UniSwap Review – Is This DEX Worth Using?

About UniSwap

UniSwap is one of the most popular DeFi ecosystems and decentralized exchanges (DEX) where you can engage in permission-less asset swapping, earning, pooling, and much more through the hundreds of DeFi apps, integrations, and tools built on their protocol. UniSwap is built on the Ethereum blockchain, but you can toggle between Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum to your liking as well.

UniSwap Swapping

The asset swapping on UniSwap is quite simple and, like most DEXes, has hundreds of supported assets to choose from. The interface is a tad lackluster compared to other DEXes, but it’s still very nice, user-friendly, and should certainly do the trick. It doesn’t allow for limit orders, which is very unfortunate, but it does let you choose the level of slippage you are willing to tolerate and also has a section with charts.

The charts are a little janky with very limited timeframes and no indicators to add, and you can’t actually trade from the screen with those charts, but at least they have some. Bearing that in mind, their swapping/trading could use some work, but it is otherwise fairly standard. Just remember, before you go to swap, make sure you have some ETH, MATIC, or whatever network coin/token you need to pay gas fees and facilitate transactions.

UniSwap Pooling

UniSwap has about 50 assets you can mix and match between to pool liquidity for some yield. The pooling process is straightforward, and they have an exceptional walkthrough you can click on in the pool overview or find in the help center if you need it. When deciding on what to actually pool, they have a number of popular/established pools to choose from, or you can create your own by selecting the pairs yourself. You can also choose which fee tier to use, but they recommend auto-selecting as that will ensure you are providing to the pool with the most liquidity. Once you choose the assets you want to pool and select your fee tier, you can add the liquidity and start earning an amount from all the related trading fees commensurate to the amount of liquidity you are providing.

Governance

For those deep into the crypto space and hoping to have a role in the development and direction of the UniSwap ecosystem, you can participate in the governance protocol by being a UNI token holder. As a token holder, you can take part in decisions around the community-managed treasury and vote on various proposals for future updates or implementations to the protocol. Just note this is a very esoteric process and best reserved for those extremely familiar with the intricacies of the UniSwap platform.

UniSwap Fees

Because UniSwap is an automated market maker, there are no middlemen or intermediaries to pay, and all the liquidity used to facilitate transactions is through its liquidity providers. Whenever you make a transaction, UniSwap charges a 0.3% transaction fee that goes exclusively to liquidity providers. Aside from that, you will only have to be on the watch for the variable gas fees associated with the network on which you’re transacting.

Blog

If you want to stay up-to-date on everything in and about the UniSwap ecosystem, you can look to their blog. Here you’ll find updates, stories, announcements, and a whole lot more from the UniSwap Labs team. All the articles are quite orderly and include plenty of pictures/gifs to highlight the new information or just make everything a little easier on the eyes. The blog probably won’t be exceedingly helpful if you aren’t very involved in the community or DeFi, but it’s still a great resource.

UniSwap User Support

Like a lot of DeFi communities, UniSwap has a robust discord community where you can engage with people directly to get help with questions or just connect with others in the space. With thousands of active members, you are bound to get the assistance you need, so I wouldn’t overlook it as a valuable resource.

In addition to their discord, UniSwap has a well-developed help center. From the homepage of the help center, you will see categories that can help direct you to the articles you need, or you can simply search for whatever it is you are looking for via the search bar. Each article is organized, well written, and includes pictures/gifs when applicable that make understanding their protocol and services extremely digestible.

Conclusion: UniSwap Review 

While UniSwap is a great DEX, it is noticeably lacking when compared to some of its DeFi competitors and even to many centralized exchanges. Their services are easy to use, but their UI is not nearly as smooth or aesthetic as that of SushiSwap or 1inch (other popular DEXes). UniSwap also lacks a lot of the crypto services like loans and farming that many in the crypto space would certainly like to see included. The dApps and various integrations within their ecosystem may offer all of these services, but only swapping and pooling are available through the actual UniSwap dApp.

UniSwap’s fees are standard, and they have excellent resources for learning about their services or engaging with their community, but it’s difficult to see how they stand out from competitors. They have the luxury of being one of the earliest movers in the space, with deeper pools of liquidity than many alternatives, but it seems they are a little behind some of the other innovators.

If you’re a trader, their abysmal charts and absence of limit orders should make your decision easy, but if you’re only interested in swapping at market prices or enjoying the poolable assets they support, there’s no reason not to take advantage of their protocol. I would still recommend taking a look at the other DEXes out there, but UniSwap is by no means a bad exchange and will likely be just fine for most people on the hunt specifically for a decentralized exchange.