Atomic Cross-chain Swaps: Development, Trajectory and Potential of Non-monetary Digital Token Swap Facilities
It addresses interoperability problems for cryptocurrency users and developers, but appears incremental as it reviews and analyzes existing technology rather than proposing new methods.
This paper investigates atomic cross-chain swaps, a smart exchange protocol for cryptocurrencies, to address interoperability and scalability issues hindering cryptocurrency adoption. It examines their operation, market development, advantages, and future challenges through literature/technology reviews and analysis.
Since the introduction of Bitcoin in 2008, many other cryptocurrencies have been introduced and gained popularity. Lack of interoperability and scalability amongst these cryptocurrencies was and still is, acting as a significant impediment to the general adoption of cryptocurrencies and coloured tokens. Atomic Swaps, a smart exchange protocol for cryptocurrencies, is designed to facilitate a wallet-to-wallet transfer enabling direct trades amongst different cryptocurrencies. Since swaps between cryptocurrencies are still relatively unknown, this article will investigate the operation and market development thus far and query the advantages they offer and the future challenges they face. The paper contains detailed literature and technology reviews, followed by the main analysis and findings.