RigoBlock announces self custody
I am proud to announce that RigoBlock now supports self custody. For those of you who are not familiar with RigoBlock, it is a protocol for token management. From a technical level, it is a piece of software infrastructure which allows the creation of management of token pools. From a higher level, it represents the freedom to trade.
Token pools are intended as software which allows to organizing tokens in different forms. From an application level, you can think of custody services, fund management services, administration services built on top of it.
The RigoBlock protocol, after the approval of RBIP 1, allows for tokens to be transferred by their operators from the token pools to arbitrary Ethereum accounts.
Why is this relevant?
First of all, pools operators have the option to use self custody and are not obliged to do so. Second, it means that the pool operators do not have to trust the RigoBlock protocol software for custody of the tokens.
This opens a new window of possibilities, as pools operators can now choose to implement their custody services, prime brokers, custodians, exchanges, simple accounts, cold storage, deep-cold storage or other smart contracts.
Why did we choose to implement self custody?
RigoBlock is in a sweet spot of being the absolute first player that brought to life a decentralized asset management protocol on the Ethereum mainnet (and also on other Ethereum networks). The early prototypes date back to 2016, while an alpha platform followed in 2017 and beta in 2018. This has given us the possibility of testing the product in a real production environment and to understanding the expectations of the traders, for whom the product has been built in the first place.
The primary driver for the upgrade has been the traders’ demand. Now, traders can operate on any exchange, centralized or decentralized and implement more complex strategies. This means that, from a technical level, they can use RigoBlock as a settlement layer for subscriptions/redemptions and as a tool for “stamping” their track record. The Proof of Performance model rewards traders for the integrity of their track record through an incentive model, aligning the interests of the different stakeholders.
But is RigoBlock still a decentralized protocol?
Yes indeed, more than ever. Decentralization also means reducing the reliance of the protocol on a centralized entity. By allowing self custody, we are removing the need of the pool operator to trusting the RigoBlock smart contracts.
Going to production on the Ethereum mainnet has meant being able to empirically verify our ideas and hypotheses. On one hand, we realized that most of the traders would migrate to decentralized exchanges only gradually and that 99.9% of the trading occurs on other venues. On the other hand, we also realized that decentralized exchanges, fully decentralized ones in particular and on-chain transactions, are subject to front running and manipulation. No matter how many bindings are set on-chain, because of the limitations of today’s technology, any such limit can be fooled. In a business like trading, built on exploiting arbitrage opportunities, this meant that any such limit will be fooled. Therefore, we decided to maintain a “technology-neutral” approach and not discriminate centralized vs decentralized trading venues.
By allowing traders to opt for their custodian or prime broker, we are probably again setting a new standard in building a protocol for decentralized asset management (just one to remind of our many successes, we were the first in the world to have connected a decentralized protocol for asset management with a decentralized exchange operating on a centralized order book for fast order matching).
Is RigoBlock competitive?
How do 69$ cents in raw costs sound to you? Even before the upgrade, RigoBlock was already best in class with a cost to production 50 times less than the competition and a time to production of 10 times less. With the current upgrade, there is no product which facilitates token management the way RigoBlock does. RigoBlock’s ethos of being a tool for traders/quants is intact. RigoBlock represents the freedom of trading and organizing tokens in any form. On top of it, it is the fastest and most inexpensive in the world (we welcome challengers).
How do I test it out?
You can find more information on the https://rigoblock.com website. You can find the frontend portal at https://beta.rigoblock.com and all code is open-source on Github https://github.com/rigoblock. You will need a few GRG tokens to interact with the portal and fully use its features, which can be purchased on various decentralized exchanges.
