Radar Relay Side-by-Side: Decentralized Exchanges

Radar and Smart Contract Custody Exchanges

What is a Decentralized Exchange?

Decentralized exchange is an umbrella term used for any entity that facilitates trade without a centralized controller. In an industry focused on precision, umbrella terms are damaging and misleading. We believe exchange is a verb, not a noun and we’re working to design a new category, the relayer.

This post, second in our side by side series, explores the differences between Radar Relay and another approach, the Smart Contract Custody Exchange (SCCE) popularized by EtherDelta.

Decentralization

Unlike SCCE’s where centralization is reintroduced by having a single entity in control of all the pieces, Radar uses the 0x protocol to “unbundle” the exchange. This allows each component to be independent. Trade settlement is done through 0x smart contracts and users hold tokens in a wallet they own. We only maintain the interface and orderbook.

Custody

Radar Relay allows for direct wallet-to-wallet trading, which means you never lose custody of your tokens. Unlike an SCCE, token forks, updates, and airdrops are a simple process on Radar.

Security

Users trade from their wallet on Radar, there is no central location where all tokens are held. In the SCCE model tokens are held centrally, which creates a single point of failure and a target for hackers and bad actors alike.

Conclusion

Radar is in the goldilocks zone of decentralization. We decentralize the pieces needed to increase security and give users control of their tokens while leaving our order book off-chain for speed and convenience.

Trade now using the next generation of exchange at Radar Relay.