Jack Dorsey, co-founder and current Head of Square and Twitter – reportedly published a white paper on November 19th, containing specifics for Square’s decentralized Bitcoin (BTC) exchange tbDEX. 

Particularly, the anticipated exchange will reportedly bear some distinct differences from a majority of decentralized exchanges (DEX), as tbDEX will not employ a trustless model, consequently will not come with its self-developed governance token. 

Rather, it reportedly functions as a message protocol built with a goal of offering facilitation for trust relationships, without being dependent on a federation to control access.

The tbDEX further aims to roll out a variety of features, which will make it far less decentralized compared to a DEX in the most complete nature of the world. 

For instance, the protocol reportedly makes it mandatory that every participant needs to pass background know-your-customer (KYC) checks to stay in compliance with the regulations associated with their respective area. 

Only then will users have the freedom to link their wallets to the exchange and swap coins with one another.

Additionally, the white paper reportedly urged for the rollout of blockchain analytic solutions, either built-in to the DEX or via a third party, in a bid to track transactions across the platform. 

Blockchain forensic solutions of that kind would reportedly gather contradictory feedback, as a system like that would have the likelihood to allow authorities to cross-reference payment IDs and public wallet addresses with KYC data, to discover personal identities behind transacting parties. 

Nonetheless, supporters claim that such means of monitoring are necessary to prevent illicit activities.