Q: What is Token Store?
A: It is an Ethereum token exchange built on smart contracts in a semi-decentralized way. Core logic of the exchange is implemented right on top of Ethereum, as a smart contract. That allows us to remove a significant portion of the trust problem by not holding any user assets directly. If the website goes down, you still have access to your ether/tokens via the smart contract that holds it and you can withdraw it using your wallet if it supports smart contract calls. That also means that your funds are protected by Ethereum cryptography and only you can withdraw it. The code of the smart contract is completely open and well-documented, you can find it here: https://github.com/tokenstore/contract. All the trading/settlement logic lives on chain in a smart contract. But due to the current limitations of the technology (about 10 transactions a second for the whole blockchain, expensive on-chain calculations, significant delays for block mining) your orders signed with you private keys are stored off-chain on a private server. The web application that serves the exchange is also stored on a private server. See more on that below.

Q: How secure is this approach?
A: While we don't store the orders in a smart contract, every order you create is signed with your private key. That allows the contract to validate order data passed to it before executing any trades. Only orders you signed can be traded against. We also don't have access to your private keys. That means that only you are in control of all the operations related to your funds that go through the smart contract. That also means that only you are in control of your private keys and if you loose them, your funds are lost! Always back up your private keys!

Q: What are the risks associated with this approach?
A: The weakest point in this architecture is UI - a web application that connects you to the smart contract. But that’s a weak point of any application. If somebody hacks into the servers and changes UI logic, it would be possible to render orders differently than they are stored and also to prompt you to sign the data that you were not intended to sign. We're going to investigate potential solutions to this problem in the future.

We'd like to add that this approach is still much more reliable than a typical centralized exchange that can go down with all your funds literally any moment. And it was validated previously by EtherDelta exchange launched in 2016, which we're the spiritual successor of.

Q: How are you better then EtherDelta?
A: We studied this product and the source code quite a bit and decided to rewrite almost everything (web app, order book logic) except for the core logic of a smart contract. We also use the same order signing methodology as it's proven by time and by our multiple attempts to find a loophole in it.

Here are some of the key differences:
1. Completely rewritten responsive UI
2. Completely rewritten reliable order book
3. Revised contract with versioning, migrations, account modifiers

Q: What about This Other Decentralized Exchange?
A: If you're curious how we're better than some other product or have any other questions to us, just shoot a note to tokendotstore@gmail.com

Q: Who are you?
A: We're a group of crypto-specialists focused on advancing the state of open decentralized software. As a first step towards that vision we decided to build a set of real products with clear value add for the existing eco-system. Working on self-sustaining evolving products allows us to contribute to the further development of the application layer built on top of the protocol and help to bring it to mass adoption. Token Store is our first step in this direction.

Q: How can I help?
A: If you want to help us in the development or promotion of the exchange or just have any feedback, shoot us a note at tokendotstore@gmail.com Also, you can send donations at this Ethereum  address: 0x9845dBeEEde9BBAD5f8b4eb00B497f01fe240967 - we commit to spend it all on future improvements, development and security audits.