Early Decentralized Exchange on Ethereum
Thanks to decentralized exchanges, we can enjoy convenient trading without custody and know your customer (KYC). With Uniswap, trading becomes much more simpler with just the press of the button. Unlike centralized exchanges (CEX) where we need to:
Register and verify our email address.
Today, binding phone number for identity.
Setting 2FA for security.
Verifying identity by uploading identity document and taking a selfie.
Sometimes, proof of address for very strict exchanges.
in convenient decentralized exchanges (DEX) we only need to:
Choose a token and swap.
after:
Installing a web3 supported wallet like Metamask or Trust Wallet.
Filling the wallet with the native cryptocurrency for gas fee which is Ethereum in this case and any token we want to exchange.
Click the connect button to connect our wallets.
Not only that, Uniswap allows anyone to provide liquidity and earn a portion of the transaction fees.
Sushiswap made the next development which is yield farming where we not only earn portion of the transaction fees but rewarded with their native token Sushi. Eventually, all decentralized exchanges followed their path where they allow anyone to provide liquidity and earn a portion of the transaction fees and rewarded with their native token. UNI a token of Uniswap is one of the most popular token today. Here are some list of decentralized exchange on Ethereum:
However, almost all of us did not expect there are too many demands and too many users which makes the gas fee unaffordable for average users. I personally already thankful for a gas fee of $20 per transaction. During crowded times, in can rise far over $100 per swap.
Decentralized Exchanges Outside of Ethereum
While the average users are waiting for Ethereum 2.0 to fix the high gas fee problem, in early 2021 decentralized exchange outside of Ethereum blockchain started to emerge. The fees are lower than $1 per transaction either because they made them cheap or there are just not much users yet. Anyway, the following are the DEX that I found during the time of this writing. No need to worry about how to connect, just click the "connect wallet" button for every DEX and they will tell us of what wallet we can use.
Binance Smart Chain
The following DEXs are on Binance Smart Chain ecosystem with all transactions paid in BNB. Note that it is different from Binance Chain ecosystem where the address starts in bnb..., this ecosystem uses the same address as Ethereum. Therefore, you can use Metamask by just switching networks:
(1) Click the network menu on the top or go to settings > Network. (2) Custom Network or Add Network. (3) Fill in the configuration for Binance Smart Chain:
Network Name: Any name that you want.
RPC URL: https://bsc-dataseed.binance.org/
Chain ID: 56
Currency Symbol: BNB
Block Explorer URL: https://bscscan.com/
Disclaimer: do not trust even me easily, always check their official website for example https://academy.binance.com/en/articles/connecting-metamask-to-binance-smart-chain because you may get your fund stolen if you use a malicious RPC (please correct me if I am wrong).
Still, I prefer to use the Binance Chain Extension as it provides cross chain transactions between Binance Chain (bnb....) and Binance Smart Chain (0x....).
Pancake Swap
Pancake Swap is the currently best automated market maker (AMM) DEX other then Uniswap. One of the reasons why BNB rose in price. The average fee is below $1 per transaction.
Yield farming is also available and low fee as well. I always wanted to provide liquidity on Uniswap but cannot even try because of the high fee. Here you can try even for education just providing few dollars of liquidity and yield farming because the fees are less than $1 for each transactions.
Other DEXs
The following DEXs originally just Ethereum DEXs but are integrating Binance Smart Chain into them:
Binance Chain
This is Binance's official DEX using the traditional orderbook with only trading function with no liquidity providing insentive and yield farming. Other than that, ther is BEPSwap that uses AMM Trading.
Tron
Do you know before Binance Smart Chain, Tron already follows Ethereum's path. Even in 2020, they already have JustSwap where we too can provide liquidity to Tron tokens and earn or farm JST. The native coin is TRX which is used to pay gas fees. Metamask is not currently supported where you have to install their Tron Link wallet.
There are other Tron DEXs other than Just Swap but they are still using traditional order book:
Tomo Chain
Like Tron, Tomo Chain also immediately followed Ethereum's path and released their Lua Swap in 2020 with AMM swap available along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the gas fees are in TOMO. Their previous TomoDex using traditional orderbook is also running. They also have a TomoBridge that can cross chain Ethereum, Binance Chain, Solana, and will bring more to bridge to Tomochain. Other than their official Tomo Chain wallet, Metamask is supported:
Network Name: Any name that you want.
RPC URL: https://rpc.tomochain.com
Chain ID: 88
Currency Symbol: TOMO
Block Explorer URL: https://scan.tomochain.com/
Matic/Polygon
A trending AMM DEX on Matic/Polygon blockchain which is a blockchain aims for interoperability between Ethereum and other blockchain is Quick Swap with liquidity providing and yield farming where the gas fees are in Matic and we can use Metamask wallet based on their guide:
Network Name: Any name that you want.
RPC URL: https://rpc-mainnet.matic.network
Chain ID: 137
Currency Symbol: MATIC
Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.matic.network/
Neo
On Neo blockchain currently there is Flamingo with AMM swap available along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the current supporting wallet is Neoline and O3.
There are other DEXs which uses traditional orderbook:
Zilliqa
On Zilliqa blockchain currently there is Zilswap also by Switcheo with AMM swap available along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the current supporting wallet is Zilpay or directly input private key which can be filled with Zilliqa.
Solana
On Solana blockchain currently there are Raydium and Serum with both traditional order book trading and AMM swap avaialble along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the gas fees are in SOL which can be contained in Sollet, Solflare, and some other Solana wallets.
Avalanche
On Avalanche blockchain recently there is Pangolin with AMM swap available along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the gas fees are in AVAX. If you hold 100 UNI in your Ethereum Wallet until the end of 2020, do not forget to claim your PNG airdrop. The wallet used is Metamask in Pangolin and use https://wallet.avax.network/ to bridge your native AVAX to the smart chain network and there is also a bridge between Ethereum and Avalanche on https://aeb.xyz/#/transfer.
Network Name: Any name that you want.
Chain ID: 0xa86a
Currency Symbol: AVAX
Block Explorer URL: https://cchain.explorer.avax.network/
Another that I found is Zero Exchange which also provides a bridge between Ethereum and Avalanche..
Energi
Just a few days before the writing of this article, Energi blockchain released its Energi Swap with AMM swap available along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the gas fees are in NRG where the wallet used is Metamask:
Network Name: Any name that you want.
Chain ID: 39797
Currency Symbol: NRG
Block Explorer URL: https://explorer.energi.network/
QTUM
In QTUM blockchain there is Qiswap with AMM swap available along with liquidity providing and yield farming where the gas fees are in QTUM but the only supported wallet now is qiwallet.
OKEX Chain
Like Binance Exchange, OKEX Exchange also wanted to keep up and released their OKEX Chain with both their orderbook and AMM decentralized exchange called OKEX Swap liquidity providing and yield farming available.
Cosmos
There is an AMM swap still in demo on Cosmos main blockchain called B-Harvest with liquidity providing and yield farming available.
Sif Chain
Another one still in demo on is Sif Chain DEX with liquidity providing and yield farming available.
Others Only Order Book
Saturn Network (Ethereum Classic)
memo.cash (Bitcoin Cash)