Cryptionary
Term

Atomic Swap

A trustless exchange of assets across chains using time-locked contracts.

Type:
technology
trading
1
definition

An atomic swap enables two parties to exchange assets across different blockchains without a centralized intermediary. Using Hash Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs), both sides either complete or both refund—there's no partial completion, hence "atomic."

Example 1.1 - High-level Flow
  • Alice locks Coin A in an HTLC on Chain A with secret S and timeout T
  • Bob locks Coin B in an HTLC on Chain B referencing the same hash(S) and timeout T/2
  • Alice redeems Bob's HTLC by revealing S on Chain B
  • Bob uses revealed S to redeem Alice's HTLC on Chain A
2
considerations

Atomic swaps require compatible scripting primitives and synchronized timeouts. Liquidity and UX challenges limit mainstream use compared to DEXs on a single chain.

All terms and definitions may update as the Cryptionary improves.