It turns out that DEX has it’s own kind of trendy appeal to it, and not everything under that name is really decentralized, having therefore to be careful when we use a DEX believing that we are really in control of our funds.
Binance DEX for example sounds appealing, but under the hood, as I understand it, we are in control of private keys that are not what we may think they really are:
Can Binance Chain, DEX Outmanuever Regulators & Ethereum?):
<…> However, when reading through the FAQ, we’ve flagged a few items:
1. Binance has announced that you can trade Bitcoin and Ethereum via a pegged BEP2 token
2. Projects have systemic risks such as composability and centralization when trusting Binance Chain as its only platform.
3. Atomic swaps, which is required for true non-custodial trades, are not going to be implemented initially and only promised in the future
In order for a trader to trade Bitcoin on its DEX, they would have to first deposit a native Bitcoin and in return, they would receive BTC-B (a BEP2 token pegged to BTC).
<…>
Counterparty Risks of Pegged Tokens
Trading assets like Bitcoin on Binance Chain require a third-party, initially Binance itself, to hold the asset and issue pegged assets like BTC.B that can be traded on its DEX. This introduces a counterparty risk that is no different than using a centralized exchange. While the pegged asset (BTC.B) remains in the trader’s custody until a trade is executed, the original asset (BTC) is held by Binance or a third party. There is no guarantee that the pegged asset can be swapped back to the original asset other than the trader’s confidence in the brand.
<…>
That is to say, when we have BTCs on Binance DEX, what we’ve really got is a token called BTC-B, and not BTC. Holding private keys to a sweetened BTC type token is not a real deal, and you’re depending on Binance not getting screwed at some point just the same.
What’s more, they’ve recently announce that they will be geo-blocking IPs from 28 countries from July the first onwards (see
Binance DEX to geo-block U.S. customers and 28 other countries starting in July).
When you add it all up, you’ve really got to ask yourself just how much DEX is really behind some of the market DEXes.
