As the regulation of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies accelerates, blockchain transactions are increasingly being tracked and monitored. However, the anonymous cryptocurrency network Monero makes such monitoring nearly impossible, and just that, a direct bridge to Bitcoin is being finalized.
Transmitting freely from bitcoin to monero, and vice versa
The concept of atomic swap is to develop a protocol that allows the direct exchange – without any intermediary – from a crypto on a blockchain network to a crypto on another blockchain, between private wallets.
As reported by the Cryptopotato website, the COMIT Network developer team has made good progress on its XMR-BTC Swap tool, which will enable atomic swaps between the Bitcoin and Monero networks.
As can be seen on the project’s GitHub development page, version 0.7.0 has recently been released. This ability to swap between these two networks could allow BTC owners to better protect their privacy.
More freedom, but for how long?
Indeed, unlike transactions on crypto exchanges, no information on the people making the exchange is collected. Moreover, on the Monero network, all transactions are systematically mixed, making them much more difficult to trace.
Because if a mixer (transaction mixing service) is used on the Bitcoin network, then the path of the BTC is often still somehow “marked” at the exit of this passage via mixing transactions (such as CoinJoin), which makes them suspicious in the eyes of the monitoring organizations.
Obviously, even if this tool could perhaps allow a clear improvement of the confidentiality of the users of the two networks, it risks sooner or later – if it takes importance – to attract the wrath of the regulators and the supervisory bodies.
The latter do not hesitate to put all the means to try to trace transactions even on anonymous cryptos like Monero. Because of their cross-chain nature, atomic swaps are a logical evolution towards an “Internet of cryptocurrencies”. But the question is: how much will states seek to hinder these innovations, using the tiny percentage of illicit transactions as an excuse?
