Uniswap Labs rolls out widget to simplify buying experience on web3
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Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Uniswap Labs, a maker of crypto infrastructure apps, has released a tool to help web3 platforms simplify the buying experience for their users.
Why it matters: One of the reasons so many people remain on the sidelines in crypto is the complexity. New tools to help reduce friction in the user experience will simplify the process, making it more like the web2 experience they are familiar with.
What's happening: Uniswap Labs rolled out a new widget to execute digital token trades that web3-based platforms can easily embed on their websites.
- Think of what Stripe does for online businesses, simplifying the customer buying experience in traditional currencies — Uniswap's web3 widget does this for switching tokens.
Context: Different web3 platforms require users to transact with different tokens. Users typically have to navigate to an exchange to trade coins from their wallet into the tokens they need to transact on the original platform.
- On a site like OpenSea, NFT collectors would first have to trade crypto they hold for wrapped ether (WETH) before coming back to the site to purchase NFTs.
- Someone approved to join the Friends with Benefits community would have to trade into FWB tokens before coming back to the site to join.
The Uniswap protocol on Ethereum, of which Uniswap Labs is a core contributor, is one of the exchanges users may tab over to.
- The widget allows OpenSea and FWB — both of which are launch partners for the new tool, along with Oasis.app — to integrate the swap tool on their website so their users can trade into native tokens without having to leave the site.
- Hundreds of organic integrations with Uniswap already exist, but the release of the widget makes it infinitely easier for any developer to integrate it into their project with just one line of code.
Of note: Users new to the space will need to learn how to use an Ethereum wallet. And brace yourself for fees the network itself charges — they can be brutal. Web3 is a learning curve.
The big picture: Uniswap Labs sees its mission as developing tools to help scale the web3 world, and to make it accessible to everyone.
- "We need to simplify onboarding to web3, and simplify integration to web3 infrastructure," Uniswap Labs COO Mary-Catherine Lader tells Axios.
- The rollout of the swap widget is a step toward that goal. Lader said there's no internal target for adoption of the widget, but rather the goal is to grow the web3 landscape.
- "We want to 10x growth on web3 adoption," she said.
The bottom line: A growing pie is good for everyone in the crypto ecosystem.
