I think the first real ChiaLisp application by a 3rd party, at least the first one I am aware of, is YakuSwap. This is really interesting and I am going to be looking into this more, but according to a blog post by the creator it looks like he has levered ChiaLisp to create a multi-chain self-escrow service.
Basically how YakuSwap works, or seems to work as I haven’t had an opportunity to try it out yet, is quite simple. I am going to lift the explanation right from Yaku’s blog so I don’t break anything in translation.
An atomic cross-chain swap is a fancy term that describes a trade where two currencies which have different blockchains are swapped with one another without the help of a third party. Phew. That was a really long sentence. Here’s how one such trade would take place between Alice and Bob
1. Alice and Bob meet each other and agree on the cryptocurrencies they want to trade, including the amount. Let’s say Alice wants to trade 10 BTC for Bob’s 1337 ETH. They also convene on a maximum time period in which the trade can take place, say one day. For convenience, we’ll suppose that both blockchains have no transaction fees.
2. Alice creates a trade secret (ALICE-SECRET) and builds a HTLC that locks 10 BTC. The contract includes Bob’s BTC address and the hash of the trade secret (5f95416…31c84d2).
3. Bob sees the contract on the Bitcoin blockchain, recognizes it as using a standard HTLC pattern, takes the trade secret hash and issues his own contract on the Ethereum blockchain. This contract locks 1337 ETH and will send those coins to Alice’s ETH address only if the trade secret is provided. He uses the same hash, but has no way of knowing the actual secret since only Alice knows it.
4. Alice sees the contract issued by Bob on the Ethereum blockchain and uses the trade secret to get her 1337 ETH by claiming the contract.
5. Since the trade secret was included in the Ethereum blockchain to claim the contract, Bob can see it and use it to claim his 10 BTC.
If Alice doesn’t reveal the trade secret, Bob can just wait for one day and reclaim his ETH. If Bob does not issue a valid contract (or doesn’t issue one at all), Alice can do the same thing. In the end, Alice and Bob either finish the trade or get their coins back. The only ‘wasted’ resources (in the worst-case scenario) are transaction fees and the participant’s time (1 day).
Crypto Sorcery – Trading Cryptocurrencies Without a Trusted 3rd Party | yakuhito’s blog
This makes a lot of sense to me. There are, of course, security risks but unless someone knows ahead of time the trade is going to happen they are very low. This looks like a really cool service and I will be checking it out as soon as I find a dance partner.
