THORCHain is a decentralized liquidity protocol that allows users to easily exchange cryptocurrency assets across a range of networks without losing full custody of their assets in the process. With THORChain users can simply swap one asset for another in a permissionless setting without needing to rely on order books to source liquidity. Instead market prices are maintained through the ratio of assets in a pool (see automated market maker).The native utility token of the THORChain platform is RUNE. This is used as the base currency in the THORChain ecosystem and is also used for platform governance and security as part of THORChain's Sybil resistance mechanisms — since THORChain nodes must commit a minimum of 1 million RUNE to participate in its rotating consensus process. THORChain was funded through an initial DEX offering (IDO) which launched through the Binance DEX in July 2019. Its mainnet originally launched in January 2021 but a multi-chain upgrade is currently scheduled for 2021.