On 9 September 2024, Reef and Paribu teams came into direct contact for the first time. While Paribu listed REEF in May 2021, no official communication had taken place between the two entities until recently.
Many know that Reef's original mission was to be a "DeFi operating system" that aggregated liquidity across multiple blockchains. In those early days, representations of REEF were deployed on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain to help facilitate the platform's early growth.
Since 2021, the existence of Reef's own, Substrate-based blockchain was known, and the Canary Mainnet was launched 28 May 2021. This coincides with Paribu's listing of REEF tokens, but to our knowledge, Paribu has only ever offered deposits and withdrawals of REEF on BNB Smart Chain. More than three years have passed since this time.
EDIT: Paribu previously enabled REEF deposits and withdrawals on Ethereum, while REEF on BNB Smart Chain was added sometime in Q2 2024. Thank you for the correction.
The recent discussions with Paribu have been open and direct about the fact that:
Reef's core team doesn't have any liquidity on Ethereum or BNB Smart Chain
Reef could facilitate moves from BNB Smart Chain to Reef Chain in batches
While there isn't a bridge to/from Reef Chain currently, VIA Labs is developing one
We suggested some steps that Paribu could take on its own to help alleviate some short-term issues, all of which were either deemed unusable or undesirable for various reasons.
Paribu stated that they integrated Reef Chain into their platform, but no evidence has been provided for this, and Paribu hasn't opened deposits or withdrawals for REEF on Reef Chain.
We offered to mint additional REEF on Reef Chain (REEF-REEF) in batches. This would allow Reef and Paribu to jointly announce that batches of REEF on BNB Smart Chain (REEF-BSC) would be sent to a wallet, a matching amount of REEF-REEF would be minted and sent to Paribu, and the REEF-BSC would be burnt. This would result in a permanent reduction of REEF-BSC.
In reviewing the transactions and activity on BNB Smart Chain, Reef decided the best course of action would be for Paribu users to use Paribu's API, through the use of read-only keys, to verify the amount of REEF in their accounts. Reef's developers would build an app that used the individual's read-only key, verify REEF ownership, provide the user with a BNB Smart Chain wallet address where they would deposit their REEF-BSC, and ask the user for a Reef Chain wallet to receive their new REEF-REEF. The user would send their REEF-BSC to the wallet, and they would receive REEF-REEF directly to their Reef Chain wallet.
All REEF deposited in this way on BNB Smart Chain would be burnt periodically, once again permanently reducing the supply of REEF on BNB Smart Chain.
We came to learn today that Paribu's made a company decision not to offer an API. This makes it very difficult for Reef to verify that there are individual owners of REEF operating on Paribu, and therefore ensure the REEF being bridged to Reef Chain was obtained legitimately. Offering API access to one's account is a standard, industry-wide practice so that users can import data into various platforms (e.g. tax accounting apps), and for sophisticated users to manage their holdings across multiple platforms from a single screen.
We are continuing to discuss potential solutions for users of Paribu specifically, while also engaging with the wider REEF-BSC user base. We are confident we can come to a conclusion on this in the near future, while we also have the bridge in development.
