What Is Uniswap-V1?

Uniswap-V1 (UNI-V1) is the first iteration of the UNI protocol, launched on November 2nd, 2018. UNI-V1 differentiated itself by having no centralized point of control, token, or platform fees, and no preferential treatment given to early adopters or investors.

Humble Beginnings

Hayden Adams, designer of the UNI protocol announced UNI-V1 after its successful deployment on the Ethereum (ETH) main-net to a modest Twitter following of 200 followers. For the majority of Adams’ Twitter followers, this was their first time hearing about the ambitious project that Adams had kept under wraps for over a year, as he tirelessly worked on bringing the first incarnation of UNI-V1 to the public.

Laid off from his first job as a mechanical engineer shortly after obtaining a college diploma, Adams described feeling “down and directionless”, and it was at this seemingly “low point” of Adams’ life that a close friend convinced him to learn about the ETH network. Within two months, Hayden Adams was well along the path to mastering the basics of programming languages such as ETH, Solidity, and Javascript.

Inspired by Vitalik Buterin

Feeling he was ready to expand his newly learned skillset, Adams shifted his efforts to begin working on what he called a “real” project. Deciding to implement an automated market maker (AMM) came directly through inspiration from a Vitalik Buterin (co-founder of ETH) blogpost - designed with simplicity in mind, the UNI protocol would become the first decentralized exchange (DEX) to provide a truly seamless experience that allowed users to exchange their ERC-20 tokens.

UNI-V1 Features

As stated by UNI protocol creator Hayden Adams, UNI is open-source and meant to function as a public service or good. 

Below, you’ll find a list of features boasted by the UNI-V1 protocol:

• Add support for any ERC-20 token.
• Join liquidity pools (LPs) to create pairs and collect trading fees
• Liquidity-sensitive automated pricing data
• Trade any ERC-20 for any other ERC-20
• Lowest gas fees of any DEX
• Partially verified smart contracts written in Vyper
• Mobile-friendly optimization and open-source front-end implementation

The UNI-V1 demo is available for any curious parties on the Uniswap blog, and remains completely unchanged from its initial full release, except for a single line of code added in 2019 to enable METAMASK wallet functionality.

Paving the Way

Looking back on UNI and its humble beginnings, it’s easy to forget that only two years ago, the most popular DEX in the world was only starting to take its very first steps. In what looks to be a long and promising life ahead for the platform and world of decentralized finance as a whole, UNI has managed to become the world’s most popular automated market maker protocol.

Adams claims to have been “broke and starving before beginning a journey that would forever change his life and the lives of many others involved with blockchain and digital finance - stories such as Adams’ serve as an inspiration to the crypto-space for generations to come.

Happy Trading!

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