What is Cryptangle?
In our previous articles we’ve talked about the Sapphire Blockchain’s basic functions and how it processes transactions. If you missed our last article you can view it here:
In this article we will cover Sapphire’s most underrated feature, Cryptangle and how it enables other features of the sapphire blockchain.
What is Cryptangle?
In short — Cryptangle is the feature of Sapphire that allows a user to natively store other cryptocurrencies and tokens on the sapphire blockchain without a requirement for smart contracts or centralized bridges.
Why is this so important?
Primarily this is a question best answered by users affected by the Ronin and Horizon Bridge hacks. Currently bridges create a single identifiable point of attack for hackers to target and drain funds from. These hacks are irreversible and as there is no redeemable cryptocurrency on the native chain left in the bridge smart contract, any bridged coins on the second blockchain are rendered worthless and users who have bridged their coins are left out of pocket for millions of dollars collectively.
These addresses are publicly visible and hold hundreds of millions of dollars of cryptocurrency producing a searchable and tempting target to individual and state bad actors looking to line their pockets with users’ money.
Sapphire obscures the visibility of bridged coins by using a fully decentralized bridge system. Cryptocurrencies that are cryptangled to the sapphire chain are stored in randomly generated addresses on the native blockchain. This lowers the risk of attack by making bridged coins exponentially more difficult to track through blockchain explorers.
How does it work?
You have some bitcoin that you want to Cryptangle onto the Sapphire chain. Lucky for you, you already have an EGEM address that you’re using on a day-to-day basis which means that you automatically have a sapphire address to Cryptangle your bitcoin in 3 easy steps:
1. You use sapphire to sign a transaction to create a bitcoin address, which we will call “BTC Wallet 1”
2. You deposit funds into the bitcoin address (BTC Wallet 1)on the bitcoin chain.
3. You claim the bitcoin in sapphire using the bitcoin transaction hash.
Magic, your bitcoin is now cryptangled on the sapphire blockchain. You are now free to move your bitcoin on sapphire — transferring, splitting up or withdrawing off the sapphire chain.
In fact any transaction on the sapphire blockchain incurs 0 fees on native chains until you withdraw from sapphire. Once your bitcoin is on sapphire you can send it to a friend in as little as 6 seconds (1 sapphire block) and they can then withdraw that bitcoin from BTC Wallet 1 on the native chain.
If that is too vanilla for you, you can trade your bitcoin for other coins on the sapphire blockchain.
Trading coins on Sapphire
Our Cryptangle technology is the most underrated feature of Sapphire because it is the gateway to the one of the primary functions of the sapphire blockchain, trading coins and tokens using sapphire. Sapphire is a fully secure and decentralized exchange, enabling coin and token swaps without moving your coins or paying fees on the native blockchain.
After trading your bitcoin for another coin such as Doge, the recipient of bitcoin is able to withdraw that bitcoin from BTC Wallet 1 on the native BTC Blockchain and you can withdraw your Doge on the Doge chain.
Not your key = not your coins?
We’ve not mentioned where private keys come into these transactions yet, so let us put your minds at ease. When you create a bitcoin address such as BTC Wallet 1, your BTC private key is encrypted and stored on the sapphire blockchain, associated to and controlled by your EGEM/Sapphire Wallet.
While you NEVER get to see your plain-text BTC private key, your Sapphire wallet will have control of it until you transfer some or all of the cryptangled bitcoin using sapphire. This zero-trust approach to private keys is essential to ensure the security of Cryptangled assets.
Coming up:
In this article we’ve covered in detail Cryptangle technology and touched on quantum swaps technology. In upcoming articles we will outline the secondary infrastructure and talk about the economics of Sapphire. As always you can get the latest updates on sapphire from our twitter and discord:
