What Makes The RenVM Protocol Exciting?

RenVM enables the permissionless exchange of value between blockchains - bringing interoperability to DeFi. This directly enhances DeFi’s utility by adding more liquid assets to the Ethereum ecosystem. Regardless of the DeFi app, RenVM can provide a native cross-chain user experience allowing seamless and decentralized interoperability for the first time ever.

Furthermore, REN is a powerful tool for data security and user privacy. The foundation to how RenVM keeps your data secret is by dividing data into multiple shares, with participants in the secret sharing scheme needing a majority of the parts to be able to reconstruct the secret. The pioneered a own state-of-the-art sMPC algorithm that allows untrusted Darknodes to jointly run scripts without revealing the inputs or outputs of the script to anyone, not even to the machines powering RenVM.

RenVM provides one of the only practical interoperability solutions that can scale. It is also the only solution that allows for secret computation over multiple inputs and multiple parties. RenVM is not a product or an application in and of itself, it is a network (and an accompanying SDK) that allows developers to bring cross-chain functionality to their DeFi applications.

The RenVM Token Governance Model

RenVM is powered by a network of machines called Darknodes, earning rewards for contributing compute power and storage space.

RenVM is a decentralized virtual machine. This virtual machine is replicated over thousands of machines that work together to power it, contributing their network bandwidth, their computational power, and their storage capacity. These machines are known as Darknodes.

Darknodes communicate with other Darknodes around the world to keep RenVM running. RenVM uses Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus algorithms and secure multiparty computations so that Darknodes can be operated by anyone without needing to trust them.

You host your Darknode on a Virtual Private Servers (VPS) and update it remotely via your computer's Command Line Interface (CLI). Every day management, such as viewing your rewards, is done from your Darknode Dashboard (accessible from the Command Center).

Ren assumes that all Darknodes are rational and will not contribute resources to RenVM unless they are economically incentivized to do so. Users must pay fees whenever they use RenVM to bridge cryptoassets from one blockchain to another. These fees are paid out to Darknodes as a reward for contributing their resources to RenVM. To read more about Ren's economic incentives, head to the Wiki.

Who Is On The RenVM Team?

The RenVM was originally called the Republic Platform in 2017. Taiyang Zhang and Loong Wang created it back then and they continue to work on it in a strong way so that it became a success. In the year 2019, it was renamed, Ren. They continued to make it known that they had something that would make a difference in the financial world for many people. Since they know that their product is good, they want other people to be able to use it for their own benefit. When they created it, they knew that they had something that could make a difference for many people.

Who Funds The RenVM Project?

In 2018, Ren conducted a private sale, selling 56.5% of its REN token supply and raising $28.9 million in ETH. Participants in the sale included investors Polychain Capital and FBG Capital.

Ren then proceeded to conduct a public token sale, selling 8.6% of the token supply and raising $4.8 million in ETH.

In total, 65.2% of REN tokens were sold in various sales, raising over $30 million in funding. The remaining tokens were allocated to the team and advisers (19.9%), community development (5%) and a company reserve (9.9%).

How To Participate In The RenVM Protocol

Ren is a software that aims to incentivize a global network of users to allow anyone to transfer both new and existing assets across different blockchains.

For example, with Ren, users can lock bitcoins (or other assets) in a smart contract, and in return, receive the equivalent of ether on the Ethereum blockchain. From there, Bitcoin holders could use Ren to access Ethereum’s suite of decentralized finance (DeFi) products without having to sell their bitcoins or even transferring their assets across blockchains.

Using these Ethereum tokens, a user could even participate in Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem, including on lending and borrowing platforms such as Compound or Aave. All the while, the user’s bitcoins would remain locked in Ren software.

Should a user seek to unlock their funds, they would need to use the REN cryptocurrency, which is needed to pay nodes for operating and maintaining the network.