Kyber Network is an Ethereum-based on-chain liquidity protocol that combines liquidity from different reserves and provides decentralized applications with a convenient tool to instantly switch tokens between each other. With the help of this protocol, developers can build a variety of decentralized financial tools that are not limited by a predefined set of payment options. Kyber Network is fueled by a native utility token KNC.

The key issues that Kyber Network aims to resolve

With the growth of Bitcoin’s popularity, many other blockchain-based projects have appeared, many of which build their own infrastructures and utilize different types of digital assets. The diversity of cryptocurrencies is really impressive, but it creates additional obstacles for the end-users. If a project is fueled, let’s say, by Zcash and a user only has Litecoins or any other cryptocurrencies at hand, the exchange procedure has to be conducted. The two most popular means of exchanging tokens include centralized and decentralized exchanges and they both have some significant flaws.

The first ones often become targets of hackers’ attacks and cannot guarantee 100% security of users’ funds. Also, it may sometimes take several days to withdraw your funds from a platform that may be really inconvenient. Decentralized exchanges eliminate these disadvantages, but have their own peculiarities. Their key problem is the lack of liquidity to support active trading. Also, the costs for every trade may be really high with the order book being kept on-chain.

Kyber Network comes up with a solution to all these issues as it creates a decentralized, on-chain exchange without an order book. Thus, users can exchange different tokens instantaneously with the minimum fees.

In order to provide its users with seamless integration, Kyber Network runs fully on-chain with 100% transparency. It is platform-agnostic and compatible with a wide variety of systems that removes integration barriers for different projects. The possibility to exchange practically any type of tokens opens up a great business opportunity for merchants and brings the blockchain technologies closer to the mass adoption.

The Kyber Network’s use cases

On its official website, Kyber Network names the following use cases for its technology. First, cryptocurrency wallets such as MyEtherWallet, Exodus, Trust Wallet and others can implement this protocol and allow their users to swap tokens without having to leave the application. Second, decentralized NFTs and Ecommerce platforms can implement Kyber Network to accept payments in multiple cryptocurrencies and receive ethers, DAI or any other tokens that they prefer.

In addition, exchanges and trading integrations can write arbitrage programs and take advantage of market inefficiencies. And finally, Kyber Network helps the industry of DeFi or Decentralized Finance to seamlessly liquidate assets and rebalance token portfolios.

Any project can list their tokens on the Kyber Network. The only thing that is needed is to fill in the online Google form and provide some basic information about the token and directors/shareholders documents. Unlike listing on centralized exchanges such as Huobi or Binance, no fee is charged. However, in order to ensure that the reserve fund can provide the needed level of liquidity, the platform requires uploading an inventory amount of 150 ethers and 150 ETH worth of tokens. Projects have full control over their funds and can withdraw them at any moment.

How Kyber Network works

In order to achieve its goals, Kyber Network implements the following technologies.

The instant transfer network Kyber Swap makes it possible to conduct instant exchanges of different tokens eliminating the need for order books or deposits. It makes Kyber Network an ideal tool for merchants who have to make sure that transactions are completed before they send goods to their customers.

The Kyber Reserve represents the pool where third-parties can contribute tokens and thus provide their liquidity. The fund is secured via a transparent fund management model which implies keeping records onchain of every trade completed by reserve managers.

Kyber Developer is the ultimate set of tools and documentation needed for developers to integrate the protocol into their applications.

The Kyber Network’s key milestones

After the project was announced in May 2017, its development was very rapid. The team managed to release the testnet in August of the same year. The ICO started on September 17th and helped the team raise the hard cap of nearly 49 million USD in Ether in less than 24 hours.

During the ICO, 61% of tokens were distributed while the company left 19.5% in the reserve. The same amount was given away to founders, advisors and seed investors.

The team went on with their roadmap and released the mainnet in February 2018 to whitelisted participants and on March 19th to the rest of the public in the beta mode. After the token swap was conducted, KNC tokens can be stored on the wallets that have implemented the Kyber Network’s protocol: KyberSwap, MEW (MyEtherWallet), Enjin, imToken or Easwap.

The Kyber Network’s competitors

Kyber Network is not the only project aiming to conquer the decentralized exchange market. Among its key competitors are 0x Protocol, IDEX and Bancor.

ShapeShift and Changelly also work on providing a crypto swap exchange.

The Kyber Network’s team

Loi Luu, the CEO and CoFounder of the project, is based in Singapore and has extensive experience in the blockchain industry. He has advised a few other blockchain projects including Sygnum and Kambria. The company itself is headquartered in Singapore as well.

His partner and the other Co-Founder Yaron Velner is based in Israel and has a Master’s degree in Computer science at Tel Aviv University. The third CoFounder Victor Tran is based in Vietnam and has great experience in building high-performance multi-platform applications. He has joined the blockchain industry in early 2016.

Among the project’s advisors, there are Leng Hoe Long, Kenneth Oh, Prateek Saxena and even the famous founder of Ethereum Vitalik Buterin.