Leading decentralized finance (DeFi) platform, Uniswap, has taken a significant leap towards revolutionizing automated market makers (AMMs) and liquidity sources with its newest product — UniswapX. A beta version of this innovative protocol was launched on 17 July, revealing a vision for an open-source, permissionless, and auction-based trading system.
UniswapX is a product of the project’s ambition to continually improve and adapt to the fast-paced world of decentralized finance. Its core selling points are its promises of increased liquidity, more competitive prices, miner extractable value (MEV) protection, and gas-free transactions for its users.
For the uninitiated, MEV refers to the profit a miner can make through their ability to arbitrarily include, exclude, or reorder transactions within the blocks they produce. UniswapX aims to protect users from the negative effects of this practice, promising that MEV will be returned to users in the form of improved prices.
Uniswap is also breaking new ground by introducing a feature it calls “next-level aggregation”. In this system, Uniswap outsources the complexity of transaction routing to an open network of fillers, who compete to complete swaps at the most competitive prices. The platform asserts that this new model will yield better prices and negate any costs for failed transactions, bringing significant improvements in overall user experience.
A unique feature of UniswapX that sets it apart from the crowd is its promise of gas-free transactions. This is made possible by a novel off-chain order signing system, where swappers sign an order off-chain and fillers submit it on-chain, bearing the gas fees. The result? Users don’t need a chain’s native token to trade and are spared the cost of failed transactions.
The protocol has also hinted at a future upgrade that will introduce a game-changing feature: gas-free cross-chain swaps. Expected to launch later this year, the cross-chain UniswapX will enable swapping and bridging in one seamless action, eliminating the need for bridged tokens and making cross-chain swaps quicker and simpler than ever.
Uniswap’s new offering is built into its familiar interface and follows the same principles of security, self-custody, and community that have earned Uniswap its place as one of the most trusted names in DeFi.
The team launched an opt-in beta for UniswapX on 17 November, with most orders initially going through the traditional routing. As more fillers enter the system and parameterization is fine-tuned, more trades will route through UniswapX.
With this latest offering, Uniswap seems poised to once again push the envelope of what is possible in DeFi and solidify its position at the forefront of the industry.
