After extensive development, audits and security enhancements, THORChain has officially disabled its EVM Contract Whitelist. This pivotal update marks a significant milestone in THORChain’s evolution and opens up a world of possibilities for developers, users, and protocols across the broader DeFi ecosystem.
Source: THORChain Dev Discord
This update allows smart contracts, wallets, and external protocols to interact directly with THORChain without the need for pre-approval. This greatly expands the potential for SwapKit SDK to extend our DeFi compatibility, ultimately offering broader functionality while retaining a single-transaction experience for users. In essence, this means:
Accelerated Development Cycles
With the removal of whitelist-related barriers, projects can iterate and deploy new features more rapidly.
Enhanced Interoperability: Developers can now seamlessly integrate THORChain’s cross-chain liquidity into their projects without navigating a lengthy whitelist process.
SwapKit not only offers integrators access to all THORChain liquidity routes, but also extends cross-chain swaps to long-tail assets and novel liquidity via other DEXs and Aggregators on EVM chains, such as: Uniswap V2 + V3, SushiSwap, 1Inch (ParaSwap, GMX, Curve), 0x Protocol (Matcha), Kyber, Pangolin, TraderJoe, WOOFi and PancakeSwap. Previously, deploying each DEX Aggregation contract required a long whitelisting process.
In the future, development cycles for both new liquidity routes and integrations will be accelerated – directly benefiting all SwapKit integrators and THORChain users.
Smart Contract Wallet Support: Users of popular smart contract wallets and platforms leveraging account abstraction can now access THORChain’s services directly for Swap in. Cross-chain Swap outs are still subject to security mechanisms, including token whitelist which remains in place.
Innovative DeFi Strategies: The update enables more complex, multi-step DeFi strategies that combine THORChain swaps with other protocol interactions in a single transaction, in particular specific “factory patterns” where a protocol may need to create many contracts. Cases studies include:
Li.Fi: Mutual integration of Aggregated cross-chain routes
“This will allow LI.FI to enable THORChain routes for everyone, especially for partners that use account abstraction.”
Max, LI.FI Protocol Co-Founder
Whitelist removal not only allows SwapKit to empower leading cross-chain aggregator LI.FI to integrate THORChain for Bitcoin and EVM swaps, but also their 250+ partners as well. Enabling their partners to wrap transactions for users inside their own router via Account Abstraction methods.
Kado: Mutual integration of cross-chain On/Off Ramp
The removal of the whitelist has paved the way for seamless integration with innovative protocols like Kado.money, a leading DeFi on/off ramp solution. Kado’s architecture, which deploys one contract per user, was previously difficult to maintain efficiently via THORChain’s whitelist system. With the whitelist now removed, Kado integration for swapkit becomes possible, enabling fiat to BTC transactions in a single step. This opens the door for SwapKit to co-integrate with Kado’s extensive network, allowing their partners to offer seamless fiat to BTC swaps through THORChain’s infrastructure.
Safeguards and Ongoing Monitoring
While this update significantly reduces friction for developers and users, THORChain has not compromised on security. The team has implemented several protective measures:
Transaction Log Limits: A cap of 50 logs per transaction helps prevent potential scanning cost exploits.
Manual Observation Command: Node operators can manually refund transactions that exceed the log limit if necessary.
Continuous Monitoring: The THORChain core team is closely watching Bifrost scanning loads to ensure network stability.
Autofilling: While the whitelist is gone, savvy integrators can still benefit from adding their contracts to THORChain’s ‘known contract’ roster. This enables the ‘autofilling’ feature, particularly useful for facilitating swapOuts. In practice, it allows memos to include just the final digits of an aggregator contract, with THORChain intelligently completing the rest. This streamlined approach is especially valuable for UTXO chains like Bitcoin, where memo space remains at a premium. By leveraging this feature, integrators can craft more efficient, space-saving transactions without sacrificing functionality or security.
Looking Ahead: Router v5 and Beyond
Whitelist removal is just the beginning of more innovative updates to come. SwapKit contributors have worked closely with THORChain core developers on the upcoming Router v5 upgrade, developed in collaboration with THORSwap. This new version will bring improved DEX aggregation capabilities and batching features for enhanced processing speeds.
As THORChain continues to push the boundaries of cross-chain liquidity and interoperability, this latest update paves the way for SwapKit to help all projects to access and extend its capabilities towards a truly interconnected blockchain ecosystem.
To learn more about SwapKit and how you can integrate THORChain and more into your product, start here: docs.swapkit.dev
Join the Cross-Chain Revolution
We invite other projects and teams to experience the transformative power of SwapKit. Integrate our SDK to access state-of-the-art cross-chain technology, expand your trading operations, and drive significant volume and growth. SwapKit is more than a tool; it’s a gateway to the future of decentralized finance, offering a path to innovate, excel, and lead in the ever-evolving DeFi landscape.
Get started with SwapKit developer docs: https://docs.swapkit.dev/
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