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Ren (REN) is an open-source protocol that facilitates interoperability and liquidity across different blockchain networks. It was originally called Republic Protocol and introduced RenVM, its virtual machine mainnet, in May 2020. The project raised $34 million through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018. REN, the native token, serves as a bond for node operators, known as Darknodes, which power RenVM. The goal is to enhance decentralized finance (DeFi) by simplifying cross-chain liquidity and removing barriers to asset movement.

Ren was founded by Taiyang Zhang in 2017, who serves as CEO. Initially named Republic Protocol, it was publicly announced in January 2018, with Zhang describing its primary use case as a decentralized dark pool. Zhang has prior experience in the crypto industry, having co-founded the hedge fund Virgil Capital. Earlier, in 2014, he co-founded Neucode, a software development company, alongside Jaz Gulati, who now works as a software developer for Ren.

Ren stands out for its ability to enable cross-chain asset transfers without the need for wrapped tokens. It allows DeFi projects to integrate foreign assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Zcash (ZEC) directly. RenVM, a network of virtual computers, powers this functionality, with Darknodes acting as the underlying machines. While Ren charges fees for its operations, most are distributed to miners rather than contributing to direct profits. As an ERC-20 token, REN also incurs standard Ethereum gas fees for transactions.

REN has a maximum supply of 1 billion tokens, with no additional minting possible. During the 2018 token sale, 60.2% of the total supply was sold to investors. A reserve fund holds 19.9% of the supply, while 9.9% is allocated to the team, advisors, and founders, subject to lock-up periods: two years for team tokens and six months for advisor allocations. Another 10% is reserved for partnerships and development. REN operates as an ERC-20 token.

RenVM employs a byzantine fault-tolerant protocol that uses ECDSA threshold key generation and signing through secure multi-party computation (sMPC). This enables RenVM to securely manage private keys across different blockchains, allowing for token transfers between them. Currently, the network is in the sub-zero phase of its decentralization roadmap. More details about this progression can be found in Ren's official wiki.

REN is available on several major cryptocurrency exchanges, with Binance and Huobi Global seeing the highest trading volumes as of October 2020. It can be traded against various cryptocurrencies, fiat currencies, and stablecoins. For newcomers to the crypto space, there are guides available to help with purchasing Bitcoin and other digital assets.