BasicSwap won't ask your name. It will ask you to run a node, three blockchains and a daemon called SMSG.

How it works

BasicSwap is a self-hosted desktop application that orchestrates cross-chain atomic swaps between you and another peer. You install a Python client — or pull the Docker stack — and it spins up the full node for each coin you want to trade: bitcoind, a Monero wallet RPC, and similar for Litecoin, Dash, Firo, PIVX, Decred, Dogecoin, Wownero, Namecoin and Particl. Orders ride on the SMSG network, a decentralised message relay borrowed from the Particl chain. No exchange operator sees the trade; no broker holds either side's coins.

Two swap protocols run underneath. The classic HTLC path uses hashed time-locked contracts; the modern PTLC path uses adaptor signatures so that pairs like BTC↔XMR — where Monero refuses to speak HTLC — settle on chain without a wrapped asset, a bridge, or a smart contract. Either both halves of the swap clear, or both refund. There is no third leg to seize.

KYC & privacy

There is nothing to KYC. BasicSwap has no signup, no email field, no central server, and no operator that could be compelled to hand anything over. The client talks to your own nodes; the order book is gossiped between peers; the swap itself is just a sequence of regular on-chain transactions. Tor integration is bundled, so SMSG traffic and node RPC can be funnelled through hidden services if you want network-layer privacy as well as protocol-layer.

What an outside observer sees depends on the coins involved. A BTC↔XMR swap produces two normal-looking transactions on each chain with no public link between them — the adaptor-signature trick keeps the correlation off chain. A swap between two transparent chains (LTC↔BTC) is naturally less private, but no more identifying than running the trade through any non-custodial wallet.

Strengths and limits

The privacy model is the strongest on the no-KYC exchange shelf because it is architectural, not a policy promise. The codebase is MIT-licensed, hosted publicly on GitHub, and has shipped steady releases since the 2022 open beta — v0.16.2 landed on 11 May 2026. No funds-loss incident has been reported against the protocol or the reference client.

The cost is real friction. You must run a Bitcoin full node and a Monero full node on your own hardware to swap between them, which means hundreds of gigabytes on disk and an initial sync measured in days. Liquidity is sparse outside the BTC, XMR and PART pairs, and large orders can sit unfilled for hours. There is no formal third-party security audit on file. The interface is a local web UI built for engineers, not retail.

Verdict

BasicSwap is what you reach for when no KYC needs to mean no operator, no order-book host, no custodial hop — and you have the patience to feed three blockchain daemons. For everyone else, the friction is the wall.