What is Thorchain (RUNE)?

Thorchain is a crypto project that has received a lot of attention in a short period of time. The project makes it easier to transmit cryptocurrencies between different blockchains. To use Thorchain, you pay fees in the form of the RUNE token. This is Thorchain's cryptocurrency that you can also buy as an investment. We explain below what Thorchain is and where you can buy the RUNE cryptocurrency.

What is Thorchain and how does it work?

Thorchain is a decentralized protocol that can provide liquidity to different platforms. It is decentralized because it runs on the blockchain. Here you can read what the blockchain is and why it is decentralized.

The protocol can provide liquidity to different blockchain networks without users losing control of the cryptocurrencies they hold. This makes Thorchain unique because blockchain networks normally cannot cooperate with each other.

Basically, blockchains cannot cooperate with each other because they use different technologies. This is also the cause of the problem that you would not be able to send Bitcoin on Ethereum's blockchain. Thorchain has found a solution that makes this possible.

Specifically, Thorchain is an Automated Market Maker (AMM). This is a protocol that allows tokens to be exchanged against each other without using supply and demand between users. Such a thing is called an order book and occurs on a centralized crypto exchange.

A decentralized exchange (DEX) cannot do this because it does not use an order book. Instead, it uses a liquidity pool. You can compare this to a large pool that is full of tokens. When someone wants to swap tokens, the protocol ensures that the correct tokens are taken from this pool, and the new tokens are stored in the correct pool.

So Thorchain plays a big role in the DeFi space. DeFi stands for Decentralized Finance and includes all products and services that are moved to the blockchain, thus becoming decentralized. Previously and still today, these products and services are only accessible through a central party. For example, think of a central bank or insurance company.

Who founded Thorchain?

It is not entirely clear who is behind Thorchain. However, there is a representative who has stated that this project does not have a CEO, founder, director or anything like that. Instead, the entire development of this project is led through Gitlab. The people working on Thorchain are completely anonymous, and therefore we do not know who the developers of this project are.

Thorchain has a reason for not sharing who is behind this project. They want to protect the project this way from centralization and wrong outside influences. Indeed, according to them, it should not be about the developers, but about the people who can use Thorchain.

What is unique about Thorchain?

Many protocols that do the same thing as Thorchain have the problem of ‘impermanent loss‘. This is a problem where users lose money as soon as they swap their tokens against other tokens, when the price rises or falls sharply in that short period of time.

Thorchain has found a solution to this problem, so users will no longer lose money due to impermanent loss. In addition, Thorchain has also come up with technology that makes it even easier for users to swap tokens. They then have to perform fewer actions to be able to do this.

What is the function of the RUNE cryptocurrency?

RUNE is the utility token of Thorchain. A utility token is a token that allows users to pay to use the services and products offered to blockchain platforms. Thus, when a user wants to swap tokens, they pay RUNE tokens to perform this function.

Specifically, Thorchain users can use their RUNE tokens to manage and secure the platform. By participating in the security of the platform, you will receive a reward.

Of course, you can also use the RUNE cryptocurrency to make money. In fact, the value of the token could increase in the future, which provides the opportunity to sell the cryptocurrency at a profit. Of course, this is not a guarantee, which is why you should always research a cryptocurrency yourself before you decide to invest in it.

Where to buy RUNE tokens?

On Coinmerce's crypto exchange, you can quickly and securely buy RUNE tokens using various payment methods, such as iDeal, SEPA, GiroPay, Sofort, EPS and MyBank.

Before you can buy RUNE tokens from Thorchain, you will first need to have an account at Coinmerce. If you don't have one yet, you can easily create one in the top menu.

Once you have successfully created an account, or already have one, you can log in and go to the Coins-page in the menu. In the search bar you can then search for "Thorchain" or "RUNE", to get to the right page. On this page you can buy RUNE tokens directly from Coinmerce.

How can I store RUNE tokens?

RUNE tokens are based on the ERC20 token protocol. This means that they can only be stored in a wallet that supports this protocol. Therefore it is important to always check if the wallet you use supports the right protocol. If the wallet doesn't support your token's protocol, you will lose your tokens forever when you send them to this wallet.

When you buy RUNE tokens from Coinmerce, you can store them in the software wallet linked to our exchange. This is a secure wallet. We store a large portion of the cryptocurrencies our customers keep in the wallet on a hardware wallet. This means that your cryptocurrencies are safe from outside influences.

Of course, you can also store RUNE tokens on your own hardware, such as Ledger's or Trezor's. First you will have to verify the hardware wallet on Coinmerce, after which you can quite easily send the RUNE tokens to your hardware wallet.