Blockchain platform Qtum announced the introduction of atomic swaps (exchanges) QTUM own cryptocurrency and BTC in their core network.
Atomic swap (atomic swap) is a technology that allows you to exchange one cryptocurrency to another without participation of a third party or a centralized exchange. As stressed by Qtum blog on Medium, inability to perform megapode exchanges is one of the main challenges to increasing the use of blockchain technology.
Team Qtum reminded that the atomic swap is one solution to this problem, which has its advantages and disadvantages. To the first she took:
- no need for a third party to exchange;
- both transactions are completed or cancelled on two chains simultaneously, as the process atomic.
Among the shortcomings were highlighted:
- the need for tool matching the prices that the parties were able to agree on the number of exchanged tokens;
- increased, compared to centralized exchanges, the time of confirmation of the transaction.
The implementation of atomic swaps QTUM-BTC was achieved with the use of technology Hash Time-Locked Contracts (HTLC) and code-based project Decred. The HTLC technology that is used, for example, in the Lightning Network, the developers Qtum considered to be the most secure way of implementing sharing.
We will remind, earlier Qtum announced the allocation of a group of scientists from Columbia University, a grant of $400 thousand to develop a new programming language DeepSEA for smart contracts.
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