What is a DEX?
Decentralized exchanges, also known as DEXs, pair buyers with sellers easily so that they can swap their cryptocurrency without needing to trust an intermediary or each other.
DEXs are fully non-custodial as only you are in control of your funds, and not a centralized exchange like Coinbase or Binance. Anyone, anywhere, can provide tokens to create markets for buyers and sellers. There are no limits on who can access DEXs and usually, the code behind the exchange is fully open-source, making them more secure to use.
What are automated market makers
AMMs are the most common type of DEX, and they’re incredibly innovative as they rely on liquidity pools and liquidity providers.
- Liquidity Pool: Typically, two tokens of equivalent value get locked into a smart contract to create a trading pair - like ETH/DAI or DAI/USDC
- Liquidity Provider: This is someone who deposits their tokens into a liquidity pool to earn a percentage of the trading fees
Once a liquidity pool has been created, anyone can trade the tokens within it, and based on the market demand, an algorithm will automatically calculate the price changes meaning they can operate 24/7!
On StarkNet, if you want an easy way to trade one token for another, then there are many options to choose from, like: 10kSwap and SithSwap, but for this article, we’ll be using 10K Swap.
Trading tokens with JediSwap
Swapping tokens on JediSwap is easy. If you’ve used Uniswap or other AMMs in the past, then you’ll be familiar with the process.
- Go to the Jediswap app
- Sign in with your Argent X wallet
- Select the token you want to sell and the token you want to buy (ETH for DAI for example)
- Click “Swap”
Like that - you’ve made a trade on StarkNet!
Risks
As always in crypto and DeFi, you should do your own research on the risks. These include smart contracts and the economics of the protocols.
Disclaimer: This educational article is for informational purposes and is not financial advice. Investing in cryptocurrencies and DeFi involves risk and can result in you losing money.
