[Part 2 of 4]The 0Chain Geyser Guide: How to Trade on Uniswap
Welcome to Part 2 of the 0Chain Geyser Guide.
In this part, we will cover how to trade on Uniswap using the Metamask crypto wallet. Understanding how to trade on Uniswap is relevant to your participation in the 0Chain Geyser for the reason that you cannot use the Geyser without first understanding the basics of Uniswap.
What is Uniswap?
Over the course of 2020, Uniswap has emerged as crypto’s largest Decentralized Exchange (DEX) in terms of total users, total volume and total liquidity. What makes Uniswap particularly unique among Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) is its simplicity; the Uniswap DEX is incredibly easy to use when compared to its DEX predecessors. Prior DEX iterations such as Ether Delta challenged users with inherent risk and discomforting complexity in order to execute a trade. Solving these pain points, Uniswap has grown so quickly that it’s now competing with Centralized Exchanges (CEX) for market share; the total volume traded on Uniswap has eclipsed that of several of the biggest CEXes, including Coinbase, and it continues to surge in growth.
Why is 0Chain integrating with Uniswap?
In order to build out a decentralized data storage economy — 0Chain’s core objective — it’s important to embrace decentralized technologies in all relevant verticals, including the vertical of Financial Markets. Uniswap has acted as a key piece of architecture for 0Chain by decentralizing the asset exchange process for ZCN at massive scale: since the initialization of the ZCN/ETH liquidity pool on Uniswap in June of 2020, both ZCN volume and ZCN liquidity have increased by over 1,000%. The 0Chain Geyser should help to bolster this growth even further by dispensing additional rewards to ZCN/ETH liquidity providers.
Necessities for Setup
Before you attempt to navigate on Uniswap, you’re going to need a few things:
- A computer (I’ll be using a Mac)
- An internet connection
- 1 of 4 web browsers (Google Chrome, Brave, Firefox, or Edge). For this guide we will be using Google Chrome, since it’s the most popular web browser.
- A little ETH and ZCN. ZCN won’t be mandatory until we dive into Liquidity Providing on Uniswap. ETH, however, will be mandatory in order to use the Ethereum network.
Assuming you have all of these items ready to roll, we can get started.
Step One: Open Uniswap
Accessing the 0Chain Geyser may present technical challenges to some individuals. It’s important to understand how to navigate your Metamask wallet on Uniswap before delving into the 0Chain Geyser. The following guide will walk you through the basic steps of trading on Uniswap.
- Go to the Uniswap website (uniswap.org); click the “Launch App” button in the top right.
2. Click “Connect to a wallet” to integrate your Metamask Wallet into Uniswap.
Security Recommendation: Anytime you are connecting a wallet to a website it’s a good habit to double-check the URL to make sure you’re at the right spot (for here, it should read: “app.uniswap.org”). Hackers may switch a letter or two in a URL to trick you into integrating your wallet, and then drain your funds.
3. Click “MetaMask” to make your Metamask Wallet your default wallet on Uniswap.
Step Two: Initialize Your Metamask Wallet on Uniswap
- Click “Next” on Metamask. After selecting ‘MetaMask’ on the Uniswap app, you will receive a “Connect With Metamask’ prompt from Metamask.
2. Click “Connect” on Metamask. This will give permission for Uniswap to sync your wallet with the app.
Security Note: It’s good to be stingy about connecting your wallet with websites, but you can also rest easy when giving permission to a trusted site such as Uniswap to connect to your wallet — this action does not give Uniswap access to your wallet funds.
Step Three: Make a Uniswap Trade
- Input the asset you’d like to sell in the “From” category. ETH will be the default “From” asset. Since we’re going to swap ETH for ZCN in this guide, ETH is already the correct selection.
Note: If you’d like to sell a different asset, click “ETH” and search for your token. If you do not see your token in the search (such as ZCN), click “Change” to the right of “Uniswap Default List” and select “CoinGecko” — this list will have virtually all Ethereum Tokens to choose from.
2. Click “Select a token” to input the asset you’d like to buy in the “To” category. ZCN will be the asset we will trade ETH for.
3. Click “Change” in the bottom right to select a new list of tokens. The Uniswap Default List does not have ZCN, so you’ll need to change to a different list.
Note: Another option is to paste the token contract address of the token you’d like to trade for into the search bar. Either way works fine.
4. Find the “CoinGecko” list and click “Select”.
Note: Again, there are several ways to skin this cat — meaning, you can choose from many different lists. However, some lists may not be as trustworthy and/or may have an abbreviated list of tokens. The CoinGecko list will have virtually all Ethereum Tokens to choose from and CoinGecko is a reputable platform. Having this many tokens in your default list will be advantageous for token searching on future trades.
4. Search for ZCN in the “To” category; Click “ZCN” in the search results
5. Input the amount of the asset you’d like to sell in the “From” category; click “Swap”. The amount of purchased tokens you receive will automatically calculate. In this example, we are selling .02 ETH to receive 32.76 ZCN. Once your amount is in, if all looks good, click “Swap”.
6. Click “Confirm Swap”. Double check to make sure the values of your trade look right — if so, proceed with the Confirmation.
7. Click “Confirm” in Metamask to confirm the transaction. This step will send out the “order” to the blockchain, and the Ethereum miners will then process your swap.
Note: Gas fees are the fees paid out to Ethereum miners for processing the transaction. Due to Ethereum’s scaling hurdles, it’s quite slow and expensive. So, there are times when the Ethereum network can be very congested, and this may lead to uncomfortably high fees. In 2020, it’s normal to have sticker shock at gas fees and/or become annoyed if a transaction takes a while. These scaling issues will hopefully be addressed over time.
8. Click “Close”. If all went well, you should see a “Transaction Submitted” prompt. Close this out, and we can double check the wallet to see that the transaction went through.
Step Four: Enjoy Your New Assets
- Open your Metamask wallet, click “Activity”. This will show whether the transaction has gone through. During times of high traffic on Ethereum, sometimes a transaction may take a while to get picked up; so be patient.
2. Click “Assets” to see verify that your new assets have made it into your wallet. After the trade goes through, your new assets will show in your Metamask wallet.
Note: If you aren’t seeing your ZCN in the wallet, it’s because you didn’t “Add Token” in Metamask for the ZCN token. If you need help on this, we’ve got you covered. Go back to Part 1 of this guide, and scroll to the very bottom of the guide for instruction on how to do this.
You’ve Reached The End (of Part 2)!
If all looks good, congratulations! You are now ready to provide liquidity on Uniswap. If it doesn’t look right, feel free to pop into the 0Chain telegram and ask for help.
Now, onto Part Three of the 0Chain Geyser Tutorial — How to Provide Liquidity on Uniswap!
If you found this article helpful, please let me know on twitter!
