Ren Price

What Is Ren

The DeFi (decentralized finance) sector is developing quickly on the Ethereum blockchain. However, the blockchains of Bitcoin and Co are not compatible with Ethereum. To use your BTC on a DeFi protocol you need to exchange your Bitcoin for WBTC (Wrapped Bitcoin), which is  a centralized entity compatible with Ethereum.

Ren (REN) is an open protocol which offers a decentralized and safe alternative to WBTC.

Ren was created on the Ethereum blockchain according to the ERC20 standard and enables you to exchange Bitcoin into renBTC and use it on a wide selection of DeFi applications on Ethereum which includes lending, borrowing, trading, and many other functions without relying on a centralized entity.

As the single open-protocol, Ren aims at facilitating movement between blockchains and expanding the interoperability and liquidity between different blockchain platforms. It enables popular assets like Bitcoin to participate in a multi-chain DeFi ecosystem, thereby expanding the accessibility of DeFi.

REN has evolved to become an ecosystem with fundamentals of zero-disclosure, complete transparency, and blockchain-enabled rapid and authentic transactions. It provides investors access to over-to-counter transactions (OTC) while ensuring unparalleled privacy.

RenVM Nodes

 

Ren was formerly known as Republic Protocol, founded in 2017 and aimed at devising a protocol for independent crypto-asset blockchains to communicate effectively. It enabled users to seamlessly transfer assets across various blockchains. In May 2020, after completing a $34 million initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018, Ren launched RenVM, Ren’s virtual machine mainnet. RenVM serves as the engine that powers Ren’s decentralized interoperability solution and is in its turn powered by Darknodes which provide the necessary computing power to identify and process cross-chain cryptocurrency orders.

RZL MPC algorithm enables RenVM nodes to create and manage private keys without being able to read them, thereby enabling Darknodes to realize the function of a trustless, decentralized custodian of the digital.

RenVM network (and an accompanying SDK) provides one of the only practical interoperability solutions that can scale. It takes the blockchain’s native format, and converts it to the format needed by its destination chain. RenVM is also the only solution for secret computation over multiple inputs and parties. 

Token REN is the native token of the Ren protocol and functions as a bond for Darknodes. REN is an Ethereum token that powers Ren’s open protocol for transferring cryptocurrencies between blockchains and collecting fees from transactions.

Ren Founders

Taiyang Zhang (CEO) and Loong Wang are the cofounders of Ren, initially named Republic Protocol, and described as a “decentralized dark pool.” 

Zhang has also co-founded the crypto hedge fund Virgil Capital and Neucode, a software and web development startup.

Wang had already extensive experience coding distributed database technologies and had even created his own coding language for blockchain-like technologies before he started working on the project.

Zhang and Wang initially aimed at making OTC cryptocurrency trading decentralized and trustless, and to create a protocol for separate cryptocurrency blockchains to interact.

How Does REN Work

Ren realizes the decentralized and trustless exchange of cryptocurrency assets across blockchains via RenVM.

RenVM is a Byzantine fault tolerant (BFT) -based protocol built upon a network of dark nodes. The Darknodes network uses the “Shamir Secret Sharing Scheme'' algorithm which enables you to run collaborative scripts without exposing the inputs and outputs to anyone (even RenVM-enabled devices).  In other words, orders are fragmented into smaller bits that can’t be regrouped. This leaves the Darknodes unaware of the total amount or destination of the crypto being transacted. These bits are then distributed amongst the nodes till the transaction is carried out. The Judge and the Registrar are the two smart contracts integrated within the platform, designed to verify the transaction through “Zero-Knowledge-Proofs and inhibit the reconstruction of these bits.

RenVM combines the “Shamir Secret Sharing Scheme”  and sMPC algorithms with a consensus mechanism to instantiate a versatile, decentralized, permissionless, and trustless custodian.

RenVM has a separate blockchain and order book of its own for OTC transactions called “SubZero.” The project aims to provide blockchain interactivity and exchanges. The cross-chain transactions are executed by RenVM on the Ethereum blockchain using ERC-20 token equivalents of the asset being transacted. RenVM uses tokenized representation to lock up an asset and obtain a one-to-one representation of that asset in return. This tokenized asset can be burnt to allow you to redeem your locked asset.

RenVM supports any blockchain that uses ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) private keys.

It wraps cryptocurrencies from other blockchains using its dark nodes, such that users can access them on its blockchain. It mints these cryptos and provides a 1:1 equivalent value of the tokens. So far, Ren allows its users to wrap Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash, Dogecoin, Filecoin, and Terra with many more additions such as Polkadot and AVA coming in 2021 so that they can be used on Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains.

The minimum required REN tokens to launch a Darknode is REN 100,000, and one needs to top up the Registrator’s wallet in this amount. In this case, the reward for processing operations will be paid from the same tokens.

The REN tokens are distributed when a user pays for a transaction. To remain in the network there’s also a charge called “bond” which is repayable but placed to keep malicious intruders away.

To sum up: RenVM unlocks inter-blockchain liquidity in a permissionless, decentralized manner. With its tokenized representations of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, RenVM bridges the gap between the DeFi ecosystem and the Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Zcash, Filecoin, Dogecoin, Digibyte, and Terra markets.

RenVM advantages:

RenVM offers seamless transaction performances.

RenVM enables universal interoperability between blockchains and is scalable, with an optimal user experience. It differs from other platforms of tokenized representation in the crypto ecosystem in that it relies on a network of private and randomly grouped nodes to ensure privacy instead of a centralized custodian to hold the locked assets.

Another advantage of RenVM is its composability,i.e. it can be abstracted away from end-users to be integrated directly into DeFi apps.  

RenVM also has fluid value exchange and higher slippage immunity. 

If you want to buy Ren, go check out our guide on how to buy Ren.