James Cirrone

Privacy protocol Elusiv is launching a private token swap tool for Solana. The platform intends to aid users who wish to trade their assets without revealing personal information about themselves.&nbsp;



The core infrastructure for the tool has been under development for over a year, and is now available through a web app and supports transfers to other crypto wallets in solana (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/sol">SOL</a>), USD Coin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdc">USDC</a>), tether (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/usdt">USDT</a>), bonk (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/bonk">BONK</a>) and samoyedcoin (<a href="https://blockworks.co/price/samo">SAMO</a>). 



Expansion to other ecosystems outside of Solana is being considered, according to Elusiv co-founder Julian Deschler.



To use it, people have to connect their wallet and top up their “private balance” to their desired amount. Then, when it&#8217;s time to make a transaction, the private swap functionality encrypts the user&#8217;s public key while also generating a temporary key. That temporary key sends the transaction, thereby obscuring the user’s trading habits.



“This enables users to swap assets with complete privacy, as token pairs and amounts can never link to a user&#8217;s wallet address. This increases users&#8217; security, hides trading strategies and protects those making frequent swaps or exchanging large quantities,” Elusiv shared in a statement.



Elusiv also pointed out that making trades on decentralized exchanges (<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/dex">DEXs</a>) are not the end all be all for privacy, as data is scraped from them and published on block explorers.&nbsp;



Deschler said this tool is crucial to make DeFi fair for everyone, including regular users and seasoned traders. 



“Private token swaps secure one of the most fundamental actions in all of DeFi and push the entire Web3 space forward to deliver on core values of self-sovereignty and data ownership,” Deschler said in a statement.&nbsp;



The idea of obscuring crypto transactions isn’t at all new. Crypto mixers such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/tornado-cash">Tornado Cash</a> have been around for years. CoinJoin was released in 2013, and it performed a similar function to mixers but was specific to Bitcoin.



However, ​​Deschler told Blockworks that Elusiv doesn’t mix user funds, adding that Elusiv is more akin to privacy protocols Aztec and Railgun.



“We utilize a combination of cryptographic schemes, most notably zk-SNARKs to bring privacy guarantees to users,” ​​Deschler said. “Mixers, on the other hand, present notable differences in their privacy assurances, programmability, and foundational structure.”



Mixers have also run into legal trouble. Tornado Cash developer <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tornado-cash-developers-arrest-sparks-protest-in-amsterdam">Alexey Pertsev was arrested last summer after authorities suspected him of facilitating money laundering</a>. Before Pertsev’s arrest, the US Treasury sanctioned Tornado Cash, making it impossible for Americans to interact with it.&nbsp;



​​Deschler said Elusiv has “not been met with any legal hurdles,” adding that his team is engaged with the European Crypto Initiative’s efforts to develop fair regulation.



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Elusiv debuts private token swap functionality for Solana

Jacquelyn Melinek

<div id="highlights-block_61aa5e86ff8f6" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>WOO Network is a liquidity ecosystem that connects traders, exchanges, institutions and DeFi platforms with access to liquidity, trading execution and yield-generating strategies</li>
 <li>NEAR is a development platform built on a proof-of-stake, layer-1 blockchain</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



WOO Network and NEAR Foundation have completed a $5 million token swap to create a partnership between the two projects, both organizations said in an announcement on Friday.&nbsp;



As part of the partnership, WOO Network will become a builder in the NEAR Protocol ecosystem.



The tokens have a five-year vesting period, and the platforms can collaborate to create shared value for their respective token economies, according to the announcement.



WOO Network’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) will stake the NEAR tokens to generate yield, use it in governance and retain commitment as a NEAR ecosystem stakeholder, Ran Yi, head of ecosystem at WOO Network, said in a statement. The WOO DAO will manage 300 million WOO tokens which will be used to accelerate its growth for the liquidity network.



NEAR is a development platform built on a proof-of-stake, layer-1 blockchain. In October, NEAR launched an <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/near-protocol-offers-800m-grants-130017836.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">$800 million</a> grants fund with a focus on decentralized finance (DeFi).



WOO Network is a liquidity ecosystem that connects traders, exchanges, institutions and DeFi platforms with access to liquidity, trading execution and yield-generating strategies. In November, it closed a $30 million round that was oversubscribed by 200%, Blockworks previously <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/neon-labs-raised-40m-woo-network-closes-30m-nexo-invests-in-texture-capital/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>. 



The two projects have been “familiar for years” and have a lot of synergies, Ben Yorke, vice president of marketing for WOO Network, told Blockworks.&nbsp;



“NEAR&#8217;s blockchain is well-known for its technical strengths and developer-friendly design. WOO Network can provide liquidity and trading infrastructure, two of the most in-demand components for blockchain smart contract layers,” said York. “Therefore, this type of relationship can strengthen the relationship between the two projects, as a way of aligning incentives and solidifying the commitment to co-development.”



WOO Network provides liquidity used in ParaSwap’s private pools, which supports <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/paradigm-leads-65m-round-for-decentralized-exchange-dydx/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">dYdX’s</a> market maker Kronos Research. “The strategic relationship with NEAR will put us in a strong position to build the next generation of products powered by decentralized technology,” Yi said. 



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Integrations like these will continue to grow as multi-chain applications are able to seamlessly bridge users and assets from one network to another,” said Yorke. “Users are becoming less restricted and as a result, will flow where technology layers and application layers can combine to provide the most value with the best experience.”</blockquote>



Overall, DeFi protocols have gained traction during 2021 with the total value locked hitting new all-time highs in November, <a href="https://defillama.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a> from DeFiLlama shows.



The DeFi market capitalization is around $150 billion, but could become a $15 trillion industry over the next five to 15 years if it attains the same success rate of about 50% to 70% as other disruptive technologies, according to a recent <a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/static.bitwiseinvestments.com/Research/Decentralized-Finance-DeFi-A-Primer-for-Professional-Investors-11-16-2021.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a> released by Bitwise.



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