Cryptocurrencies were born out of the need for decentralization. At the heart of Bitcoin’s experiment was the vision to create a trustless environment to transfer value on a peer-to-peer basis. This led to many decentralized cryptocurrencies flood the market. However, most cryptocurrencies are yet to achieve true decentralization.

Ironically, most cryptocurrencies are still traded on centralized exchanges. These exchanges are known to be prone to hacks, mismanagement, and manipulation. After the 2017 bull run, users felt the need for decentralized exchanges more than ever. This led to the rise of various decentralized exchanges (DeX).

Users who were joining the game early found clunky user interfaces, limits on trade, and limits on the kind of crypto tokens you could trade on such platforms. For example, on a DeX based on Ethereum, you can only trade tokens based on Ethereum. This also led to low liquidity and market fragmentation. Newer blockchains like Tron have emerged as powerful players. But all of them work in isolation.

The next logical steps in this direction are to make these blockchains work without compromising on decentralization or security and to have a DeX that can be easily adopted by both everyday users and traders.

Interplanetary Crypto Token Exchange (ICTE) is a decentralized exchange built by experienced traders and blockchain experts and it aims to solve the current problems with its unique decentralized model. They have decentralized their entire network of exchanges – which can be started and ran by the community – and users could benefit from the liquidity of the entire network.

Let’s take a look at their model of decentralization:

Networked

ICTE is not just one decentralized exchange. It is a network of decentralized exchanges, all of which are ran independently but governed by the same principles and underlying technology. ICTE’s cross-blockchain technology enables them to transfer tokens across blockchains using smart contracts on their own high-frequency settlement-cycle blockchain.

This will become increasingly important as more blockchain projects will start in the future and the users will demand a single interface to trade and use tokens based on separate blockchains. ICTE is one of the first companies to offer a cross-blockchain decentralized exchange that is targeted both to traders and the general public alike.

Alpha and Satellite Exchanges

Alpha Exchanges are like reserve banks that oversee their Satellite Exchanges, the consumer-facing commercial banking systems. ICTE’s network enables members to launch their own instance of a Satellite Exchange. These instances are run and managed by different people or organizations, all of whom are incentivized to increase the trade volume and to settle transactions because of ICTE’s generous rewards. 

Smart Contracts and Smart Services

ICTE uses smart contracts to communicate across the blockchains and process their trade orders, but this is also what most DeXs use to achieve communication across chains. What makes ICTE stand out are its smart services, which are aptly named because they are services that instance operators can add to their instances to run alongside them! For example, ICTE does not support KYC compliance so that they can maintain their core values of decentralization.

However, if you own a business or organization where you need some form of KYC, and you want to join ICTE’s network, you can install a smart-service inside your specific instance, and have the KYC module running alongside the blockchain and exchange services, and communicate with the other services in the instance.

Democratic participative model

ICTE’s model is not controlled centrally. Anyone can launch a Satellite Exchange instance and participate in this revolution. Starting a crypto exchange today requires a significant investment. Setting up services, code, servers, presentations, advertising, apps and the complete stack of technology from scratch could take millions of dollars.

It would also involve significant investment and lag in the time to market. ICTE democratizes this model by providing all the necessities to anyone who wants to run an exchange and digitize their services using blockchain technology. Further, ICTE includes public-facing utilities to each instance operator, such as a website with a real-time crypto dashboard and a mobile application connecting straight to the instance.

Hosting and launching an exchange is one thing, getting the initial liquidity is another. Instead of starting a new independent exchange, if one were to join the ICTE network and create a Satellite Exchange, they would benefit from the liquidity of the entire network. Their customers would get counterparties to trade with right on Day 1. ICTE supports a global order book and synchronizes the network globally through strategically placed regional nodes.

Values-driven

Decentralization has slowly changed from being a real feature to a simple buzzword. But for ICTE, it is a value that is at the core of the business. Everything stems from this value. Right from the technology to the branding of each exchange is decentralized. Instances do not support KYC unless the operator wants them to, and they are independently-run units that collaborate when necessary.

Further, ICTE is creating utilities for people to adapt to cryptocurrencies quickly and effortlessly because they do not want to monopolize their own network. Rather, they are creating a platform where cross-blockchain crypto exchange nodes, blockchain explorer nodes, and nodes for service providers can all equally distribute the ICTE network to allow for global decentralization.

Conclusion

ICTE is decentralized and distributed. It is a model that takes classic decentralization to a new level that the rest of the industry has to catch up to. As network effects kick in, this model will find its community participation to be its biggest strength. That is true decentralization.