Serai Update: Zero-Conf & Exact Amount Swaps, Integration Updates
Introduction
From December 2024 through March 2025, the Serai DEX team has made major strides in building out their Monero-centric decentralized exchange. This update dives into the latest development activity on Serai’s GitHub and Rust crates. We cover key features like zero-conf swaps, exact amount trades, new security protocols, and performance improvements – all designed to enhance the user experience and reliability of the Serai platform.
Cross-Chain Security with Cosigning Protocol
A major development this quarter is the addition of a cosigning protocol to defend against cross-chain double-spending. Serai works with multiple blockchains (Monero, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and others). Without protection, validators could try to fork Serai’s chain to perform conflicting swaps on different external networks.
The new serai-cosign module, released in December 2024, addresses this. When Serai finalizes a block that touches another network (e.g., a Monero-to-Bitcoin trade), validators from that external chain also cosign the block. This makes it nearly impossible for Serai validators to present two conflicting versions. Once 83% of the external validators sign the block, it’s considered final.
This isn’t formally BFT, but it strongly discourages double-spend attacks. For traders, this means you can trust that your swap won’t be reversed or duplicated. This unique layer of protection highlights Serai’s focus on secure cross-chain architecture.
“Tributary”: A Mini Blockchain for Internal Consensus
Another major improvement is the creation of Tributary – a micro-blockchain used internally by Serai’s coordinator to reach consensus. Released in January 2025 as the tributary-sdk crate, this system gives Serai an ordered and verifiable broadcast layer.
Tributary works like a mini BFT blockchain. It lets nodes agree on how to sequence internal operations like threshold signatures and inter-chain messaging. The new serai-coordinator-tributary module plugs into this, giving the network a reliable way to coordinate tasks.
For users, this means trade execution and liquidity updates remain consistent across all validator nodes. The team is still optimizing the initial sync process to improve performance without sacrificing security.
Improved Serari Chain Coordination and Modules
Serai introduced several new modules to streamline how the DEX blockchain talks to off-chain systems. The serai-coordinator-substrate crate, released in December 2024, scans blockchain events and splits them into two categories:
- Canonical events (relevant to all validators)
- Ephemeral events (only for specific validator sets)
This structure allows each validator to focus only on relevant tasks, improving efficiency and security as the network grows.
Another utility, serai-task (released December 2024), manages long-running services like relayers and monitors. It ensures these tasks run smoothly in the background and can recover gracefully from issues. This leads to better uptime and fewer disruptions.
The team also updated serai-db and integrated the new serai-cosign cryptographic logic. These updates form a modular foundation for a more scalable and secure DEX. All components are undergoing audits before launch, as noted in GitHub tracking issues.
Monero Integration Enhancements
Serai continues to improve its Monero support. One standout contribution is the new monero-fcmp-plus-plus crate, published in December 2024. This library explores Full-Chain Membership Proofs (FCMP++), a proposed replacement for parts of Monero’s current CLSAG protocol.
Though still in audit and research, this work shows Serai’s deep involvement in advancing Monero’s privacy tech. It may eventually improve transaction speed and security on the platform.
On a more practical level, Serai fixed several bugs and improved wallet behavior. They updated the decoy selection algorithm to match Monero best practices. It now avoids torsioned outputs and selects decoys uniformly, which boosts privacy.
Other updates include:
- Fixing a bug that caused RPC crashes
- Supporting v2 transaction formats with
get_pruned_transactions - Correcting CLSAG transcript logic to match Monero’s exact signing structure
These changes ensure Monero swaps on Serai are secure, accurate, and future-proof.
Serai Performance Tweaks and Bug Fixes
The team worked on cleaning up dependencies and reducing code complexity. In January 2025, they replaced heavy async libraries like Tokio with lighter tools in some areas. They also removed unused crates like void and async-trait. These changes reduce bloat and lower runtime overhead.
They also resolved some key issues:
- Fixed a bug in threshold signing that could cause the protocol to stall
- Closed a loophole that let validators unstake too early after being removed
- Improved Tributary syncing for faster node startup and recovery
These tweaks lead to better performance, stability, and security — especially for validators running nodes full-time.
Upcoming Features and Discussions
Serai isn’t just patching bugs. They’re designing features that will shape the user experience.
- Zero-Conf Swaps: Traders will be able to complete swaps without waiting for block confirmations. This uses “InInstructions” to claim funds immediately, cutting wait times significantly. It’s optional but could redefine trade speed.
- Exact Amount Swaps: Instead of sending a set amount of one coin and getting whatever the market yields, traders will soon be able to specify how much of the target coin they want. This mirrors centralized exchange functionality.
- Inactive Account Fee: The team is considering a small inactivity fee for users holding external tokens without trading. This would encourage active participation and free up storage resources.
- Merkleized State: By using Merkle trees to represent the DEX’s state, Serai could allow lightweight clients to verify balances without syncing the whole chain.
- Post-Quantum Cryptography: Serai is tracking developments in quantum-safe cryptography. They aim to future-proof signatures and protocols for all integrated chains.
These ideas are still in discussion, but their implementation could make Serai both faster and more secure.
Conclusion
In Q1 2025, Serai DEX made major progress toward delivering a fast, secure, and Monero-friendly trading experience. The new cosigning system and Tributary chain enhance cross-chain security and internal coordination. Upgrades to modules, Monero handling, and background tasks show a maturing codebase.
With zero-conf and exact amount swaps on the roadmap, Serai is preparing to meet trader expectations from both the privacy and performance sides. The project’s active development on GitHub reflects a team working hard to build a better DEX – and it’s getting close to launch.
All activity covered in this article is based on GitHub commits and Rust crate releases from Dec 2024 through Mar 2025.