Can a Layer 2 Protocol Put Exchanges Out of Business?

hybrix releases their white paper next week

hybrix, a young Dutch startup based in Amsterdam, is releasing a layer 2 protocol that could make centralized exchanges all but obsolete.

Since its genesis, hybrix championed the notion of private ownership of one’s assets and freedom of transactions without third parties – the very foundations of Bitcoin as a peer-to-peer payment system. hybrix takes it a step further, creating a meta-ledger that can allow asset swaps between multiple blockchains.

The team behind hybrix already had some major successes. In 2014, they crowdfunded Internet of Coins project (no ‘the’). They also released a series of open-source tools for crypto developers and adopters, including a decentralized wallet (2017), a multi-block explorer (2019), and a powerful API and library. Their solutions won multiple awards (NLNet, ISOC) and research grants (SIDN).

In May 2020, the group is releasing its newest white paper detailing hybrix meta-layer protocol. It leverages the underlying ledger’s infrastructure and governance to enable secure value swaps between blockchains through zero-value transactions. Also in May, they will list their first cross-ledger, multi-chain token, the hy token, which will enable direct asset swaps and incentivize the new network of Validators of the meta-layer, through Validation as a Service (VAAS).

So far, the hybrix platform supports 31 different blockchains and 347 tokens, and as the founders explain, anyone can add more tokens using the hybrix open-source framework. Developers and projects can also launch their own cross-ledger tokens.

The barriers of entry are purposely low. The underlying ledgers need only to be immutable and public with verifiable transactions that have a unique ID, source and target addresses, and an attachment field for data storage such as the op_return. That’s where the metadata goes.

Another strong side of hybrix is their attention to user design and intuitive implementation.

“The hard part lies in making something a polished product. The first 80% is quickly made, but the hard part is finishing the final 20%,” writes the hybrix co-founder, Joachim de Koning, in a medium post about their multi-block explorer, which his team built in only three weeks.

It was a test for the hybrix back-end. Now, this simple web-based tool (image) enables anyone to check any public blockchain transaction history in seconds.

From front-end simplicity to an intuitive back-end, the group makes it a priority to leave only the essential functions and test everything. All this effort is to entice the users and help developers of all levels join and start building. Developers not specializing in blockchain need to be able to keep track, which is why the team developed modular, intuitive, and lightweight stack, the founders told Blockrock.

“Currently (blockchain technology) is still too difficult to understand. It should be much closer to the common person, much closer to the common developers,” reiterates Joachim de Koning.

The co-founder of hybrix, was an early Litecoin miner and a blockchain developer. He remembers the times when it was easy to store tokens on one’s hard drive. The subsequent boom in cryptocurrencies and tokens made it difficult to store, manage, and exchange value without the help of centralized custodians like crypto exchanges.

Since those early days, Joachim was devising solutions to simplify token management and asset transfer while upholding values introduced by the original Bitcoin white paper, the principles of determinism and decentralization. The newly launched hybrix token protocol is the perfect addition to atomic swaps and decentralized exchanges, and could one day do away with centralized, third-party alternatives altogether.

Luckily for crypto exchanges, hybrix is not focused on getting them out of business just yet. Founder’s key mission is to increase the adoption of DLT through interoperability and helping developers build within the multi-platform ecosystem where they can easily switch between different ledgers and implementations.

Betting on superb user experience, hybrix aims to increase the public adoption of cryptocurrencies without sacrificing freedom of transactions.

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About hybrix

hybrix is a multi-blockchain platform that leverages the strengths of every individual blockchain –Creating Freedom of Transaction by letting value flow freely across all different ledgers with the first cross-ledger token.