Binance Reveals Pre-Alpha Demo of Decentralized Exchange & Binance Chain Amidst Listing Fee Criticism

Cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance has unveiled a pre-alpha demonstration of its own decentralized exchange in a move that foreshadows the future of the crypto trading ecosystem.

First announced in May, the Binance Decentralized Exchange is part of a greater project that will see the exchange platform launch a tailored blockchain, called "Binance Chain." The preview of Binance's DEX represents a significant milestone in the crypto market, where centralized exchanges are frequently compromised by hacks and fraud.

A first demo of the Binance Decentralized Exchange, showing issuing, listing and trading of tokens.

The Binance DEX could potentially offer greater transparency than centralized alternatives.

"Binance Chain will focus on performance, ease-of-use and liquidity. Binance Coin will be upgraded to exist on its own blockchain mainnet, becoming a native coin. At the same time, Binance will transition from being a company to a community."

Replying to comments via Twitter, Zhao stated that he expects the centralized Binance platform to coexist with Binance DEX for "Some time," stating that the market will decide the ultimate future of the Binance platform.

The cryptocurrency community was quick to throw criticism at the Binance CEO, referencing the alleged 400 BTC listing fee charged by the platform revealed by Christopher Franko, co-founder of blockchain platform Expanse.

Beware of scammers pretending to be Binance Listing team.

The purported exchange between Franko and the Binance listing team highlights an important difference between exchange decentralization and the decentralization of governance-a decentralized exchange may provide users with the ability to trade in a decentralized manner, but decentralized trading does not necessitate that listing decisions are made in a distributed manner.

The issues with token listings on decentralized exchanges are highlighted by Vitalik Buterin's recent "7 Hard Questions for the Blockchain World," with the Ethereum co-founder noting that blockchain governance, as it exists today, is virtually defenseless against centralized manipulation.