Loopring (LRC): Revolutionizing Decentralized Exchanges with ZKPs and Hybrid Technology

Loopring: Everything You Need to Know

Loopring (LRC) is a cryptocurrency that powers an open-source protocol for building and operating decentralized exchanges (DEXs) on the Ethereum blockchain. Loopring aims to provide a secure, scalable, and user-friendly alternative to centralized exchanges (CEXs) that often suffer from security breaches, high fees, and limited liquidity. Loopring leverages zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs), a cryptographic technique that allows users to prove the validity of their transactions without revealing any sensitive information, to enable fast and cheap trading of any ERC-20 token.

What is Loopring?

Loopring is a protocol that allows anyone to create and run their own DEXs on Ethereum. A DEX is a type of exchange that does not rely on a third-party intermediary to hold users’ funds or match orders. Instead, users trade directly from their own wallets, using smart contracts to execute transactions on the blockchain. This way, users can enjoy full control and ownership of their assets, as well as lower risks of hacking, censorship, or manipulation.

However, DEXs also face some challenges, such as low performance, high costs, and poor user experience. Loopring aims to solve these problems by combining the best features of both CEXs and DEXs. Loopring uses a hybrid model that separates order matching from order settlement. Order matching is done off-chain by centralized relayers, who collect and broadcast orders from users and match them according to price and time priority. Order settlement is done on-chain by decentralized verifiers, who verify and execute the matched orders using ZKPs.

By doing so, Loopring achieves several benefits:

High scalability: Loopring can process up to 2,025 trades per second on Ethereum, compared to about 15 trades per second on a typical DEX. This is because Loopring uses ZKPs to compress multiple trades into a single proof that can be verified by anyone on the blockchain.

Low cost: Loopring reduces the gas fees required for trading on Ethereum, as each proof only consumes a small amount of gas, regardless of the number of trades it contains. Moreover, Loopring allows users to pay fees in any token they trade, instead of only in ETH, which can save them conversion costs.

User-friendly: Loopring improves the user experience of trading on Ethereum by providing features such as order cancellation, partial fills, fee rebates, and front-running prevention. Loopring also supports various types of orders, such as limit orders, market orders, stop-loss orders, and conditional orders.

Who is behind Loopring?

Loopring was founded in 2017 by Daniel Wang, a software engineer and entrepreneur based in Shanghai, China. Wang has a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Science and Technology of China, as well as a master’s degree in the same field from Arizona State University. Prior to founding Loopring, Wang has worked as a lead software engineer at Boston Scientific, a senior director of engineering at JD.com, and a tech lead at Google. Wang has also co-founded several companies, such as Yunrang Technology and Coinport Exchange.

The Loopring team consists of more than 30 members with diverse backgrounds and skills in software development, cryptography, mathematics, economics, marketing, and business development. Some of the key members include:

Jay Zhou: Co-founder and COO of Loopring. He has over 10 years of experience in finance and risk management at PayPal and Ernst & Young.

Brecht Devos: Chief Architect of Loopring. He has over 10 years of experience in software engineering and blockchain development at various companies and projects.

Steve Guo: CTO of Loopring. He has over 10 years of experience in software engineering and distributed systems at Microsoft and Alibaba.

Matthew Finestone: Head of Business Development of Loopring. He has over 5 years of experience in finance and blockchain at TD Securities and Polymath.

The Loopring team is also supported by a network of advisors, partners, investors, and community members who share the vision of creating a more open, fair, and efficient exchange ecosystem with blockchain technology.

What are the use cases for Loopring?

Loopring has various use cases for different types of users, such as:

Traders: Loopring enables traders to trade any ERC-20 token on Ethereum with high speed, low cost, and full security. Traders can use various platforms and interfaces that are built on top of Loopring protocol, such as Loopring.io, WeDEX, Dolomite, and Hebao Wallet. Traders can also enjoy features such as order cancellation, partial fills, fee rebates, and front-running prevention.

Developers: Loopring allows developers to build and operate their own DEXs on Ethereum with minimal effort and cost. Developers can use the Loopring SDKs, APIs, and documentation to easily integrate Loopring protocol into their applications. Developers can also customize their DEXs with their own branding, features, and business models.

Projects: Loopring helps projects to launch and distribute their tokens on Ethereum with more efficiency and liquidity. Projects can use Loopring protocol to create their own token launchpads, where they can sell their tokens to investors and users in a decentralized and compliant way. Projects can also use Loopring protocol to create their own token pools, where they can provide liquidity and incentives for their tokens.