After THORChain’s long-awaited mainnet launch in the latter part of last month, the BEP-2 and ERC-20-based variations are being replaced with the enhanced native RUNE token.
Proof-of-bond network and cross-chain exchange The killswitch that will gradually reduce support for the BEP-2 and ERC-20-based versions of the RUNE coin has now been turned on by THORChain.
Following the launch of THORChain’s long-awaited mainnet late last month, BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE, also known as IOU Tokens, is being replaced by the improved and entirely native RUNE token.
As the project works to promote the use of its fully unified edition of RUNE, enabling improved asset interoperability, these tokens will progressively lose value over the following 12 months.
Users who have IOU Tokens on centralized exchanges will instantly receive the new native RUNE tokens. Those who store their tokens in personal wallets must first build a new wallet that is compatible with THORChain, after which they must click an upgrade button to switch over.
On July 18, the THORChain team tweeted that killswitch will launch at block 6500000 and that, when the IOU Tokens lost all of their value, 1:1 exchange rates would “linearly tick down to 1:0 over the next 12 months.”
Earlier this year, the team noted in a blog post that there were problems with having IOU RUNE scattered across two different networks and that this move was an attempt to further decentralize its network.
“THORChain is extremely strict in having no 3rd party dependencies, preferring to manage everything in-house. There are no oracles, no off-shored security, and no reliance on external liquidity.”
“However, BNB.RUNE and ETH.RUNE has privileged access to the state machine’s “mint” function. Anyone presenting these tokens can mint fresh RUNE, as well as making THORChain’s state dependent on these two networks,” the blog post read.
A big 18.6 percent increase in RUNE pricing to $2.61 over the previous 24 hours corresponded with the THORChain move. A longer time horizon also reveals encouraging trends, with RUNE rising 65.9 percent over the previous 30 days, according to information from CoinGecko. RUNE, however, is still down 87.5 percent from the $20.87 all-time high it reached on May 19 of last year.
THORChain supports the trading of synthetic assets, which are tokenized derivatives that mimic the value of other assets like stocks and commodities, in addition to enabling users to swap assets through liquidity pools across numerous networks like Binance Smart Chain, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and Bitcoin.
The project’s objectives for the recently established mainnet include better network security and stability, increased decentralization, a new governance mechanism, new chain integrations, wallet integrations, aggregator implementations, and the introduction of a single-sided yield feature.
