Liquidity Network is a 2nd layer solution, built upon the NOCUST protocol, a scalably secure commit-chain. A commit-chain is similar to a side-chain, but doesn’t require an additional consensus mechanism and solely relies on the security of its parent-chain.
You can convert your ETH, and ERC20 assets into fETH, or fTOKEN, by depositing them into the NOCUST smart contract. fX stands for fast, free assets, because they can be sent near-instantly and without blockchain fees.
At any point in time, you can withdraw your commit-chain funds back to their original representation. The NOCUST smart contract ensures that you remain custodian of your own assets - even in the presence of a malicious NOCUST operator colluding with all other commit-chain users!
Yes, one single NOCUST instance is centralized - but non-custodial! This means that the operator cannot steal your funds or prevent you from converting commit-chain funds back to “normal” assets. The operator could chose to censor your commit-chain transactions - but if he chose to do so, you can simply exit your assets (anytime) and chose another NOCUST instance.
The Liquidity Network’s vision is to build a decentralized network of NOCUST instances.
There are zero blockchain fees (i.e. zero gas) to make a commit-chain transfer. The NOCUST instances, however, might request transaction fees. Our current NOCUST hubs allow 100 transactions per address, per month at no cost. To enable an unlimited number of transactions, the hub would need to be paid 1 LQD token per month per address.
You can use our NOCUST JavaScript API.
We’ll be soon releasing a step-by-step guide on how to operate a non-custodial hub.
You can find our solidity smart contracts on github, we are currently in the last steps of documenting and optimizing many of the nits and bits prior to the open source release of the client, and server.
Yes, liquidity network supports non-custodial atomic swaps.