Ren (REN) Defi Coin Review: Transfer any Token Between any Blockchain

What Is Ren Defi Coin

Ren Defi Coin (REN) is an open protocol built to provide interoperability and liquidity between different blockchain platforms. Formerly known as Republic Protocol, Ren launched RenVM, its virtual machine mainnet, in May 2020, having completed a $34 million initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018.

The protocol’s native token, REN, functions as a bond for those running nodes which power RenVM, known as Darknodes. Ren aims to expand the interoperability, and hence accessibility, of decentralized finance (DeFi) by removing hurdles involved in liquidity between blockchains.

Welcome to the Ren Defi Coin Developer documentation! Here you’ll find everything developers need to know about building decentralized applications using RenVM. For more lower-level details on the inner workings of the RenVM network, check out the specification on GitHub.

Ren Project Facts

Connecting the unconnected

Use RenVM to expand the capability of existing dApps or create entirely new business cases within the decentralized world..

Multi-collateral lending

Utilize your existing non-custodial smart contracts to collateralize cross-chain assets.

Bring cross-chain assets to your DEX

Integrate cross-chain assets such as Bitcoin and Zcash into existing DEX or liquidity pool infrastructure.

Cross-chain OTC trading

Ren Defi Coin Traders conducting large volume OTC trades no longer at risk of counterparties failing to honor the trade.

Supported blockchains

With support for more blockchains planned, it won’t be long before the entire ecosystem is connected.

Liquidity, unchained.

Introducing RenVM, an open protocol providing access to inter-blockchain liquidity for all decentralized applications. Bring BTC, BCH and ZEC to your Ethereum app.

Decentralized Exchange

This example walks through a set of Ethereum smart contracts that would allow users to trade foreign tokens (like BTC, ZEC) on the Uniswap exchange. In this example, we will explore using RenVM interoperability to implement a set of smart contracts that allow traders and liquidity providers to trade BTC and ZEC on the Uniswap exchange. The full source code for this example is available on GitHub.

What Makes Ren Unique?

Ren is a complex platform with multiple use cases, but it is ultimately designed to overcome barriers to entry and investment for DeFi projects. As a plug-in, it allows DeFi projects to bring foreign cryptocurrency assets such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash (ZEC) to their offerings. More broadly, users can in essence swap any token between any two blockchains without middle steps such as using so-called “wrapped” versions of tokens, for example Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH).

RenVM is a network of virtual computers making up a virtual machine. The machines powering the network which makes up RenVM are called Darknodes. Ren charges various fees for internal operations, but most do not go towards direct profitability, instead being paid to miners. As an ERC-20 token, REN also attracts varying gas fees to power transactions.

How Is the Ren Network Secured?

Ren Defi Coin is a byzantine fault-tolerant protocol that facilitates ECDSA threshold key generation and signing via secure mutli-party computation (sMPC). This allows RenVM to securely manage (ECDSA) private keys on different blockchains, making it possible to shift tokens between these blockchains (i.e interoperability).

The network is currently in phase sub-zero in its pathway to decentralization, for more information on RenVM’s pathway to decentralization, please refer to Ren’s Wiki

Where Can You Buy Ren (REN)?

REN is a freely-tradable token and has a presence on various major exchanges. Of these, Binance and Huobi Global have the largest volume as of October 2020. Pairs include cryptocurrency, fiat and stablecoins. Crypto newbie? Read our easy guide to buying Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.