To carry out transactions with cryptocurrencies, a large number of platforms have emerged within the ecosystem that, from the beginning, began to operate in a centralized manner, with characteristics similar to those of regulated financial entities, such as banks. This is the centralized exchange houses (CEX), which currently abound in the market and also have a greater popularity and trajectory.

However, in recent years, other platforms have been developing -and gaining momentum- for a more deregulated and universal exchange: the decentralized exchange houses (DEX), which, unlike the CEX , operate without intermediaries and they operate in environments maintained by software, through which they interact with the technology of the different blockchains .

The DEX are characterized because the exchanges are made between pairs (p2p), in which it is difficult to apply regulations , so that the control of transactions is acquired by the participants. This type of platform is also characterized by the fact that anonymity is important and it is not necessary to entrust the funds to a company, since they do not usually offer custody services.

It is precisely due to this type of operation that the DEX have been considered by many as the exchange systems more consonant with the decentralized nature of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, although their development is still in full swing. Let's see the characteristics of some of these platforms.

WAVES

The Waves project was launched in April 2017 by Alexander Ivanov, its founder and CEO, for the purpose of issuing, storing, managing, marketing and analyzing digital assets in a secure manner through the Waves blockchain, a global public platform founded on 2016. As noted on its website, in addition to the Waves tokens, thousands of other types of tokens can also be issued through your system.

This DEX also allows the transfer of funds from person to person and the exchange between fiduciary money (dollars and euros) and cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH) and other altcoins .

According to the Waves team, one of its goals has been to facilitate value transfers and transactions faster than is possible in most decentralized networks. This was achieved with the update Waves-NG, launched in December 2017 on the main network of the Waves platform, with the support of 94.5% of the miners.

In parallel, there is an opportunity to accumulate funds through the use of Waves wallet , which can be downloaded as an html file or run as an add-on to the Chrome browser; although clients usually control their keys and their money. A lite version of this portfolio was also developed, which can be executed in the Android operating system.

The DEX website explains that they also have a system that allows their clients to lease a quantity of WAVES (native cryptoactive from this ecosystem) to a mining pool that works with this cryptocurrency, to receive a percentage of what was collected in exchange. for said pool in transaction fees; an amount that will be proportional to the amount of WAVES leased. In this way, the user is promised an average profit of 5% of the token balance in a year.

BISQ (BITSQUARE)

Bisq, formerly Bitsquare, is an open source DEX that allows users to purchase bitcoins, altcoins and fiduciary currencies through a custody system that promises to guarantee that all exchanges are carried out honestly. In that sense, is one of the most privacy-oriented cryptographic exchange platforms , aimed above all at those who want to maintain anonymity to trade with other people.

In his corporate blog , Bisq's team points out that privacy protection is not only a core value of the company, but also a fundamental property of money. On top of that, he adds that bitcoin and its infrastructure must improve in that area to develop its full potential as solid money.

The platform has several features that seek to guarantee this privacy, including the non-requirement of confidential information to obtain verification , such as name, email and personal data. It also uses Tor's p2p network to ensure that the user's identity is hidden.

Likewise, it does not maintain fiat or bitcoins in its servers or in its accounts, decentralizing the process from the placement of the order until its execution. Currently it supports 126 cryptoactives (including BTC) and is available in operating systems such as Windows, Mac and Linux.

KYBER NETWORK

Kyber was founded by Loi Luu (co-founder of the SmartPool decentralized mining project), together with Yaron Velner and Victor Tran. The company is headquartered in Singapore and has a team of experienced and knowledgeable advisors, including Vitalik Buterin. It is a project announced in May 2017, which launched its main live network in February of the current year and is available to its users as a public beta since last March.

Today, this exchange house accepts 15 different cryptocurrencies , as well as tokens ERC20 . By the beginning of 2019, the platform promises to offer advanced financial instruments and plans to add support for the realization of atomic exchanges , which will allow users to exchange any cryptocurrency for another instantly. In this way, once the platform is fully functional, users can send any cryptocurrency and convert it to any other token before it ends up in the receiver's wallet.

ETHERDELTA

It is a decentralized exchange house for the exchange of Ethereum tokens, where users can change ethernet and tokens based on this blockchain, which usually follow the standard protocol ERC20. EtherDelta markets with more than 241 tokens, but its key feature is that the intelligent contracts are used to control most of the site 's features , including the integration of wallets, deposits, withdrawals and purchase orders. This makes it possible to manage the funds directly using an ether wallet.

Consequently, to facilitate the management of its interface, which many consider complex, they offer the public a manual published by Nexxusuniversity, which details how to access the service using a MyEtherWallet account. At this time, users apply a single rate of 0.3%, while the deposit, withdrawal and creation transactions are free.

The platform of EtherDelta was compromised last December, due to a phishing attack (identity theft), although the funds were not at risk until the page was accessed, a fact that was publicly notified through social networks.

OX

Founded by Will Warren and Amir Bandeali in 2016. It is an open source protocol designed to perform decentralized exchanges of cryptoactives and promote the exchange of ERC20 tokens. The project includes an API over which anyone with sufficient skill can add interfaces to the network, such as applications and websites, among others.

According to what is exposed on its website, the 0x exchange platform works by changing commercial orders outside the block chain , in order to incur lower gas tariffs (commissions) and generate less tension in the main network. To achieve this, Ox uses what they call relayers , responsible for issuing orders through public or private order books.

The orders are issued through the network paying a retransmitter for facilitating a commercial exchange. It offers, therefore, the possibility that some users may choose to become what is called a relay. So far, the company cites as some of the prominent transmitters to companies such as Paradex, Radar, ETHFinex and OpenRelay, among others. Although it is clarified that anyone can fulfill this function.

These relays participate by hosting a shared order book with other nodes and propagating other important information on the network. In exchange for participating in this way, you can earn 0x tokens (ZRX), based on the amount of the transaction fees. As a result, orders are not valid until they are signed by a user.

Last September the company based in California, United States, made an Initial Offer of Currency (ICO) for the financing and mobilization of its exchange project in which it raised 24 million dollars.

CEX AND DEX IN COEXISTENCE

In addition to the previous platforms, many more decentralized exchange projects are underway that try to fulfill the ideal of eliminating financial intermediation, promoting an increasingly direct interaction between market players.
However, traditional platforms are far from disappearing , although many of them are adding to a new trend, through which many centralized exchange houses are offering some of their services through decentralized systems. Such is the case of Coinbase, which last May merged with DEX Paradex.
In this regard, the founder of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, raised the idea of ​​a process in several phases, which will make the CEX and DEX always in interdependence. In his opinion, a first phase of the business, focused on investment, will be based on centralization. While a second phase, which calls for utility, will involve the use of cryptocurrencies as a generalized payment system, necessarily leading the process to decentralization.

@Chris10