BasicSwap DEX

BasicSwap is the *trustless way to swap XMR and BTC* — an open-source desktop DEX that executes genuine cross-chain atomic swaps directly between peers, with no custody, no wrapped tokens, no bridges, and no liquidity pools to drain.

Background. Built since 2022 within the Particl ecosystem, BasicSwap is a *desktop GUI for cross-chain atomic swaps* coordinated peer-to-peer over Tor. Its headline capability — and the reason it matters here — is *native XMR↔BTC* swapping using adaptor signatures, a cryptographic technique that lets two parties trade across chains atomically without either holding the other's coins. That genuinely non-custodial, bridge-free design is why it earns an A in /mixers: it's the rare swap tool whose trust model is "trust the math," not "trust the exchange."

What you trust. Almost nothing beyond the protocol. Swaps are *atomic*: adaptor-signature swaps lock funds such that either the trade completes for both sides or both reclaim their coins — there is *no custody*, no intermediary holding your XMR while it sends BTC. There are *no bridge tokens* (you trade real XMR for real BTC, not a wrapped IOU that can de-peg or rug) and *no liquidity pools* (so no pool to hack or drain — orders are matched peer-to-peer). The whole thing is *open source* and coordinated *over Tor*, so the order-matching layer doesn't expose your network identity. The residual trust is in the protocol's correctness and your counterparty honoring the timelocks — which the atomicity enforces.

Operational specs. A *desktop application* you run yourself (it spins up the relevant chain clients), matching orders *peer-to-peer over Tor* and settling via adaptor-signature atomic swaps. *XMR↔BTC* is the flagship pair, with other coins supported. There's *no account, no KYC* — you're running software and trading directly with peers. Because it's a real P2P market with self-custody, the *order book is smaller* and thinner than a centralized swap, and a swap involves running clients and waiting for on-chain confirmations on both sides. Open-source, self-hosted, part of the Particl stack.

Philosophy. Every centralized swap and most "cross-chain" bridges reintroduce the exact thing crypto was meant to remove: a custodian who holds your funds mid-trade and a honeypot that can be hacked, frozen, or coerced. BasicSwap's thesis is that swapping *XMR↔BTC* — the most privacy-relevant pair — should be *trustless and peer-to-peer*: no exchange to KYC you, no bridge to trust, no pool to drain, just two people and a cryptographic guarantee. Open-sourcing it and running matchmaking over Tor is the only configuration consistent with that goal.

Grade rationale. A in /mixers. The grade reflects genuine non-custodial atomic swaps (no custody, no wrapped tokens, no pools), native XMR↔BTC support, no-account/no-KYC operation, an open-source codebase, and Tor-coordinated peer matching. On trust model it is essentially unmatched in the category. The caveats — liquidity, UX, and the inherent slowness of cross-chain atomic swaps — are the price of that trustlessness, not flaws in the design.

Useful when. Reach for BasicSwap when you want to move between *Bitcoin and Monero without a custodian or a KYC checkpoint* and you're willing to run desktop software and wait for a real cross-chain swap to settle. It's the tool for the privacy-maximalist who refuses to hand XMR to an exchange or trust a bridge token — accept the thinner order book as the cost of a trust model nothing else matches.

Caveats. Liquidity is the honest limitation: a peer-to-peer, self-custody order book is *thinner* than a centralized swap, so you may wait for a counterparty or get worse depth on larger sizes — patience is part of the deal. It's *desktop software you run* (spinning up chain clients, syncing), so there's setup and resource overhead, and cross-chain atomic swaps are *inherently slower* than a custodial instant-swap. As an evolving open-source project the UX is rougher than a polished app, and you should verify you're running the genuine client. None of this dents the A — for *trustless XMR↔BTC*, BasicSwap is the reference tool, with the explicit trade-off that trustlessness costs convenience.