We’re happy to announce that YAD has undergone a security audit by Scalable Solutions, a company with deep experience in cryptocurrency technology! Scalable Solutions has been offering services in the cybersecurity space over the past 10 years and has gained a strong reputation developing non-custodial wallets, innovative DeFi protocols, and trading venues — and now provides expertise in auditing smart contracts.

The audit involved a deep dive into all of the router’s original smart contracts and resulted in a few minor issues that were fixed afterward. Those fixes included some informational issues, such as no description of certain functions in the code, three low-priority recommendations concerning contracts poking other aggregators, and the contract sending tokens to the right contract after the swap.

In short, the audit was run on the aggregator’s original smart contracts to identify vulnerabilities and provide recommendations on how to address them. The Scalable Solutions team made sure the smart contracts checked were secure and free from potential issues that could be exploited by malicious actors.

One of the concerns brought into focus by the Scalable Solutions audit team was the Uniswap function on a proxy contract that could be potentially used by an attacker to imitate the swap. However, the YAD team has insisted that the sender’s funds are not in danger, since the project’s logic doesn’t store client funds on this proxy contract, plus, fixing the issue would only result in the increase of the contract’s execution costs.

YAD, or Yet Another DeFi, aims to bridge the gaps in the DEX aggregator niche through a set of mechanics. It scrapes liquidity information from available sources and proposes the most efficient price for the quote, splits orders between available pools to reduce price impact, and allows users to limit acceptable slippage. Additionally, it scans different market prices and depths to offer the most optimized route possible for users' trades.

Check out YAD's GitBook or read the full Scalable Solutions audit report!

Chain-hopping swaps have now been implemented in YAD! Trade popular ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum to the same tokens on a Layer 2 blockchain, such as Polygon, Optimism, or Arbitrum. Swap any token on Ethereum to a list of other tokens on L2 blockchains when the second phase of the update is completed.

What is a chain-hopping swap?

Chain-hopping swaps accumulate liquidity across various blockchains without you, as a user, making any extra effort. Hopping from Ethereum to Polygon, Optimism, or Arbitrum is now as easy as pushing a button. Go to the Trade tab on our website, choose the chain-hopping swap from the dropdown menu, pick a token on the Ethereum network, click the targeted blockchain, and hit "Swap". For example, you might want to swap DAI on Ethereum for DAI on Polygon.

In the second phase of our update, you will be able to choose any ERC-20 token from the list to receive after the swap. Say, a regular swap after the second phase will look like a swap of WBTC on Ethereum for USDC on Arbitrum.

You might ask, why even hop from one chain to another? Well, there actually might be multiple reasons for this, including speed, liquidity, and some staking options. But the most obvious reason is probably cheaper transaction costs. So, how does the whole magic happen?

How cross-chain hopping works

The under-the-hood cross-chain technology at YAD works by using so-called native bridges. Native bridges between Ethereum and L2 blockchains use smart contracts to create a secure and trustless way to transfer assets between the two networks. The bridge smart contracts are deployed on both Ethereum and the L2 network.

When you want to bridge your assets from Ethereum to an L2 network, you will first need to deposit your assets into the bridge smart contract on Ethereum. The bridge smart contract will then mint a new token on the L2 network that represents your deposited assets. A swap like this will only take about 30 minutes.

To bridge your assets back to Ethereum, though, the smart contract will either unlock or mint tokens on the L1 network and burn the tokens on the L2 network — depending on the smart contract of the token. This kind of swap might take up to seven days.

Why hop cross-chain with YAD?

YetAnotherDeFi, YAD, is a cutting-edge multichain swap router revolutionizing liquidity aggregation across dominant blockchains. Swap in a matter of seconds, using different modes if you are a regular user. Or install a quick and simple widget with a preconfigured iFrame on your website if you’re running a web3 app.

Want to partner up? Feel free to reach out to us at partners@yad.finance!

Calibrate your gas costs to a Gwei with EIP-1559 added to YAD.Finance. To start using the improved version of our app, just choose one of the chains: Ethereum, Polygon, or Avalanche, go to the settings, and adjust your gas costs like a pro!

Implemented into YetAnotherDeFi, a cutting-edge multichain swap router that revolutionizes liquidity aggregation across dominant blockchains, EIP-1559 is a part of the London Hard Fork of Ethereum that brings a few improvements into your swapping experience. Now the gas price is more predictable, and to a great extent, thanks to the max base fee you can predefine to a gwei. Pay in two ways, while using YAD, either by choosing a calculated range: fast, medium, and low, or by setting up custom values, max base fee and priority fee.

Let’s discuss.

Take a look at YAD’s swap box below and see how the settings differ from each other before and after EIP-1559 is implemented. Basically, what has changed in the UI is that there’s a range now allowing you to push through different kinds of volatility as well as set up your custom settings.

This UI reflects two things: With the legacy code, the range was not flexible, meaning you couldn’t receive your refund back in case your gas price was higher than the market price. With the EIP-1559 feature implemented, you can make the max base fee range flexible and get your refund back.

Here’s a couple of reasons why the Ethereum foundation has suggested the EIP-1559 feature: first, to even the volatility spikes when gas prices were dramatically fluctuating, say up to 97 gwei in May 2023 on the hype of the PEPE meme coin hysteria. The second reason was to make fees more predictable. And also give users more control over how fast they want their transactions processed as well as specify the tip amount they want to pay to the miners.

How does the feature help even the fees? Basically, by burning a so-called base fee, which, if you think about it, is a deflationary mechanism that reduces the overall Ether supply. When a user sends a transaction, they pay a gas fee. The gas fee is used to compensate miners for the computational resources that they use to process the transaction. The gas fee is paid in Ether. But after implementing EIP-1559, the base fee always gets burned, bringing deflationary mechanics to the system. This can help make gas fees more predictable over time, as the supply of ETH gets reduced. What fees are not getting burned, though? Let’s take a look!

Max base fee and Priority fee

Max base fee: Users can specify a max base fee they are willing to pay for their transaction in case of volatility spikes. But they will be charged the base fee determined by the current state of the network only. The rest of the fee will be returned to their wallet.

Priority fee (miner’s tip): The priority fee you set up is 100% up to you, but the higher the price, the faster your transaction will be broadcasted. Compared to the base fee, it will not be burned. Rather, the miner will receive it for their services.

EIP-1559 in YAD

Put simply, the reason why we at YAD have implemented EIP-1559 is that it transforms Ethereum into a more predictable and stable system. With the potential to reduce volatility in gas fees, EIP-1559 reduces miner profiteering, makes gas fees less surprising in times of network congestion, and improves the overall user experience with the network.

Want to try the improved version of our swap box with the EIP-1559 implemented? It’s simple! Just go to Yad.Finance, connect your wallet, choose the tokens to swap, hit the settings button in the top right corner, and choose the custom mode. Calibrate your gas costs down to the gwei and enjoy a more stable Ethereum experience!

• Visit the YAD.Finance dApp and connect your wallet to experience the updated, user-friendly interface.
• To access your transaction history, simply select a token pair in the swap box and click on the "Current pair" button. The system will display all transactions for that pair.

If you are already familiar with YAD, our cutting-edge multichain swap router that revolutionizes liquidity aggregation across dominant blockchains, you're in for an exciting update! On June 15, we launched the transaction history feature, providing all of your wallet's financial history either on your mobile device or on your desktop! Now, all completed, pending, or approved swaps and transactions from the feature's launch can be easily tracked.

The new transaction history feature enhances the user experience when exploring the YAD aggregator, our DeFi tool to swap over 3,500 tokens across seven blockchains at the best rate and with the lowest transaction cost. We’re constantly working on improving our platform and your experience with it, which is why we are so excited about the transaction history feature for your wallet.

Especially helpful for users who swap on a regular basis, transaction history gives insight into what you’re doing by shifting the angle. Choose a pair of tokens in the swap box, then click on the Current pair button in your wallet, and the service will pop out all of your transactions for this pair.

Want to check the status of your transaction? Easy! Simply hover over a certain pair or a coin in your wallet, and then click on the arrow sign in the top-right corner. The wallet will link you out to the blockchain explorer, such as Etherscan or another explorer if you’ve chosen a network other than Ethereum.

And last but not least, with the new feature release, you can simply sort out all of the transactions and tokens based on their state. Have you approved the token for YAD to swap? If so, it will show up in a separate box so that you will be able to visually distinguish it. Is your transaction pending? You will immediately see, if so — as well as all the swaps that have already been completed.

Are you interested in integrating the combined DeFi liquidity into your platform? Do it with ease using the YAD widget! Quick and simple to install with a preconfigured iFrame, you can be up and running in a matter of minutes. Compatible with any tablet or smartphone and allowing dApp developers to avoid the need to modify their code for different devices, the widget automatically adjusts its form to the device that your clients use to access the dApp. It is as easy as it sounds.

Still have questions? Feel free to reach out to us at partners@yad.finance!

Learn cryptography and create a crypto wallet. Follow our guide to generate private and public keys and validate Ethereum addresses. Connect your wallet to YetAnotherDeFi's platform to unlock DeFi.

Here's what you'll do:

1. Generate a private key from a single word.
2. Create a public address from your private key.
3. Import your private key into a wallet client.
4. Go to YAD Finance and swap any token that might be in the wallet for the chance to earn more rewards.

So what are we waiting for? Let's get started!

Step 1: Convert Text to Binary

Choose a passphrase and enter it into the text input field — or, if you got a clue from YetAnotherDeFi's Twitter (#WalletOffTheWall). Click "Convert to Binary" to convert the text into binary code.

Step 2: Convert Binary to Hexadecimal

Enter the binary code you got from Step 1 into the binary input field. Click "Convert to hex" so that we can hash it properly.

Step 3: Generate Private Key

Input the 256-bit binary code from Step 2. Click the "Keccak-256 Hash Button" to generate your private key.

Step 4: Calculate Public Key Coordinates

Don't worry. We've got the private key memorized and will use it for this step. All you need to do is click "Multiply Private Key with Generation Point" to calculate your public key's X and Y coordinates.

Step 5: Generate Uncompressed Public Key

Input the X and Y coordinates from Step 4. Click "Concatenate" to combine them and generate your uncompressed public key. By the way, "concatenate" is just a fancy word for sticking things together end-to-end — kind of like a digital high-five!

Step 6: Create Unrefined Public Address

Enter the uncompressed public key from Step 5. Click "Keccak-256 Hash" to generate an unrefined (32-byte) public address.

Step 7: Refine Public Address

This part is on you to figure out! The public address is already contained in the hexadecimal output of Step 6, but it has 12 bytes of unnecessary information in front of it.

Step 8: Hash Public Address for EIP-55 Validation

Enter the 20-byte hex from Step 7. Click "Keccak-256 Hash" to generate a new hex output, which we will use as a cipher to encode the address.

Step 9: Encode Address

Time to flex your detective skills! Encode your refined public address using EIP-55. To do this, capitalize each alphabet in the hexadecimal address whose corresponding hexadecimal digit in the hash (cipher) is greater than or equal to 0x8.

Don't worry; you got this! Remember, we only need to use the first 40 hexadecimal digits in the hash.

Step 10: Verify Address and Reveal Private Key

Input the encoded address from Step 9. Click "Verify Address" to confirm your Ethereum address and reveal your private key.

Step 11: Import Private Key in Wallet Client and Swap on YAD Finance

Now that you have your private key, it's time to import it into your wallet client. Follow the instructions provided by your wallet to import a private key. Once you've successfully imported the private key, go to YAD Finance (or use the YAD widget below) to swap any tokens that might be in there to the crypto of your choice!

Welcome to a 1-min guide on how to install the YAD icon to your phone. After reading this quick manual and / or watching our 10-sec screencasts, you will be able to swap 3,500+ tokens on six chains easily from your home screen. And it doesn’t matter if you access the dApp from an iPhone or an Android smartphone.

iPhone (Safari)

• Step 1. Search for the Yad.Finance website in Safari on your iPhone
• Step 2. Press “Launch app” once on the website,
• Step 3. Tap the Share button in the toolbar (at the bottom of your screen).
• Step 4. In the pop-up menu, scroll down to “Add to Home Screen,” and tap it.
• Step 5. Rename to YAD.
• Step 6. Find the icon on your home screen and access the dApp.

Android

• Step 1. Search for the Yad.Finance website in Google Chrome on your Android.
• Step 2. Press “Launch app” once on the website.
• Step 3. Click on the Chrome menu icon on the browser toolbar at the top right.
• Step 3. In the pop-up menu, scroll down to “Add to Home Screen”, and tap it.
• Step 4. Rename to YAD.
• Step 5. Find the icon on your home screen and access the dApp.

iPhone (Google Chrome)

• Step 1. Go to the Shortcuts app on the home screen of your iPhone.
• Step 2. Press “+” to create a new shortcut.
• Step 3. Press “Add Action.”
• Step 4. In the search box, type Chrome.
• Step 5. Choose “Open URLs in Chrome.”
• Step 6. Add the link https://app.yad.finance/
• Step 7. Choose the icon and the color for the icon.
• Step 8. Label the icon YAD.
• Step 9. Press “Add to Home Screen.”
• Step 10. Give the shortcut a name (e.g., YAD).
• Step 11. Find the icon on your home screen and access the dApp.

For more information, check out our previous articles about what DEX aggregators are and how DEX aggregators work

With the abundance of aggregators available, selecting the one that best suits your needs can be daunting. To compare aggregators effectively, it is necessary to establish a set of comparison criteria.

Routing algorithm

In DEX aggregators, routing algorithms can be classified into two main types: intrachain routing and cross-chain routing.

Intrachain routing, or on-chain routing, involves finding the most optimized path for a trade across existing liquidity pools within a single blockchain. On the other hand, cross-chain routing involves identifying the best swap route from one blockchain to another.

In cross-chain routing algorithms, the router typically creates a path across two different blockchains to identify the most optimized scenario for a trade. To enable such a trade, a specialized technology known as cross-chain bridges is utilized.

Cross-chain bridges often require locking or burning tokens on the source chain using a smart contract, followed by the unlocking or minting of tokens through another smart contract on the destination chain.

Smart contracts

When evaluating DEX aggregators' smart contracts, there are several factors to consider, including whether they have been audited, if they can be verified, and whether the project has smart contracts at all.

An audit entails a comprehensive analysis of a contract's code by a reputable security agency to identify potential security issues, incorrect and inefficient coding, and to suggest solutions to resolve any identified problems. When it comes to source-code verification, verifying that the source code of a smart contract in a high-level language (such as Solidity) compiles to the same bytecode to be executed at the contract address.

Monetization model/fees

There are two primary monetization models utilized by DEX aggregators: the positive-slippage model and the model based on fees generated from swaps.

Positive slippage occurs when the resulting price is better than the price at which the user intended to buy or sell. In this case, the aggregators might want to “keep the change,” taking the positive slippage as profit. However, others may choose to distribute the surplus to their treasury or referral program.

The transaction-fee model involves utilizing the fees generated on the taker side of every swap to fund further development of the aggregator, at least in part. This approach is commonly practiced in the industry.

PMMs and the RFQ system

In theory, any DEX aggregator can access to on-chain or off-chain liquidity. However, compared to on-chain liquidity, which is sourced by sampling smart contract liquidity pools like Uniswap and Curve, off-chain liquidity is sometimes sourced from private market makers (PMMs) — sometimes called professional or proactive market makers.

PMMs have a considerable amount of liquidity to “play with” and are willing to participate in the market dynamics with the aim of reselling these assets on another platform for a profit. As a result, when swapping, you might receive a more competitive quote than one generated solely by an automated market maker (AMM).

To take advantage of the opportunity to earn a profit, PMMs use the request-for-quote (RFQ) system. The RFQ system is aware when investors want to execute a large block trade and invites PMMs to participate.

Tokens

There are a few reasons why comparing DEX aggregators’ tokens can be useful when selecting the right solution. Typically, crypto tokens are an effective means of raising capital for a project. Therefore, if a token is popular and has a high market capitalization, it indicates a high level of trust in the project, which is a positive sign. Moreover, token stakers are often rewarded when making swaps — for example, with a gas refund. PMMs partnering with 1inch prioritize your transaction if you are staking the 1inch token.

DAO

When a project’s pool of funds is crowdsourced, it’s important to transfer decision-making power to the investors. One of the ways to achieve this is through a decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, which is an emerging legal structure without a central governing body, where members share a common goal to act in the entity's best interest, Utilizing a DAO shifts power to those who have provided funding to the project, promoting transparency and decentralization as essential pillars of the infrastructure.

Open source

As DeFi is primarily a community of libertarian-minded developers, it is crucial to acknowledge that open-source code is a common courtesy in this space. It ensures the transparency of all processes and serves as a means to verify the technology, as seen in the case of smart contracts (see above).

***

Here is a cheat sheet for you to keep on hand whenever you ned to make a swap. The table below lists the most popular DEX aggregators, along with relevant trading criteria that can be useful in making profitable trades.

Are you interested in one of the aggregators but you need more convincing? Here’s a brief overview of the most popular solutions in the market that you may find helpful!

1inch

1inch Network is a DEX aggregator solution that utilizes the so-called Pathfinder algorithm. Pathfinder splits swaps across supported liquidity protocols, uses multiple “market depths” as bridges between source and destination tokens, and migrates tokens from Aave and Compound.

Matcha

To maximize returns on swaps, the 0x API underlying the Matcha DEX aggregator fills across different sources and scans limit orders from the protocol's networked liquidity. To reduce transaction costs, they also utilize meta transactions and gas tokens.

ParaSwap

Paraswap utilizes a proxy smart contract called Augustus to facilitate swaps. Augustus supports three types of swaps: Simple-Path, Multi-Path, and Mega-Path. Simple-Path swaps allow for token swapping without the use of any intermediary tokens. Multi-Path swaps involve the use of one or multiple intermediary tokens in a single swap. Mega-Path swaps can be broken down into multiple Multi-Swaps and are typically useful with larger amounts.

Rubic

Rubic utilized a Multi-Chain Routing Contract to optimize users’ swaps. This contract scrapes liquidity across different blockchains, DEXs, and aggregated bridges. While not revealing how the contract works, Rubic explains the general algorithm of how the transaction gets executed. When a user wants to swap tokens from Blockchain A to Blockchain B, they make a transaction on Blockchain A, which sends tokens to the Multi-Chain Routing smart contract on Blockchain A. Separate validators sign the transaction and forward the message to the relayer.

Rango

Similar to the services mentioned above, the Rango Protocol searches all possible DEXs and bridges for liquidity. It wraps all multi-chain swaps into multiple raw transactions over EVM-based blockchains, Cosmos-compatible networks, or UTXO-based blockchains and determines the best possible route based on user experience, fee amount, and swap output.

LiFi

As a B2B solution, LiFi focuses on dApps decision makers who might want to integrate their SDK and cross-chain bridging and swaps into their product. To explain how their technology works, they say: “In a nutshell, LI.FI is like 1inch & Paraswap for bridges; we choose the best bridge to move funds from one chain to another. Furthermore, since many bridges support a limited amount of tokens, we have DEXs on both sides of the bridges to swap before and after the bridge, thus facilitating any-2-any swaps across chains.”

YAD

YAD, or Yet Another DeFi, aims to bridge the gaps in the DEX aggregator niche through a set of mechanics. It scrapes liquidity information from available sources and proposes the most efficient price for the quote, splits orders between available pools to reduce price impact, and allows users to limit acceptable slippage. Additionally, it scans different market prices and depths to offer the most optimized route possible for users' trades.

“What are DEX aggregators,” you ask? Learn the basics in our previous article!

1. A user opens their browser and navigates to the DEX aggregator’s website.
2. There, they are presented with a swap box where they can enter the tokens they wish to buy and sell, as well as the trade amount.
3. The swap box displays the most profitable route to trade the specified tokens.
4. And the user clicks the swap button, signs the transaction with their MetaMask wallet and, after a short time, receives the target token in their wallet.

Magic? Technological magic, which means that there’s certainly a way to deconstruct it! So, let’s try digging a little deeper!

A typical DEX aggregator consists of three major parts: the frontend, smart contracts, and backend.

1. The frontend architecture of such a router is normally a two-part system consisting of the service’s website and the MetaMask wallet.
   
2. Next comes the router itself, which builds optimized routes. The router is a crucial component that searches for liquidity pools with the highest total value locked and splits the order, “multihopping” (i.e., swaping to other tokens along the way) when it is more efficient.
   
3. Finally, smart contracts execute the transactions in accordance with the calculated route. The smart contracts integrated into the DEX aggregator’s architecture are responsible for implementing the order’s execution logic.

There is the option to build a frontend-only DEX aggregator that pulls quotes from the smart contracts, which would make it a truly decentralized solution. However, a router designed without a backend would likely operate at a pretty sluggish pace and wouldn’t be able to suggest the best rate possible.

With all this in mind, let’s look behind the scenes at exactly what happens when you push the swap button.

Step 1

On the aggregator’s website, a user accesses a swap box and enters the tokens to buy and to sell. Regardless of the service (e.g., 1inch, Matcha, or YAD), once they enter the limits for slippage tolerance, gas price, and the buy/sell token amount, the swap box will return the exchange rate and transaction cost.  

Step 2

As soon as the user starts interacting with the swap box, their browser builds a request and sends it to the server. This server typically stores the aggregator's backend as well as a constantly updating snapshot of the blockchain. At regular intervals (say, every 10 seconds), the API calculates the optimal route and returns it to the user’s swap box.

Step 3

Once the optimal route has been selected, everything is ready for the swap. When the user pushes the “Swap” button, the frontend sends a request to sign the transaction to the user’s wallet. The user sees the request to sign the transaction in their wallet (it can be any non-custodial wallet like TrustWallet or Metamask), verifies the details to make sure they are signing the right transaction and interacting with the right smart contract, and signs. After the user’s consent has been granted, the wallet sends the transaction to the mempool to be validated and included in one of the next blocks. From here on the user can only wait for the result. If the swap is successfully executed, the desired tokens will appear in the user’s wallet. However, if, for some reason, the swap can not be executed on the conditions approved, the smart contract will revert the sent tokens and return them back to the user’s wallet.

So, how can you choose the DEX aggregator best-suited for your needs? Check out the next article in the series to find out!

Every time a major crypto exchange experiences a hack, there is an inevitable decline in trust toward centralized platforms. The collapse of FTX, one of the industry’s most highly regarded trading platforms that had raised billions from investors and registered over five million users by the beginning of 2022, revealed financial mishandling so massive that the total cost to investors and customers has not yet been determined. However, fleeing from centralized exchanges (CEX) to decentralized finance (DeFi) in the aftermath of these incidents can end up being just as traumatizing.

Ex-CEX users often face daunting challenges once outside their familiar environment and as they first encounter the diversity of new ways to invest. DEXes, L2 blockchains, cross-chain aggregators, multichain aggregators, cross-chain bridges... Where do you even start?

With over 300 DEXes to choose from, it is easy to get overwhelmed as you try to research which offers the best trading opportunities. The fact that DEXes differ from CEXes in terms of functionality and user interfaces only makes it more difficult to get started.

While a magic pill doesn’t exist, there should be a single comprehensive DeFi service that provides a user-friendly interface and at least a slightly more welcoming experience for users entering the DeFi space. Several development teams in this niche of the industry have been working hard to bring the entirety of DeFi’s liquidity under a common standard that is accessible to the vast majority of the crypto traders. And as a result of their efforts, anyone with a self-custody wallet can now use the power and convenience of DEX aggregators.

What are DEX aggregators?

A DEX aggregator is a decentralized application that scrapes the liquidity of many various DEXes across the DeFi landscape to provide traders optimal gas fees, swap rates, slippage and overall returns, outperforming any individual DEX. Let’s dive deeper into the different types of DEX aggregators currently available.

Multichain DEX aggregators like 1inch, Matcha, and Paraswap bring together the liquidity pools of DEXes across various blockchains. However, these aggregators allow their users to swap tokens only within a single blockchain — e.g., on Polygon, or on Optimism, or on Ethereum, etc. Those using a multichain aggregator often need to move from one chain to another in order to swap tokens on their native chain. Despite this limitation, many users find the UI of multichain DEX aggregators to be user-friendly.  

Cross-chain DEX aggregators, such as Transferto.xyz on the Li.fi protocol, as well as Rubic and Rango, also unite DEXes’ liquidity pools across various blockchains. They are distinct, however, from multichain DEX aggregators in that they allow users to directly swap tokens originally minted on one chain for tokens on another chain without additional steps — which could be incredibly helpful for some users’ trading strategy.

So, which of these innovations is better? Well, it turns out there are arguments for and against both. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, for example, has expressed his view on the matter, stating that cross-chain bridges present greater risks when compared to multichain solutions.

“Even if there's a perfect ZK-SNARK-based bridge that fully validates consensus, it's still vulnerable to theft through 51% attacks,” he said.  

Despite Vitalik’s concerns, the market is looking for solutions that connect the disparate blockchain ecosystems of today. Emin Gün Sirer, founder and CEO of Ava Labs, believes that the Avalanche Bridge represents a major leap in cross-chain technology, offering vastly improved experiences for both users and developers across the Avalanche community. Emin views it as a driving force for the next phase of growth on Avalanche, setting a new standard for secure and efficient cross-chain interoperability.

Why do DEX aggregators exist

DEX aggregators are here to address a number of potential complications you come across, even if you aren’t a trader.

Fragmented liquidity, market diversity, high transaction fees, security, and trust are all issues vexing the development of decentralized finance. In what way, though?

Let’s begin with fragmented liquidity, which affects the price of the swap.

• When there is insufficient liquidity of a desired asset on an individual DEX, executing an order can result in a significant price impact. Using a DEX aggregator, however, liquidity of any specific asset is scrapped from different liquidity sources via splitting the order into smaller trades, thereby providing the best possible rate.
• Due to the way DEXes are designed, swapping tokens is rarely instantaneous. Depending on the size of the trade and how much liquidity is utilized, the cost and speed of swaps can fluctuate. But this presents risk when trading in markets as volatile as crypto. During the time of the order’s execution, the price of the asset might slip, resulting in negative slippage that the trader has to swallow. However, DEX aggregators allow you to set your slippage tolerance, which will work with all DEXes and revert the trade if the slippage exceeds your accepted limit.
• Finally, there are always slight price differences throughout the market. It takes a human time and effort to manually check prices across different exchanges, but an aggregator is able to pull real-time data from hundreds of sources each second, resulting in the best price possible. As Anton Bukov, the CTO of 1inch, explained in a blog post:

“The first customers of 1inch were myself and Sergej. It was exhausting and inefficient to manually check for the best trading prices on all the DEXs —  Uniswap, Kyber, 0x — before placing a trade. We — like all crypto users — needed an elegant algorithm to search every DEX for the best trading price and instantly deliver an optimized trade.”

In theory, the wider the variety of DEXes, the greater the market diversity and levels of healthy competition. Counterintuitively, this diversity may also be adding unnecessary steps to the trading process. DEX aggregators scrap liquidity from Uniswap V1, Uniswap V2, Balancer, Curve, SushiSwap, Chai, Kyber, Oasis, Mooniswap, Bancor, and many more platforms in search of the lowest fees and prices currently on the market, collecting and sorting the data so you don’t have to.

Transaction fees on many of the most widely used DEXes are often prohibitively expensive due to the high congestion on the Ethereum blockchain. The increased competition among network participants to get their data and functionality included in each block’s limited capacity results in higher fees for every transaction. There are, of course, alternatives on different chains — say, PancakeSwap on Binance Smart Chain (BSC) — but exploring and migrating to another blockchain requires research and knowledge. Meanwhile, DEX aggregators are built in such a way that they automate nearly all the complicated processes for the benefit of the end user.

Because open-source code and transparent smart contracts are considered as standards in the DeFi community, many anonymous crypto entrepreneurs simply replicated or imitated existing projects on other various blockchains. Neither security audits nor transparent technologies have been sufficient to solve the problem. That said, it’s worth acknowledging the uncertain security many experience while trading in a trustless environment. How can they really know whether an individual DEX can be trusted — or even an individual an DEX aggregator, for that matter. But just as the collapse of a major CEX pushed those disaffected to explore new boundaries of trust and safety, further innovations like DEX aggregators are already on the next frontier testing what else is possible.

So, how does a DEX aggregator work? Check out the next article in the series to find out!

Bring DeFi liquidity to your product with ease using the YAD widget, now available for implementation. Whether you’re a centralized crypto service or a web3 dApp, it seamlessly integrates the combined DeFi liquidity into your platform. Quick and simple to install with a preconfigured iFrame, you can be up and running in a matter of minutes.

What is the YAD widget?

YetAnotherDeFi (aka YAD) is a next-generation multichain swap router that streamlines the process of buying and selling digital assets. Whether it's swapping in-game valuables, buying a specific coin for an NFT purchase, participating in farming and staking activities, or trading exotic tokens from a dApp, YAD aggregates liquidity from multiple blockchains to save your community time, energy, and money. With YAD’s user-friendly widget, it's possible to accomplish all of web3 needs in one place, without having to switch between multiple providers.

How does the YAD widget work?

Using the widget is simple. First, pick the tokens you wish to buy or sell. Next, connect your wallet and adjust the slippage tolerance and gas price in the settings. Sign the transaction using MetaMask and the desired token will be in your wallet as soon as the transaction is confirmed on the blockchain.

An upcoming feature will allow you to customize all the colors in the widget, allowing it to better match the UI of your website, whether you use a dark or light theme. The layout can be either horizontal or vertical, depending on the appearance of your product. Additionally, the widget’s orientation changes dynamically based on screen size: if the screen width is less than 1180 pixels, the widget will switch to a vertical layout, otherwise it will remain horizontal.

Want to offer your users the opportunity to swap on the go? YAD’s user-friendly widget is compatible with any tablet or smartphone and designed to be flexible, allowing dApp developers to avoid the need to modify their code for different devices. The widget automatically adjusts its form to the device that your clients use to access the dApp.

To integrate the tool into a dApp, a frontend developer will simply need to add the preconfigured iFrame into the HTML code. The process should only take a few minutes to complete.

Ready to connect your dApp to a sea of DeFi liquidity, empowering your community to buy and sell tokens directly on your platform? Give us a shout at partners@yad.finance and let’s talk!

YetAnotherDeFi, or YAD, is a multichain swap router that aggregates liquidity across all dominant blockchains from all leading DeFi liquidity providers. YAD facilitates swaps of over 3,500 tokens across six blockchains at the best rate and with the lowest transaction cost. Our decentralized, non-custodial and censorship-resistant swap technology gives you the freedom to swap and send your tokens whenever and wherever you want, with no borders and no KYC limitations. The safety of the assets is ensured by the transparency YAD provides: we base our solutions on time-tested and open-source code that anyone can check and review.