The recent 'raise the caps event' on Thorchain provided an opportunity for me to pool some Litecoin with Rune, something I've been wanting to do for a while - what can I say, I've got a soft spot for the old LTC!
You can only pool Native Litecoin with Rune on Thorchain - the fact that it's native is sort of the whole point of the whole Thorchain project after all.
However, the Litecoin I had earmarked to pool was sitting on Binance Smart Chain as the BSC version of LTC (pooled with USDT) and I wanted to get that out of BSC and into Rune as Native Litecoin.
Now I could have just jiggled assets around via the Binance centralised exchange, but I wanted to see IF, in this age of the decentralised cross chain bridge, how easy it would be to get this specific BSC LTC converted to Native LTC.
NB I'm not going to talk about the pooling bit here, I'll do that another time, TBH I think it's cool enough that you CAN indeed move assets from BSC to Thorchain and from their swap to Native Litecoin (or Bitcoin or ETH and a few other coins too already, with more to follow in the future no doubt!).
NB I wouldn't classify this as 'hassle free' because it involves a fair bit of swapping assets through four different wallets, but if you're used to Thorchain and Broswer wallets it's easy enough, takes about 10 minutes and will cost you only around $3 dollars in fees (if you're final swap is to LTC, this might be more for BTC, it would be A LOT more for ETH).
The key components of the bridge are (ironically for RUNE) BNB and the Binance Browser Wallet.
What you Need
- A MetaMask Wallet connected with Binance Smart Chain (I'm assuming you've got this down already if you're reading this!)
- The Binance Browser wallet - which bridges from BSC to Binance Chain
- Trust Wallet - installed on your phone, which connects Binance Chain to Thorchain
- Either a ledger or the XDEFI wallet which also connects to Thorchain which stores your native LTC.
Moving BSC LTC from BSC and swapping for Native LTC on Rune
1. SWAP the BSC LTC for BNB on Pancake Swap
I hopefully don't need a screenshot here, you just need to swap your LTC for BNB, or whatever asset you want to swap over into Thorchain, BNB is your cross chain vessel (somewhat ironically)
2. Send the BNB from your BSC MetaMask wallet to your Binance Browser wallet
NB you can simply download the Binance Browser Wallet from the Chrome Store - you don't need to enter in any personal details and the account addresses generated don't require KYC if that's a concern.
3. Use your Binance Browser wallet to bridge your BNB over the Binance Chain
And it's VERY easy to bridge your BSC BNB to Binance Chain because when you create the wallet it creates one of each account for you...
4. Send your BNB to your Trust Wallet
Now you're on the Binance Chain you're looking at about 7 cents per send, so no worries!
5. Connect your Trust Wallet AND your Ledger or XDEFI wallet to the ThorSwap App
The whole point of Thorchain is that it allows you to connect multiple wallets which support multiple different chains at once:
when you've connected your two wallets your wallet display will look something like this:
It shows you your different assets in your different wallets, even though they are on multiple chains - of course the real 'star' here in a way is the XDEFI wallet which itself supports multiple chains - native LTC and BTC for example.
6. Swap your BNB for Rune and then swap your Rune for LTC on Thorchain
OK Maybe I could make this two stages, but it's two of the same thing - NB you have to swap for Rune on Thorchain, there's no other option ATM. You can't swap one token for another directly.
The fees are fairly minimal overall, but worth keeping in mind given there are so many stages....
The final stage is to swap your Rune for LTC...
Final Thoughts - it's a bit of a hassle, but there is no CEX involved...
All in all this is two Binance Smart Chain txs, one BNB tx and then two hydrid Rune/ BNB and Rune/ ltc txs, so total fee comes in at around $3.
So if you want to keep your percentage fees below 1% you're looking at moving $300 around at time, which is OK I guess.
Far worse is the hassle - all the txs are quick enough so there's not that much hanging around, but I definitely wouldn't want to be doing this once a day - once a month more like, but you know, it does work and the fees are reasonable!
Useful Links
Download Binance Browser Wallet
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Great article, ton of steps, but very insightful! I am okay with doing a bunch of steps to cross chain my defi earnings and such to keep it off of the major exchanges.
I think I'm coming around to preferring it too!
What a nightmare, but it's true modern alchemy: turning Shit(Tokens/coins) into Gold (native Bitcoin) haha
Well I do prefer the native coins, it has to be said!
Can I use my Android phone to run this?
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Yes.
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Okay thank you 😊
CEX will soon become things in the past.
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Quite possible, there are plenty of alternatives coming online!
Great tutorial and RUNE is the future of pure DeFi. Lucky enough we got onboard after Leo Finance shilling, one of my best investments so far!
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Thanks so much for doing these detailed posts. They come in handy for a girl like me when i have a desire to do something other than post here! I want to get some CUB in my wallet. Do you happen to have a post for that process??
You mean you want to go from Hive or LEO onto Binance Smart chain?
I don't have a post but this might help
https://docs.cubdefi.com/tutorials/how-to-wrap-leo-into-bleo
Drop me a line if you get stuck.
Good question! I think that's part of my issue, i am not really sure how/ what to call it. But, i don't think i have any CUB and am pretty sure i want some! (As well as the RUNE u mentioned in your post! But, one thing at a time Jill!! Lol) I will explore the link you sent. Thank-you so much @revisesociology for your help!!!!
This is really interesting. Fees can make an a person's crypto currency holdings worth a lot less if they are not careful.
I am fairly new to the blockchain. I have heard a lot about Binance, but I am still learning about Metamask. I try and read as many articles as I can to learn as much as possible.
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The fees involved with this whole process are pretty reasonable - Binance Smart Chain is a pretty good place to start with DEFI via MetMask - Polygon (you can also use that via MetaMask) has even cheaper fees, like VERY cheap, less than a cent per tx, but then you have to bridge your assets between the chains and that can be pricey.
Then there's ETH.... which TBH unless you're moving or staking over $2000 worth of assets, it's just not worth paying the fees, unless you're taking something out for good.
You have provided the necessary and useful information. Thanks.
This is interesting and I guess in some time it will be available with less hassle
i want it on hive :D to complex
I think that step three with Binance browser wallet is unnecessary. You can swap smart chain BNB to BNB in Trust wallet.
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Ah even better! I hadn't realised that.
I need to buy a Ledger. It's on my list for a long time, but I keep postponing it.
Is xDefi trustworthy or should I wait for the Ledger? I wanted to pool RUNE with BTC, but wasn't sure about it. So I ended up with RUNE-BTCB for now, a variant I don't like because it's not native.
Where are you pooling Rune-BTCB?
I don't think Thorchain recognises native Bitcoin on the Ledger, so you'll need XDEFI for that, it seems trustworthy enough, it's working fine for me with Litecoin.
I'm tempted to wait for the Ledger support to pool BTC, I'm in no rush to shove this onto Thorchain, sometimes patience can be a good thing!
On thorswap.fiannce.
I thought it did. Good to know it doesn't yet.