Overview
Last updated
Last updated
We discussed how we got to Ally, and what the philosophy behind it is. Let’s now dive into what Ally is and how it compares to existing solutions.
Web3 and DeFi have been on a journey to constantly innovate and refine products to best serve the evolving users’ needs. DEXs marked a significant milestone, enabling users to trade a wide array of tokens in a transparent and permissionless manner, a significant departure from traditional finance.
As the number of blockchain chains and protocols proliferated, it became challenging for users to identify the optimal ways to swap tokens. Traditional DEX aggregators like 1inch played a revolutionary role in simplifying user experience by consolidating access to multiple DEXs across various chains within a unified interface. However, they achieved this via routing proxy contracts instead of direct calls to the DEXs’ smart contracts. This intermediary step brought forth several potential disadvantages:
Costs. Swapping tokens through aggregators may result in high gas fees (sometimes five to ten times more than swapping directly on DEXs like Uniswap), and a lack of positive slippage. Moreover, if the aggregator is integrated into a wallet, like MetaMask or Rainbow, an additional swap fee would apply.
Security (1). Proxy contracts, an intermediate layer between users and the DEXs’ smart contracts, add trust assumptions and introduce a new potential attack vector.
Security (2). In the case of bridges, aggregator proxy contracts frequently lead to problems primarily because bridge transactions lack atomicity. When bridges update something on their side without providing advance notifications to aggregators, they can cause funds to be locked within the aggregator's contract.
Ally is a powerful new aggregator that facilitates user experience without relying on proxy smart contracts. Instead, it compares quotas from different DEXs and aggregators and then calls DEXs and bridges contracts directly. This novel approach substantially benefits users, as it maintains the convenience of a unified interface while eliminating the need to exit the platform and visit individual DEXs or bridges—which used to happen with traditional aggregators once users discovered it was cheaper and more secure to interact with DEXs and bridges directly. At the same time, by connecting users directly with DEXs and bridges’ smart contracts, Ally avoids relying on proxy routing contracts, resulting in a more cost-efficient and secure solution.
More specifically, Ally’s core capabilities include:
Direct Calls to Major DEXs: Engage directly with protocols like Uniswap, Curve, Pancake, and Maverick, bypassing any intermediary aggregator proxy contracts.
Direct Exchanges on CEXs: Seamless interaction and trading on premier exchanges like OKX, Binance, and Coinbase without leaving our extension's interface.
Direct Access to Cross-Chain Bridges: Harness both native bridges such as Arbitrum and Optimism, alongside others like Stargate and Hop.
Placing Limit Orders across DEXs: Set limit orders across many platforms, from 1inch and CowSwap to 0x and the soon-to-launch UniswapX.
Add-ons:
However, where we truly envision the future of Web3 unfolding is through the limitless potential of add-ons. Our robust architecture isn't just about what we've created, but what it allows others to create.
By offering a powerful toolkit tailored for the development of diverse add-ons, we've essentially opened the floodgates for developers worldwide. They now have the tools to craft, customize, and enhance the overall exchange experience, ensuring our product remains at the forefront of the DeFi landscape, adaptable and ever-evolving.
The horizon of possibilities is vast, and we invite you to delve deeper into the world of our add-ons.
Security:
Is it possible to have the best token exchange product without top-tier security? Absolutely not!
But there can't be free cheese, right?
Well, this cheese will bring passive income to all users. But how?