Decentralised Exchanges (DEX) are crucial in distributing cryptocurrencies and tokens to the masses. Traditional centralised exchanges such as Coinbase have a high bar to entry and are out of reach for smaller developers looking to promote their latest crypto project.
Ethereum has a number of decentralised exchanges, including UniSwap, PancakeSwap, SushiSwap etc. All of these allow you to swap or exchange ERC20 tokens. (Tokens created on the Ethereum blockchain). But Ethereum fees are hefty. Cardano has reasonable fees but thus far no working DEX. So what’s up with Cardano?
Cardano DEX issues
Up till now (Dec 2021) there have been rumblings of a working DEX for Cardano, in particular SundaeSwap. The launch of such a DEX would be revolutionary for Cardano, allowing native token creators to trade tokens on the market freely, without the incursion of middlemen. However, numerous delays have meant nothing has materialised until now.
Out of nowhere a new contender to the title of the first working DEX on Cardano, enter MuesliSwap! Why the name MuesliSwap? Apparently, following on from the Ethereum DEX food-based nomenclature and Muesli because the anonymous dev team are Swiss.
Amongst cries of scam from various reaches of the Twittersphere, MuesliSwap has pipped other DEX development teams at the post and left them standing. But, the vital questions remain, is it a scam and most importantly does it work? In this article, I test it out with real cash (ADA) and report the results. Here we go…
First things first. You need to go to the Cardano MuesliSwap site. https://ada.muesliswap.com/
Muesliswap also has an operational DEX for Smart Bitcoin Cash (whoever these guys are they’ve not been sleeping at the wheel), so ensure you’re on the right site.
The site announces reassuringly – “This is a Mainnet Beta version – Use at your own risk”. Mmm…
Connect your wallet
Next, you need to connect your digital wallet to the site. Probably best to create a fresh wallet, bearing in mind the above. MuesliSwap uses the Nami wallet which can be found here:
Select the correct install for your browser.
As always when creating a wallet for crypto you will need to save your passphrases, in this case, a series of 24 random words and a password. Proceed by clicking the Nami logo to connect your newly created wallet. So far, so good.
Next, I funded the wallet with some ADA and proceeded to see what tokens are on offer to trade.
Tokens Available
Click ‘Markets’ then ‘Trading’ on the left menu and a list of tokens will be displayed. Currently, there are only 11 tokens listed on the DEX, not many at all. Many of the eleven appear to be meme type coins such as HOSKY (a Shiba Inu type coin), CARDOGEO etc. More serious offerings include MILK, MuesliSwap’s own token and World Mobile Token (WMT).
Hopefully, once this platform has been proved to work the choice of tokens will be expanded upon.
Buy Tokens
Next, I tried to purchase some MILK tokens. I clicked on the MILK logo and was met with a list of Buy and Sell orders. The live charts appear to be a work in progress as nothing was displayed.
Just select the buy order that suits your budget. You will be met with a pop up of your order.
If you have enough ADA in your wallet to complete the transaction the Submit button will become active. Transaction fees appear reasonably low at just 0.4 ADA.
Next, I held my breath and clicked ‘Submit’. If this failed my precious ADA could be lost to the ether, forever.
Up popped a Transaction Sign Request.
I clicked sign, and tentatively entered the password…
Great! A reassuring ‘Transaction Successful’ pop up was displayed. But would my tokens arrive?
Order in progress
I clicked ‘My Orders’ on the left menu…
A big sigh of relief, I could see my order of MILK in the queue. But would it appear in my wallet?
I clicked the Nami logo in my browser and nothing. Refreshed and still nothing. Tried for the third time and then amazingly MILK was delivered, (pun intended).
I tested with a a couple of other tokens (HOSKY) and World Mobile Token (WMT) and all were delivered successfully without fuss to my new Nami wallet, great!
Conclusion.
Obviously, this test is limited. As the warning states; ‘use at your own risk’ but this protocol appears to be genuine and most importantly actually works! Since you store no ADA on the platform, your ADA seems to be safe, especially if you use a new wallet for purchases. Only time will tell if MuesliSwap can get quality projects to list on their DEX and build significant traction.
The User Interface is OK-ish, with some work in progress and it appears big things are in the pipeline with ‘Launchpads’ for new tokens planned. The worry for MuesliSwap is that with an anonymous team coming from nowhere trust may be too low to allow mass adoption within the Cardano community. Only time will tell.
Next time, I’ll see if we can get our Pop Up World Token (PUW) listed on MuesliSwap, watch this space (subscribe below) to see how you can get your token listed too!
My name is Graham Jules, founder of Pop Up World. and Pop Up World Token
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