Trading crypto is becoming easier and easier as wallets begin offering new and innovative ways to swap within and between blockchains. In this article, we cover a popular crypto wallet called Trust Wallet, its interface, swap function, and token.
Trust wallet is an open-source, mobile crypto wallet that supports a variety of major cryptocurrencies. Originally created by Viktor Radchenko and Maxim Rasputin in 2017, it was acquired by Binance in 2018, thanks to its reputation for being both secure and intuitive.
You can install Trust Wallet from either Apple's app store, or Google's play store. It can also be downloaded directly from Trust Wallet's website as an APK file.
After installation, Trust Wallet will create for you a Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC), and BNB Chain (BNB) address. However, you can click the plus symbol at the top right of the screen to add more cryptocurrencies to the list.
Trust Wallet fully integrated BNB Chain (formerly known as Binance Smart Chain) since it was acquired by Binance. Other blockchains have been added as well, including Ethereum, Cosmos, and Polkadot - with limited functionality.
If you want to get more involved with Cosmos or Polkadot, you should install a wallet specifically tailored to those ecosystems. We wrote about Cosmos and Polkadot in previous posts.
Exploring Trust Wallet further, we can see that BNB Chain DEXs (decentralized exchanges) such as PancakeSwap are accessible from the discover button at the bottom of the screen, along with other DeFi (Decentralized Finance) protocols you can use for lending, borrowing, and trading your crypto.
The swap function in Trust Wallet allows you to transfer assets inter-chain (within the same blockchain) as well as cross-chain (between different blockchains).
For example, an interchain swap would be trading TWT for GALA, as both tokens are on the same blockchain (in this case, the BNB Chain).
On the other hand, a cross-chain swap would be, for example, trading BTC (Bitcoin) for ETH (Ethereum), which are the two underlying coins on two completely separate blockchains.
Cross-chain swaps have only been available since Trust Wallet integrated with Thorchain (RUNE) a year ago, allowing you to swap between blockchains natively in a permissionless way.
For the time being, Thorchain has integrated with Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Avalanche, Cosmos Hub, Dogecoin, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, with plans to add more chains in the future.
Thorchain also has some friendly forks such as Maya Protocol and Serai DEX, which have plans to integrate even more blockchains in the future. Eventually these cross-chain services will be used to swap various cryptocurrencies for us seamlessly in the background.
For now, if you want to swap into a blockchain not listed above, you would need to use a centralized exchange (CEX) such and Binance or Coinbase, and you may need to install another wallet as well.
After installing Trust Wallet, you may have noticed the TWT token listed on the main screen of Trust Wallet.
TWT stands for Trust Wallet Token and it's a token on the BNB chain. Holders of this token can participate in Trust Wallet governance, meaning they can influence decisions on the wallet's design and protocol.
TWT holders also receive discounts on DEX services and crypto purchases, and the token could possibly have further use cases in the future.
Trust Wallet is an open-source, self-custody wallet that has integrated several major cryptocurrencies. It allows you to perform inter-chain token swaps, as well as cross-chain swaps, thanks to its integration with Thorchain.
The need for CEXs will decrease as more crypto wallets begin to integrate cross-chain swaps via services like Thorchain. People will simply trade directly from their own wallets, with far less friction.
If you want to learn more about finance and crypto, be sure to check out my other articles on HIVE, or follow me on InLeo for more frequent updates.
Until next time...
