V. Buterin Advocates for Atomic Swaps Over Bridges: But Are They Really Usable?

How do you trade BTC for ETH? Or convert BTC into ATOM?

Like for many, I usually deposit ETH into a CEX, exchange it for BTC, and then transfer BTC to a self-custody wallet.

This leaves me in a rather ironic situation. While I am advocating for DeFi, I find myself using CEXes for these cross-chain transactions.

Indeed, V. Buterin has emphasized time and again to “hold assets on the chain where they originate and use atomic swap protocols to move value between different chains.”

Sounds straightforward, but the reality is far from simple. What exactly are these atomic swap protocols, how do they function, and could they ever truly replace centralized exchanges.

I tried to find out.