BasicSwap puts cryptography
first, then everything else.

BasicSwap is the latest layer in over a decade of work. The encrypted peer-to-peer messaging it rides on first shipped in 2014 and was hardened into Particl's SMSG in 2017.

Atomic swap research has been moving since 2013; we are the team that connected the dots into a usable protocol, and we are now closing the gaps that kept it locked away from mainstream users.

mission

Make peer-to-peer cross-chain trading easy.

Crypto removed the middleman from sending value. Trading is the last place one still stands. Atomic swaps are the answer most faithful to that original intent: peer-to-peer, no middle software, no operator, and nothing to trust but the cryptography. Their one real weakness is user experience.

BasicSwap exists to remove that weakness without giving anything up. We build a full protocol around the atomic swap, from the order book and messaging to light clients and interfaces, along with several quality-of-life improvements, so a swap feels as easy as a centralized exchange while keeping the same non-custody, security, and trustlessness end to end.

origin · 2014 → today

How we got here.

2014
Secure messaging
An encrypted, serverless way for peers to message each other first ships, born as an alternative to BitMessage with several concepts borrowed from it. Built for private communication, not trading, it would later turn out to be exactly the coordination layer a decentralized order book needs.
2017
SMSG
Particl adopts and hardens that messaging layer as SMSG, where it really starts to branch off more significantly from its BitMessage roots. It becomes the gossip mesh every later BasicSwap component depends on.
2017
First atomic swap
Particl runs its first cross-chain atomic swap: an HTLC exchange with Decred, via the open Decred atomicswap tool. Proof the concept worked, years before a usable protocol existed.
2019
BasicSwap Protocol
First proper atomic swap protocol built natively on SMSG: decentralized order book, no matching engine, full-node operation. Run through a bare-bones, self-hosted web UI.
2020
OtVES adaptor signatures
One-Time Verifiably Encrypted Signatures bring atomic swaps to Monero and other coins that lack on-chain script.
2022
User-facing GUI
The first real user-focused interface arrives, turning what was a developer tool into something anyone can run.
2023
Bidirectional Monero swaps
Bidirectional adaptor-signature swaps were not thought feasible. By combining the OtVES protocol with SMSG message coordination, BasicSwap made them real: two-way atomic swaps for Monero and other OtVES pairs, XMR ↔ BTC, LTC, and more. The Bitcoin to Monero pair is walked through step by step.
2026
BasicSwap Desktop + Mobile
Two surfaces of the same protocol: Desktop for makers and LPs running full nodes, Mobile for casual takers on phones and browsers. Same atomic guarantees underneath.

what we hold to

Three things we will not trade.

open source
Everything we ship is auditable.
MIT-licensed. Source on GitHub. Anyone can read, fork, or extend the code. We publish protocol specs alongside implementations.
non-custodial
You hold the keys.
BasicSwap never touches your funds. Keys live in your own coin's core wallets. There is no custody surface for an attacker to target or a regulator to subpoena.
decentralized in operation
No operator to switch off.
No server, no central point of failure, no operator. The system is as decentralized as current technology allows. Maintainers steward the codebase like any open-source project but cannot force a node to upgrade; users choose which release they run.

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