Welcome to the friendly introduction to THORWallet DEX! This is a 4 part guide on how to use one of the most powerful non-custodial mobile wallets. In this tutorial, we’ll cover what THORWallet DEX is, how to set it up, and how to use the app. The tutorial can either be followed as a blog post, or watched as a youtube series. The links to the videos are embedded in the article.
THORChain is a groundbreaking protocol that enables the movement of assets across blockchains in a decentralized and secure way. It accomplishes this using liquidity pools. At a high level, liquidity pools allow users (called liquidity providers, or LPs) to deposit their assets like Bitcoin, Ether, or BNB into the pool to earn a yield. Traders can then swap one supported asset to another for a small fee that is collected by the LPs as their source of yield.
But interacting with THORChain directly is difficult. We need an interface to make it easy for most people to use it. These interfaces can exist in multiple forms; desktop apps, web apps, and mobile apps are 3 possibilities. THORChain can even be directly integrated into a crypto wallet. Below are some of the most popular THORChain interfaces.
We can see that THORWallet DEX falls into the phone wallet category. This means that you can download it as an app on your smartphone, and directly manage your crypto from there. Phone wallets are extremely popular because of their comparative ease of use and convenience. You may be familiar with Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet, or MetaMask Mobile which have collectively attracted over 10 million users. So what distinguishes THORWallet DEX from existing phone wallets?
Unlike some phone wallets, THORWallet DEX is entirely non-custodial. This means that the user is in complete control of their funds. The team behind THORWallet DEX has no access to any of your assets. Even among non-custodial wallets, THORWallet DEX has a couple key differentiating factors. For one, it’s built upon THORChain. Users have access to THORChain features like swapping native assets between chains and earning yield on their favorite supported asset without leaving their mobile wallet. Most other wallets either have no THORChain support, or must connect to a web app to use THORChain, usually in a restricted capacity. Additionally, THORWallet DEX has a simple, intuitive interface that retail investors can understand – it's like the Robinhood of DeFi.
In this tutorial, we’ll be installing THORWallet DEX on an iPhone, but it’s also available on other devices through Google Play. Start by opening the App Store and searching for 'Testflight'. Testflight grants access to beta apps prior to their full release on the app store.
Download Testflight. Then, click here to download THORWallet DEX from the App Store, or here to download from Google Play. Alternatively, open Safari and go to www.thorwallet.org.
Scroll down a little, and click on the 'Download on the App Store' button.
If Testflight is installed, this should open the app with an invitation to install THORWallet DEX.
Click install, and THORWallet DEX should quickly download. The orange dot next to the app name means that the app is in beta and was downloaded through Testflight.
Now let's open the app. When THORWallet DEX is opened, it performs a security check to verify that all third-party services are properly functioning. It usually only takes a second to verify. The check is performed every time you open the app, not just when it’s first downloaded.
Once the security check is completed, the first setup page will appear.
Click on the ‘Get Started’ button. We’ll see the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Feel free to read through it. We can jump to the bottom by clicking on the blue down arrow in the bottom corner.
Once we’ve agreed to the terms, click ‘Continue’. The next page allows us to create a new wallet or import an existing wallet. Wallets can be imported by entering their seed phrase. In this tutorial, we’ll set up a new wallet, so click on ‘Create Wallet’.
We’ll be asked to backup our wallet. The seed phrase is effectively the password to the wallet. Anyone who has the seed phrase has access to all of the funds. If the seed phrase is lost, there is no way to recover the funds. Therefore, it’s extremely important to carefully write down the seed phrase and store it somewhere safe. To view the new wallet’s unique seed phrase, click ‘Backup Wallet’
Now we can see the seed phrase. Remember that each one is different. You can copy the phrase to your phone’s clipboard, but it’s recommended that you write it down on paper instead. Once you’ve copied your phrase and double-checked it for correctness, check the box, and click ‘Continue’.
Next we’ll select a 6 digit PIN code for the wallet. After clicking ‘Continue’, re-enter the PIN to confirm your code.
We have the option to enable biometrics to unlock our wallet without needing the PIN. Click ‘Enable biometrics’ to activate this feature or choose ‘Skip’ to keep it disabled.
Lastly, we’ll see a few of THORWallet DEX’s features. If you’re curious, scroll through the different info cards to read more. Once you’re done, click ‘Get started’.
And with that, we’re all set up! Moving forward, every time you open the THORWallet DEX app, you’ll start on this wallet tab. In the next section, we’ll tour THORWallet DEX to see what features it offers.
Now that THORWallet DEX is set up, let’s walk through the app. When we first open the app, we’ll be on the wallet tab. This tab gives you an overview of your portfolio.
At the top of the page we have the option to add liquidity to the TGT pool on THORChain. TGT is THORWallet DEX’s token, which has special properties for THORWallet DEX users which will be discussed later. We’ll also discuss adding liquidity in more detail later. For now, remember that “adding liquidity” is roughly similar to putting your asset into a yield-bearing savings account.
Underneath that, we have our portfolio balance. I’ve gone ahead and added 0.5 RUNE into the wallet for demonstration purposes. RUNE is currently trading at $4.16, so the portfolio balance is $2.08. To see more details about the portfolio makeup, click the info icon to the right of the balance. This opens up the overall balance details. Here, you can see how your portfolio breaks down across various places like liquidity pools, staked TGT, and idle assets.
Below the portfolio balance, we have a list of crypto assets. For each asset, we have on the left side the token’s logo, ticker, name, and in parentheses, it’s version. Always check which version of the asset you’re looking at to avoid confusion. For example, BTC (Native) is Bitcoin on the Bitcoin blockchain, but BTCB (BEP2) is Bitcoin on Binance Chain. On the right side, we are shown the value in USD of our holdings in that asset. Below that, we have the quantity of that asset that we own. We can scroll down to see the full list of supported assets.
We can tap on a specific asset to view more details about it. I’ve clicked on RUNE. I can tap the copy icon to copy that asset’s chain’s address. For RUNE, this will copy the associated THORChain address. Underneath that, we have 4 options: receive, send, swap, and pooling. Each asset has the same 4 options, except for TGT, which has the additional option of staking. Below, we have the asset’s price history. We can view the price chart at 1H, 1D, 1W, 1M, and 1Y windows.
Scrolling further down, we have actions and transaction history. Actions show any swaps, deposits, or withdrawals of the asset through THORChain. We don’t have any of these yet, so our actions list is blank.
If we tap on transaction history, we see our address’s history with this asset. Here we can see the single transaction that deposited .5 RUNE into this wallet.
We can tap on that transfer to see more details about it.
If we return to the wallet tab we'll notice that we also have the ability to view our NFTs directly from our THORWallet. There aren't any NFTs associated with this new address, but if there were, we'd see them here.
Glancing at the bottom of the app, we can see 5 tabs. If we move to the second tab called ‘Pooling’, we’ll see the page below.
In the staking section at the top, we see the option to stake TGT. If we scroll down, we see the top pools.
These are the pools currently offering the highest yields. Below that, we have the option to enhance THORWallet DEX by upgrading to community. We’ll discuss this in more detail later.
If we scroll back up to the top of the Pooling tab, we can see next to ‘Overview’ the ‘Available Pools’ section.
Here, we have a full list of all liquidity pools offered. We can see the total value of the pool as well as the APY offered. We can click on any of them to deposit. We can also search the list or filter it by a certain metric.
Next to the ‘Available Pools’ section, we have ‘Your Pools’. This section shows a list of all the THORChain pools that you have deposited assets into. Since this wallet is new, it doesn’t have any pools.
The next section is pending deposits. It shows a list of any deposits we’re making that are still processing.
Lastly, we have pending pools. These are liquidity pools that are not yet activated on THORChain, but may come online soon. If you hold any of these assets, you may be able to earn a yield on them soon!
That’s it for the pooling tab. Now let’s click on the big green THORChain button in the bottom middle of the app. This will open up the THORActions tab.
We have 6 actions on this tab: staking TGT, receiving, sending, swapping, pooling, and upgrading RUNE. We’ve seen the first 5 before. On the wallet tab, we were able to receive, send, swap, and pool by clicking on a certain asset and selecting that option. Here is another place to do these. The last option, upgrading RUNE, allows you to take BEP2 RUNE on Binance Chain and convert it into native RUNE on THORChain. If you don’t have BEP2 RUNE, you can ignore this. However, if you have BEP2 RUNE and would like to use it in THORChain liquidity pools, you must upgrade it first. Upgrading is irreversible.
We’ll actually go through each of these actions in the next section of the tutorial, but for now, we’ll just note that they’re here.
That’s it for the THORActions tab. Let’s tap on the ‘Missions’ tab.
This tab will show various challenges you can perform in your THORWallet DEX to earn rewards in TGT, like depositing BNB into its liquidity pool or performing a native Bitcoin swap. At the time of this writing, there aren’t any active missions, but always monitor this tab to see if you can pick up some free TGT rewards!
The last tab is ‘Settings’.
At the top we again have the option to enhance THORWallet DEX with premium features. Below that, we can view the THORWallet Army collection. This is an NFT collection made by the THORWallet DEX team. Owning one of their NFTs unlocks premium features within the app. Tap on 'Share Collection' to sent it to a friend, or tap 'Make an offer' to view the collection on OpenSea.
In the security section, the first option is to activate or deactivate Biometrics.
Next we have the option to view our recovery phrase. We’ll first see a warning reminding us to keep the phrase confidential.
After clicking ‘View Secret Phrase’, we’ll be asked to re-enter our password. Then, we’ll see our secret phrase. We’ll have to press the ‘Press and hold to reveal’ button to view the words.
Returning back to the ‘Settings’ tab, our last security option is to import a wallet.
After clicking on this we’ll be shown a popup warning that importing a new wallet will sign us out of the current one. If you don’t have your signed-in wallet’s seed phrase stored, then you’ll be unable to recover those assets if you import another wallet.
After clicking ‘I understand’, we’ll see the box to enter a seed phrase.
Type or paste in the seed phrase of the wallet you want to import to access that wallet.
Underneath the import wallet option, we have the ‘Switch Network’ option. Tapping on this allows us to toggle our account between mainnet and testnet.
Mainnet is what you’re familiar with – it’s the “real” network. Testnet is a 2nd “copy” of mainnet that holds “fake” assets that don’t hold real value but can be used for testing various features. It’s primarily used by software developers. But if you’re curious, feel free to switch to testnet to try it out. You’ll need to switch back to mainnet to view your assets again.
The last settings option is to erase your wallet. If you erase your wallet, you can still recover it by importing its seed phrase. However, if you don’t have your seed phrase, erasing your wallet will make your funds inaccessible.
Those are all the options in the settings tab. The last thing we’ll check out in this section of the guide is the hamburger menu in the top right corner of the app.
The first 3 links connect you to THORWallet DEX’s Twitter, Telegram, and Discord. If you have any questions or want to get involved with the THORWallet DEX community, that’s a great way to do so. Beneath that are the THORWallet DEX legal documents. At the bottom we’ll find the THORChain Twitter and Telegram groups.
That’s it for this section of the tutorial. We’ve walked through all the major parts of the THORWallet DEX interface!
We saw in part 3 where we can deposit, swap, send, and receive assets. Now let’s actually do it.
The easiest way to receive an asset is to click on the THORActions tab, and click on receive.
This will open a list of every supported chain.
Click on the chain you’d like to receive an asset from (select Ethereum if you’re receiving any supported ERC20 token). This will open a page with your address on that chain and a QR code. Send that address to the asset sender or have them scan your QR code in order to receive their transfer.
Now let’s send an asset. Go back to your THORActions and click on ‘Send’.
You’ll see a list of your assets that are available to be sent. Here, I just have RUNE. Select the asset you want to send.
The next popup will allow you to enter how much you want to transfer. You can either select a certain percentage of your holdings, or manually enter the amount.
Once you’ve selected the amount, click ‘Continue’. You’ll next be asked to enter the recipient address.
Make sure that the recipient address you enter is on the correct chain. You can also copy a QR code by clicking on the icon to the right of the recipient address box.
Once you’ve entered the address, click ‘Go to summary’. This last tab will show you a summary of your transaction details including the amount sent, the recipient address, and the transaction fee.
Review the details and if they look correct, click send. The transaction will then be executed.
Swapping through THORChain requires a transaction on the source chain and the destination chain. It also requires a THORChain fee. In a BTC → ETH swap, your fee will cover the cost of the BTC inbound transaction, the THORChain network fee, as well as the ETH outbound transaction. The more expensive transactions are on the source and destination chains, the more expensive your swap will be. Additionally, the THORChain swap fee is dependent on the size of the swap relative to the size of the liquidity pool. A small trade through a large pool will have a small THORChain fee, and a large trade through a small pool will face a high fee. Luckily, these complexities are abstracted away from the user. You’ll only see one transaction fee on THORWallet DEX. You can read more about THORChain fees and how they’re calculated here.
Let’s see this in practice. Click on the ‘Swap’ THORAction.
You may get a warning that you don’t have enough of a certain asset to swap it. If that asset is the one you want to swap, or is the gas token on the chain of the asset you want to swap, you’ll need to add more of it to your address to pay for the swap transaction fee. If that asset isn’t relevant to your swap, click ‘Continue anyway’.
Now we’ll see the swapping interface. First, select the asset you want to swap from by clicking on the ‘From’ asset and selecting your asset from the list.
Then do the same thing for the asset you want to receive.
Now enter the amount of the asset you want to swap from. In this example, I’m going to swap 0.05 RUNE to LTC.
Next, click ‘Preview Swap’. This page will give you a summary of your transaction details including the input and output assets, their respective quantities, and the transaction fee. Verify that the information is correct, check the disclaimer box, and click ‘Swap now’.
How long the swap takes to finalize depends on the chains we swap between. It could take only a few seconds, or a number of minutes. Either way, you’ll have just completed a decentralized native cross-chain swap powered by THORChain!
Now let’s deposit into a liquidity pool. If we click on the ‘Pooling’ THORAction, we’ll be sent to the Pooling tab. We can pool here by finding the asset in the ‘Available Pools’ section.
But another way to pool a specific asset is to go to the wallet tab, find that asset, and click on its overview. In this example, we’ll be using BNB.
Remember that we can also perform all of these THORActions from the asset overview. Tap on the ‘Pooling’ option.
Now we can see the deposits page.
We can either deposit into the liquidity pool symmetrically or asymmetrically. Each pool is composed of 50% RUNE and 50% of some other asset. A symmetrical deposit is one where you deposit equal amounts of RUNE and the other asset, in this case BNB. However, you can also deposit asymmetrically. An asymmetric deposit is an LP ratio other than 50-50. You can deposit 100-0, 25-75, or any other combination. However, when a user asymmetrically deposits, the pool will swap your position to be 50-50, which will incur a small charge. For pools with high liquidity, or for small deposits, this effect is relatively small. Nonetheless, remember that asymmetrical deposits will face an implicit fee. Read more about symmetric and asymmetric deposits here.
Since an LP position is composed of the 2 different assets, you have price exposure to both, even if you deposited only 1. The yield earned in the liquidity pool is on both assets, and automatically compounds. Sometimes, when 1 of the assets move up or down much more than the other, LP positions are subject to what’s known as impermanent loss. This is when the value of a yield-bearing LP position is actually lower than if both assets had been held on their own. While this is a significant problem for other decentralized exchanges, THORChain offers impermanent loss protection: after 100 days in a liquidity pool, THORChain will pay you back your original deposit if you suffered from impermanent loss.
As mentioned above, each THORChain liquidity pool is 50% composed of RUNE. If you’d like to only have exposure to the non-RUNE asset, you’ll be able to do so with the release of THORSavings. This product will offer fixed-rate yield on a single asset and will launch sometime in 2022. THORWallet DEX will support THORSavings once it launches.
We’ve previously mentioned that we’re able to “stake” TGT. But why would we want to do this? First, staking TGT can earn high yields. As of this writing, staking rewards were 257% percent! But that’s not the only reason: staking TGT allows us to unlock special rewards within the THORWallet DEX app.
Let’s go to the Settings tab and click on the ‘Enhance THORWallet’ button.
This will open the community tiers.
When we first create a new THORWallet DEX account, we start on the standard plan. Under this plan, we receive the standard TGT APY for staking, and pay a 1% fee for trading and depositing liquidity through THORChain.
If we stake 5,000 TGT, we are upgraded to the community plan. This plan earns a boosted TGT staking APY and fees are reduced to 0.3%. More premium features are planned for future release.
By staking 50,000 TGT, we unlock the community plus plan. This plan also gets a boosted TGT staking yield, and doesn’t pay any fee for swapping or pooling on the app. For advanced or frequent THORWallet DEX users, community plus is a great option to save money and unlock future rewards.
Now that we know why we’d want to stake TGT, let’s go to our THORActions, and click Stake TGT.
If you don’t have ETH in your wallet, you may get a warning to add more ETH, since it’s needed to pay for the staking transaction cost.
Next, enter the amount you want to stake, then click ‘Continue’.
We’ll see a summary of our transaction.
In this example we’re seeing an error since I’m staking 0 TGT for demonstration purposes. If you actually have TGT in your wallet and try to stake some, it should work normally.
Review the information, then click ‘Stake’ to confirm the transaction. With enough TGT staked, you’ll earn some awesome rewards!
That’s all for the friendly introduction to THORWallet DEX! In this tutorial, we provided some background as to how THORWallet DEX relates to THORChain and how it distinguishes itself from other phone wallets. We also saw how to download and set up a new THORWallet DEX wallet. Then, we walked through its interface. Next, we went through the process of receiving, sending, swapping, and pooling assets in THORWallet DEX. Finally, we covered staking TGT, as well as the THORWallet DEX community tier programs and the benefits they unlock.
