Atomic Swap Mechanisms: HTLC vs PTLC vs Taproot-Enabled – Protocol Evolution, Trustlessness, and Latency Analysis
Atomic swaps enable trustless peer-to-peer cryptocurrency exchanges across different blockchains. The protocol guarantees a binary outcome: either both parties receive their assets or both receive refunds. Three distinct mechanisms have emerged in this domain: Hash Time-Locked Contracts (HTLCs), Point Time-Locked Contracts (PTLCs), and Taproot-enabled PTLCs. Each represents a successive layer of cryptographic optimization, moving contract logic from on-chain scripts ...
