Try Quests to earn crypto$RUNE Upgrades
There has been a big push for users to upgrade the two ETH.RUNE and BNB.RUNE to native RUNE before it is deprecated. IOU RUNE based on two BEP2 and ETH networks had become a liability that created an escalated privilege access to the THORChain's state machine's mint function. Thus came the killswitch plan to the picture.
Introduction
To understand better why it became necessary to plan a killswitch on two wrapped THORChain tokens, we need to get familiarized with a few concepts.
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What are IOU tokens and why their deprecation on the two Binance Chain and ETH networks?
IOU tokens allow users to conduct trading activity of a native token of a blockchain that is still on testnet and has not gone to the mainnet network yet. The IOU tokens on the abovementioned networks allowed for circulation of permissionless acquisition before the mainnet launch by providing a privileged access to fresh RUNE minting. This made it possible for anyone to acquire enough RUNE to operate a THORNode and make its state dependent on the two networks. Consequently, going against the main policies of the decentralized THOR network and its independency of a 3rd party.
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What actions were taken to solve this issue? The KillSwitch!
Network planned for a killswitch code that once activated will reduce the redemption rate of 1:1 to 1:0 over the next year.[1]
An All-in-one Approach
The table below will provide us with the following metrics to see the daily upgrade activity in the past month:
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Daily amount of RUNE and the USD volume upgraded from burnt wrapped versions of BNB.RUNE vs ETH.RUNE
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Daily total amount of RUNE and USD volume upgraded from both networks
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Daily number of unique wallets involved in the upgrade for both networks
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Daily number of non-unique wallets involved in the upgrade for both networks
Conclusion
THORChain's plan to flip the Kill Switch to remove the IOU RUNE dependencies, urged users and investors to upgrade their non-native RUNE tokens to the native RUNE token, otherwise they will lose their investment.
With the launch of mainnet, IOU RUNE tokens no longer serve any purpose to the THORChain network. They also create vulnerabilities for the holders and the network.
In my opinion the deadline should be more strict for the activation of the Kill Switch. The vulnerability was discovered by a white hat, maybe next the network won't be so lucky to avoid an immediate exploitation.
What's with the spike on June 14th?
On June 14th, There's large amount of upgrade to native RUNE. As it can be seen from the charts below, this amount is almost completely comprised of BNB.RUNE upgrade. The reason for this uptick is the completion of the mainnet swap of BEP2 THORChain (RUNE) on Binance. This made it possible for holders to convert to mainnet THORChain token at a 1:1 ratio [2].
What is the cause for the uptick in number of wallets?
On June 24th, series of tweets from THORChain and CoinDesk announced that the THORChain native blockchain went live on the day before with seven supported networks. This caused a notable number of wallets to upgrade their IOU tokens. The charts above and below indicate that the most of the upgrade was done for the ETH.RUNE.