The Deepwaters team is incredibly excited to announce that the Deepwaters Exchange mainnet beta is now live! After almost two years in development, and in partnership with projects including NEAR, Wormhole, and Ava Labs, Deepwaters represents a quantum leap forward over previous centralized (CEX) and decentralized (DEX) exchange technologies. So… what is Deepwaters? 

We are building the most fair, transparent, and secure exchange in any asset class, period; providing completely protected order-flow (even from us), secure custody, and provable market integrity. 

Our technology makes it literally impossible to engage in the kind of fraud/trade manipulation/corruption that brought down FTX/Celsius/Voyager/3AC/etc. and ANYONE on our platform can prove it - you don't need to trust us, we give you all the tools to see EXACTLY how are trades are executed and assets are managed.

Why is Deepwaters needed?

Since the inception of DeFi, and particularly in the past year, the promise of decentralization has been broken - over and over again - by those who demand your trust without providing the tools to prove their trustworthiness. Violations of custody have cost traders tens of billions of dollars, and 2022 saw the downfall of previously “trustworthy” institutions such as Voyager, Celsius, and FTX. 

While unscrupulous and predatory behavior is nothing new to the regulated world, the collateral damage to DeFi has been significant. Despite the seeming steps backwards, these recent mishaps emphasize the need for an emergent decentralized financial system. Among the chief tenets of DeFi are the principles of fairness and inclusion which includes access to TradFi level trading experiences along with inclusion and self-custody.

How is Deepwaters special?

Deepwaters is a novel ‘hybrid’ exchange leveraging the best of both centralized and decentralized exchange technologies. This guarantees enforceable integrity, accountability, and transparency; all of which are provable while maintaining the speed, efficiency, and low cost that users have come to expect from top-end centralized trading platforms. Key highlights include:

• Zero MEV/Front-running

• Zero Gas Trading

• Zero Internalization (& Internal Netting)

• Zero Slippage

• Zero Payment for Order Flow (PFOF)

• Zero Custodial Violations

• Zero Rehypothecation 

This is the first exchange that preserves confidentiality and integrity of order flow from origination to fulfillment - ensuring that rehypothecation, custodial violations, and fraud (even on the part of the exchange itself) are impossible.

1. The technology (code) itself prevents anyone, including Deepwaters, from viewing or manipulating the trade flow. All trades are completely confidential to all parties (immune from PFOF, internal netting, etc.) until published to a public order book - thus ensuring that no party gains informational advantage over any other.  

2. You don’t need to trust our claims; you have absolute control and transparency into how trades are executed. Trading and customer asset management rules are public, and anyone can audit and validate that:

   • All operations (trades) being executed confidentially, equally, and under the publicly defined trading rules. 

   • Custody is protected against non-trading related transactions, rehypothecation, and other malfeasance; users may choose to trade non-custodially at their own discretion, without penalty. 

3. Highest possible standard of third-party auditing and assurances. In addition to the ability for customers and exchange participants to validate the integrity of order-flow and custody, Deepwaters is partnering with FYEO for code audits and Fireblocks for additional asset security.

How does Deepwaters work? Deepwaters uses on-chain technology to support self-custody: deposits and withdrawals are done using smart contracts. Business logic and critical data are encapsulated in a TEE enclave. Independent validators are compensated to verify integrity of the system as a whole. Market participants interact with Deepwaters through technology that they’re used to: the Deepwaters Trading API and trading terminal. All business logic is open-source. Validators can subscribe to log replication and native TEE cryptographic attestation to verify that behavior is as intended. These validators are compensated to verify behavior and dispute against bad actors. Learn more about the Deepwaters Trading Engine in our Whitepaper and other technical documentation.

We need YOU! 

We would have been absolutely unable to reach this incredible milestone if not for the help and support of our community. In the coming days and weeks, we will be running bug bounty programs, announcing referral campaigns and upcoming token listings, and converting our social token ($DELVE) into $WTR. We want our community to feel like they are part of the success of Deepwaters - because they are - and reward/compensate them accordingly. Join our Discord and follow us on Twitter to take part!

…and of course, join Deepwaters live mainnet beta at https://app.deepwaters.xyz/

<3, The Deepwaters Team