The purpose of the Tau token "is a simple token that every chain can interact with. This allows users to use a single agnostic type of token to interact with any chain on the network."
https://lamden.io/faq/But Clove (one of Lamden's development tools) claims to "make atomic swaps between blockchains easy" for Bitcoin-based and Ethereum-based chains. So why is the Tau token needed if Clove will make atomic swaps possible? Here
https://lamden.io/about-token/ they explain that Tau will facilitate Lamden's decentralized atomic swap network, but if the atomic swaps are working then there is no need for an intermediary token. It defeats the whole purpose of atomic swaps.
Can one of the Tau devs explain this more?
TAU will be the middleman to do the atomic swaps.
For example: if you want to swap LSK -> ETH then it will be LSK -> TAU -> ETH.
@Devs correct me if I'm wrong.
If TAU is the middleman then it's not an atomic swap. It's trading one coin for another at whatever the current exchange rate is and then trading that coin for the third coin. It defeats the entire purpose of atomic swaps. Can someone on the team please elaborate?