0x's first consumer product is an aggregator of decentralized exchanges

Decentralized exchange infrastructure provider 0x has launched its first consumer product: a platform that aggregates liquidity from other decentralized exchanges.

When a trader places an order on the new service, called Matcha, it splits the trade across several different networks — including 0x Mesh, Uniswap, Curve, Oasis and other “proprietary liquidity sources” — in order to surface the best price.

As The Block Research has reported, a recent rise in trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) has led to a growing interest in so-called DEX aggregators. 

Liquidity for DEX trading is spread out over a number of different platforms, which can lead to "slippage"— a discrepancy between the price a trader expects and the one at which the trade executes. DEX aggregators are supposed to help mitigate that problem.

Matcha will have competition. Early leaders in the field include 1inch and Paraswap. But 0x’s marketing lead Matt Taylor contended in an interview with The Block that Matcha’s order routing system would be better than those already available. "We feel like we’re kind of the first professional team to really hone in on the algorithms for how these orders are split between the various exchange networks."

Besides that, the new service will put a big emphasis on user experience. “DEXs are kind of hard to use,” said Taylor. Ethereum gas prices and waiting times can be inconvenient, and as such, 0x sees a “huge opportunity to uplevel the design of a DEX,” he said.

As for other DEX aggregators, they "all have similar UI/UX that basic crypto traders and non-native crypto users would likely find non-intuitive and intimidating," 0x's community engagement lead Brent Oshiro wrote in a recent Reddit post.

Taylor compared the project to Robinhood, the popular stock trading app. "They did such a good job of designing a user-friendly application that it has brought in a new wave of users into stock trading, and we feel like Matcha can do that for DEX trading."

0x will not charge for the use of the service for the time being. But eventually, it may introduce some kind of trading fee system, according to Taylor.