To be continued under Uniswap Grant: https://unigrants.org/

Discovery + Problem Space

The Uniswap protocol represents a collection of standards and methods to help improve the token swap experience for all crypto users online.

One of the goals of the Uniswap platform is to help mitigate the barrier to entry amongst beginners within the crypto and blockchain space.

Uniswap has a plethora of services and products, with its main token swapping tool at the core and still a main flagship product.

That being said, a main core problem Uniswap focuses its resources towards is user acquisition amongst those new to the crypto space as a whole. Uniswap serves a main mission of enabling blockchain developers, liquidity providers and casual traders to have access and engage within their decentralized financial marketplace.

So how can we improve how Uniswap currently tackles this problem?

Uniswap implements a simple yet effective design solution that ensures veteran traders and new users alike that they will be able to complete their task within the platform with high chances of returning.

The design is engineered to reduce intimidating factors common among the crypto space, such as heavy use of abbreviations, technical terms, and verification procedures. They do this via 3 use cases:

  1. Providing a direct individual tool accessible by its own tab for new and old users alike to swap tokens, notably ERC-20 tokens.
  2. Providing a strong foundation of open source accessibility to their whitepapers and docs. Multiple versions of their past whitepapers, as well as API and other docs, are free to read for all to gain a greater understanding of how the platform works, and how users (both devs and others) can contribute.
  3. Uniswap boasts a strong help portal: https://help.uniswap.org/en/ that enables first time users to follow in quick and easy steps to begin extracting optimal value from the platform ASAP.

Focusing on this first use case, there are 3 problems that can potentially be tackled:

  1. A lack of indication in the UI that the user cannot purchase ETH and other basic cryptos via FIAT currency, and that gas fees are included within the swap procedure.
  2. Instigating a stronger bond of trust between the trading platform and its traders. This can help improve user peace-of-mind, and potentially both engagement and acquisition.
  3. Lack of cross-chain compatibility. The Uniswap protocol is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Coins built on other chains such as Polygon or BTC have a higher barrier to trading and require additional steps, such as "wrapping."