What is REN?
REN is a platform hosting software that allows for transferring existing and new digital assets across blockchains. It is an Ethereum-based platform, allowing users to mint crypto assets for use on Ethereum platforms. These assets include BTC, BCH, and ZEC.
This action opens the opportunity to engage in lending, borrowing, and trading activities. And users do so using a digital asset locked in this software.
When you need to reverse your original asset, you must use your REN cryptocurrency to unlock the locked asset. There is a fee attached to this transaction. However, the fee is used to pay the dark nodes facilitating the network’s operations.
Who Created REN?
The platform started in 2017 after a partnership between software developers: Taiyang Zhang and Loong Wang. Its start-up name was Republic Protocol. The name REN was adopted in 2019.
The platform’s Initial Coin Offering (ICO) came in two phases, the first being a private sale, raising $28.9 million in ETH. The investors participating in the deal included Huobi Capital, Polychain Capital, FBG Capital, HyperChain Capital, and Signum Capital, among others. The platform sold 56.5% of its REN token supply in this event.
The second ICO was a public sale of 8.6% of the REN supply. This event managed to raise $4.6 million in ETH. The remaining supply was spread among community development (5%), the advisory team (19.9%), and a company reserve of 9.99%
How Does REN Work?
The REN software uses a virtual machine (RenVM) to execute transactions on the network. These transactions are based on smart contracts and are distributed over a vast network without any data exposure.
To achieve this high level of privacy, the RenVM uses high-security protocols:
- Shamir Secret Sharing Scheme allows data fragmentation of orders to hide information from the nodes.
- zkSnarks is a cryptographic protocol allowing the hiding of data outlined in a transaction.
The network is hosted on a chain of dark nodes that provide bandwidth and computational power. What’s more, you can become a dark node provider using your computer to earn incentives. However, you must stake 100,000 REN to become eligible, preventing identity node fraud.
Is REN a Good Investment?
As you look forward to investing in this platform and cryptocurrency, it is essential to consider pricing and expert predictions. And with that, you should invest in REN for the trading freedom it gives investors.
For example, when you lock your BTC on the REN software, you get an equivalent ETH value of the asset in RenBTC. With this ETH-based ERC-20 token, you can engage with Ethereum-based decentralized platforms to make your trades. And when you want to get your Bitcoin, you only must initiate the process, and the specified amount will hit your wallet minus fees.
Furthermore, experts predict the REN token to appreciate with time. So, it can be a worthwhile investment if you want to make long-term capital gains.
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