To start with, Komodo had its first meetup on the continent of Africa! It was organized by a group of students at the Kampala International University in Uganda. Furthermore, DASH is now supported on KomodoPlatform’s #AtomicDEX. According to the Komodo team, more integrations are coming soon.
To sum up, the Komodo team has not made much progress, but in any case, the Komodo is growing and developing. So, we are going to monitor the Komodo continuously.
Social encounters
- Meetup in Africa
Roadmap
They do have an internal roadmap, but they have yet to make that information public. Part of the reason why they do this is that if the landscape changes, we desire to be flexible in adapting as necessary.
1H 2019
Komodo’s innovative peer to peer orderbooks for the atomic swap network already allowed for coin markets to exist that were not based on BTC prices.
Release of version 1.0 of Komodo’s Custom Blockchain Generator on AWS marketplace
“Evolution” Campaign to launch new roadmap, whitepaper, and messaging
- Komodo 2.0 Technology and Rebrand Launch — done
- Annual Notary Node Elections — has begun
- Continued development of Custom Consensus Framework — has begun
Launch of KMDCC interlinked chain to support zero-knowledge privacy, new Crypto-Conditions smart modules, and other test features and solutions.
2H 2019
- Release of Komodo’s Developer Portal to support increased participation and involvement of Komodo community
- Increased usage of AWS Marketplace to support Komodo products and services, including independent blockchains and custom consensus modules — done
- Release of GUI for a fully mobile-ready wallet/DEX hybrid
Partnerships and team members
No updates.
Rumors
A Complete Beginner’s Guide To Atomic Swaps
The launch of the bitcoin network in 2009 heralded the beginning of a new era of finance. This is driven by the promise of a completely transparent and decentralized means of storing and exchanging value. Today, the cryptocurrency ecosystem is far from decentralized with trade being dominated by centralized exchange platforms.
Recent developments in blockchain have made it possible for traders to exchange cryptocurrencies without centralized platforms. Decentralized exchanges (DEX), allow users to exchange crypto without it ever leaving the safety of their own private wallet using a unique exchange method known as an atomic swap.
- What is an atomic swap?
The atomic swap was first introduced by Tier Nolan on the BitcoinTalk forums in 2013. Nolan outlined the basic principles for cross-chain cryptocurrency swaps by using simple cryptocurrency trades across different types of blockchains.
Fast forward to September 2017, atomic swaps captured the attention of the cryptocurrency community at large when litecoin founder Charlie Lee announced the successful execution of an atomic swap between litecoin and bitcoinover Twitter.
So, what is an atomic swap? An atomic swap creates automated, self-enforcing contracts that execute specific actions once predetermined rules are met with fee-free trading.
- How do atomic swaps work?
Centralized exchange platforms such as Coinbase Pro, Binance, or Gemini are arguably the financial institutions of the cryptocurrency world. That’s because, without these platforms, most crypto traders and investors would find it difficult to exchange cryptocurrencies. In effect, centralized exchanges have become gatekeepers for cryptocurrency trading.
With that being said, how do atomic swaps work? Atomic swaps use a specific type of smart contract called a hash timelock contract (HTCL). This can be thought of like a “virtual lockbox” requiring two special keys:
- A HashLock key: That only distributes traded cryptocurrency to traders when all parties have signed off on their respective transactions.
- A TimeLock key: A safety mechanism that returns traded cryptocurrency to traders if the trade is not completed within a specified time period.
To open an atomic swap, the first party will create an HTCL address who will then deposit a cryptocurrency. After that, a secret passcode for this cryptocurrency is created. This is called a preimage. which is subsequently hashed (a process that “locks” the preimage).
This hashed preimage is then forwarded to a second party, who verifies that the capital for the cryptocurrency has been deposited. A second trader will then deposit their trade capital into a new address, which has been created with the same hash.
The first party unlocks the trade capital deposited by the second party with a secret passcode used to deposit the initial trade capital. The second party can then unlock the trade capital deposited by the first party. Meaning, that an atomic swap has been processed.
- Why are atomic swaps important?
Today, most centralized exchanges force traders to transfer cryptocurrencies via a wallet that is being controlled and hosted by a centralized exchange. This is known as a “hot wallet.” What does this really mean?
Well, traders do not control their private key for hot wallets. So, this places their investment at the mercy of exchanges. This means atomic swap trades hold several advantages over centralized exchange trades, such as:
- Truly decentralized: Atomic swaps are truly decentralized, allowing cryptocurrency traders to exchange digital assets without the need for third-party arbitration, with no counterparty risk.
- Mitigate investor risk: Atomic swaps also leave cryptocurrency holders in complete control of their cryptocurrency at all times, eliminating the hacking risk presented by centralized exchanges.
- Reduced trading fees: The only fees associated with atomic swaps are standard blockchain transaction fees, making atomic swaps a fee-free trading method.
- What is the downside to an atomic swap?
Atomic swap trades are limited by liquidity. This means that without an exchange platform it can be difficult for traders to communicate and exchange cryptocurrencies.
However, recent developments with atomic swap technology have resulted in the prolific increase in decentralized exchanges. Decentralized exchanges are combatting this issue through matching orders between traders using atomic swaps.
- New developments in the atomic swap space
Early decentralized exchanges were restricted by slow adoption, limited liquidity, and a small order book size. Newer decentralized exchange platforms provide users with an exchange functionality that is on par with current centralized exchanges who are now using atomic swaps to execute trades.
In its nascent stage, the atomic swap ecosystem allows traders to leverage the security, a low fee structure; whilst at the same time, benefit from the same services that centralized exchanges provide. The space for atomic swaps is increasingly becoming competitive.
Komodo, an atomic swap early adopter launched the first atomic swap across ethereum. Today, Komodo has facilitated atomic swaps across 95 percent of all cryptocurrencies. Komodo recently released a new blockchain toolkit that allows users to create an entire blockchain network within minutes.
Or, take Rubix for instance, which facilitates atomic swaps via a non-custodial wallet, allowing for fiat-to-crypto debit credit card purchases. The company is being rumored to be now working on a merchant payment processing platform that enables encrypted messages.
What does this really mean? Decentralized exchanges are competing with centralized exchanges and are using atomic swaps to compete with centralized fees and offer crypto traders a choice on how they want to transact and facilitate crypto transactions.
- Final thoughts
Contrary to opinion, the way that cryptocurrencies are traded are usually thought to be decentralized, but in most cases, they are not. As the technology driving decentralized exchanges evolves, cryptocurrency users will have access to a truly decentralized means of trading crypto through atomic swaps, whilst being able to retain control over their digital assets at all times.
Social media metrics
Social media activity:
Social media dynamics:
- It seems that the community gets interested in Discord. It can be related to the last hack attack since Discord is the place used to communicate with developers in the crypto world and all users were able to know all actual news about solving the problem.
- JL777, Komodo’s Platform Core developer and founder, has started his own blog on Medium. This is aimed for developers who want to learn more about blockchain.
The graph above shows the dynamics of changes in the number of Komodo Reddit subscribers, Twitter followers and Facebook likes. The information is taken from Coingecko.com.
