Announcing the launch of Router Protocol’s Cross-chain Testnet
A couple of weeks ago, we announced a teaser trailer of our upcoming testnet launch on twitter.
We are excited to finally launch the Router XCLP testnet. The testnet currently allows users to swap stablecoin assets between the testnets of Ethereum (Kovan), Matic/Polygon, BSC, and Huobi chains.
We also have a faucet where you can get all the testnet coins you need. You will need stablecoin assets on the testnet to play around with the demo. For example in the above screenshot, we need Kovan-ETH to provide gas the transaction as well as test USDT on Kovan to perform the swap.
For the swap, you will need a web3 wallet, and we recommend Metamask. Metamask will throw up a notification for approving the network change request when you select different networks on the left side of the screen, which shows the source chain and assets. This has been done so users do not have to manually add parameters on MetaMask for various networks they are interacting with.
The swaps take less than 1 minute on the testnet to complete. You might have to wait for up to a minute to see the swapped assets back in your wallet on the destination chain. Router Protocol’s XCLP (Cross-Chain Liquidity Protocol) drastically reduces cross-chain wallet transfer times. For example currently it can take up to 4 hours for transferring inter-chain assets. Router’s XCLP will reduce those transfer times to less than 1 minute.
Router Protocol will be launching its protocol in phases. The first phase is focused on stablecoins, where we demonstrate the ability of the protocol to communicate across blockchains and swap stablecoin assets with a 1:1 ratio.
The next version of the protocol will allow for the transfer of various token assets in addition to stablecoins. A subsequent version will allow users to swap assets between one-chain to another chain; for example, swapping USDT on Matic for ETH on BNB chain. For achieving this, we will be ramping up significantly on our affiliate AMM aggregator, Dfyn, as well as other AMMs on various chains.
So we have the seamless liquidity across chains enabled by XCLP infra on Router Protocol. We also have liquidity on-boarding points in each chain through Dfyn as well as other partner projects that wish to plug into the Router network. This hub-and-spoke architecture can be a powerful model that enables a number of existing as well as future DeFi use cases, such as cross-chain trading, lending, governance and so on and so forth.
Router Protocol’s entire codebase will be available for developers as a plug-and-play module; We abstract out the entire process of cross-chain transfers and swaps and developers are free to focus on building products that can function on top of different blockchains seamlessly, while leaving the heavy lifting of inter-blockchain communication and transfers to Router Protocol.
With Router Protocol’s overall approach, there a few key points worth highlighting:
- No fragmentation of token liquidity; With many bridges, the overall token universe gets fragmented into tokens specific to a bridge, or a chain. One USDC on Matic may not be instantly fungible with one USDC on Ethereum, for instance. This is something our approach avoids
- Unified gas fees; With Router, swapping Asset A on one chain for Asset B on another chain will be as simple as booking a ticket online between two cities. You set the parameters of the trade, optimizing for price/execution certainty etc and the protocol abstracts out all the underlying complexity for you
- Delegation; Router holders will be able to provide liquidity to the platform through validator nodes and earn a share of the gas fees that is charged by the platform for enabling cross-chain transactions
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we are in discussions with a number of projects, teams, chains and other ecosystem participants on various collaboration opportunities, and would love to hear from you as well, if you think there is something we can work on together.
About Router Protocol
Router Protocol is building a suite of cross-chain liquidity infra primitives that aims to seamlessly provide bridging infrastructure between current and emerging Layer 1 and Layer 2 blockchain solutions.
Website: http://routerprotocol.com/
Telegram: https://t.me/routerprotocol
Telegram announcements: https://t.me/router_ann
Twitter: https://twitter.com/routerprotocol
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/router-protocol
About DFyn
Dfyn is a layer-2 AMM DEX currently functional on the Polygon network. Dfyn acts as Router protocols liquidity node and will soon be functional on other blockchains
Website: https://dfyn.network
Telegram: https://t.me/Dfyn_HQ
Twitter: https://twitter.com/_DFyn
