The liquidity crisis and acquisition of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Binance CEO Changpeng CZ Zhao said his exchange will soon start a Proof-of-Reserves audit system to allow verification of its digital asset holdings.
Zhao pledged to implement a Proof-of-Reserve mechanism at Binance to provide full transparency through the use of Merkel trees. A data structure used to encode blockchain data more efficiently and securely.
A Proof-of-Reserve audit is ordinarily conducted by an independent third party to ensure the custodian’s assets are owned as claimed.
The Binance CEO’s intention to implement Proof-of-Reserves comes after Binance agreed to buy rival cryptocurrency exchange FTX on Nov 8. Who’s been rumored to be on the brink of financial collapse despite CEO Sam Bankman-Fried initially dismissing the claims.
Cointelegraph contacted Binance to confirm if the exchange had begun implementing a Proof-of-Reserve system but did not immediately receive a response.
Crypto exchange OKX also announced its plans to roll out a Merkle tree-based Proof-of-Reserves audit system. Something they consider to be an important step in establishing a baseline trust in the industry.
The idea of more Proof-of-Reserve audits received near-full backing from the Twitter community, with crypto industry figures weighing in on the move by Binance.
Host of The Daily Gwei podcast, Anthony Sassano, and founder of open-source crypto exchange ShapeShift, Erik Voorhees, both suggested Proof-of-Reserves are already integrated into decentralized finance (DeFi) and automated by smart contracts.
The founder of the crypto market intelligence platform Messari, Ryan Selkis, took things one step further, arguing that regulators should direct their attention to focus on the more centralized players in the industry.
But not all agreed. Antonio Juliano, founder of crypto derivatives trading platform dYdX argued that a Proof-of-Reserves wouldn’t disclose all necessary information needed to verify an exchange’s holdings.
Can you be more specific about the content of your article? After reading it, I still have some doubts. Hope you can help me.
Definitely. We’ll make it better for your satisfaction. Thanks