Ren, an interoperable liquidity protocol for DeFi, has announced the formation of the Ren Alliance. The Alliance is a consortium of companies and projects operating in DeFi that will help to secure, develop, and utilize the “Ren Virtual Machine.”
It aims to boost the interoperable utility of the RenVM project and help to inject more liquidity into the broader DeFi segment. This will be achieved by introducing larger collateral types, including BTC and other major altcoins, to the DeFi ecosystem.
Announcing Interoperability Alliance
The Ren project was conceived as a means of “achieving truly decentralized applications that are secure, usable, and liquid.”
To reach this goal, RenVM focuses on two core areas—trustless privacy and interoperability between existing ecosystems. The protocol uses a cryptographic method called “secure multi-party computation” (SMPC) to achieve these outcomes.
The algorithm enables nodes on the network to perform private computation, enabling private smart contracts. This means that transactions carried out on Ren can be validated without revealing the underlying information.
While the RenVM protocol is fairly complex under the hood, the project makes it easy for developers to plug into its features that bring multi-chain functionality to their dApps.
Currently, Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Zcash are already live on a pre-production testnet.
Achieving Interoperability in Practice
True interoperability relies on different projects actually interacting across the boundaries of their native blockchain.
Therefore, the Ren Alliance is a means of bringing various projects together around the RenVM. The Alliance is formed of three “foundational roles,” representing different ways that members will use or interact with RenVM.
Utility members will integrate RenVM or add the cross-chain Ren ERC-20 tokens to their dApps. Initial members include AAve, bZx, iEarn.finance, Matic Network, among others.
Stani Kulechov of AAve told Crypto Briefing that, “the Ren Alliance will allow us to bring BTC liquidity into the protocol. And we’re looking forward to bringing that liquidity into the other lending pools.
Totle is also one of the utility members of the Ren Alliance. Founder and CEO of Totle, David Bleznak added via LinkedIn:
“Totle has focused on aggregating exchanges that settle trades on Ethereum. Since RenVM utilizes Ethereum as the settlement layer for Bitcoin exchange, it felt like a natural fit for Totle to leverage in bringing BTC to its users and DeFi in general.”
Security members will be operating nodes on the RenVM network, and include Kyber, Curve Finance, Polychain Capital, and more.
Finally, development members will work on areas such as education or building ancillary services for the RenVM project. This group includes Airswap, DeFi Prime, and Fortmatic, along with 13 others.
The Ren Alliance is also open to new members.
Interoperability in DeFi offers vast potential, not least onboarding Bitcoin—the most liquid cryptocurrency—into the space. Building various crypto bridges can also help patch one of DeFi’s most significant vulnerabilities. Insofar as decentralized finance depends on Ethereum also means that it is currently limited to a slow and unscalable network.
RenVM still needs to go through two iterations of mainnet launches before it reaches its goal of being fully open, permissionless, and decentralized. But for anyone interested in DeFi, RenVM is one to watch.