What Is 1inch Crypto?

Decentralized finance has been highly influential in the financial world because it presents a huge shift in how most users can access financial services. One such service includes crypto exchanges. Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) offer users quick and easy trading services without the need for a central authority. 

But when there are so many different exchanges, how do you know you are getting the best price for your trade? This is where the 1inch network comes into play. 

Introduction About 1inch Network

1inch offers a whole suite of DeFi tools, but it is best known for being a DEX aggregator. This means that it analyses several different crypto exchanges and finds the best price for your trade. 1inch helps ensure you are never paying more than you have to for your crypto. 

Founded in 2020, the platform offers support for Ethereum, BNB Smart Chain, Polygon, Arbitrum and Optimism. 

How Does 1inch Crypto Work?

The 1inch network goes over more than 50 sources of liquidity available on Ethereum to find the best trade for you. This is done through “scraping”, which is an automated process that extracts data from web pages and other sources. Hundreds of arbitrage bots are deployed to find the trading process resulting in the lowest fees for the user. 

For example, assume you want to buy an ERC-20 token like SHIB(Shiba Inu) using ETH. There are many possible ways to complete this trade. The first is to draw directly from an ETH/SHIB liquidity pool. However, it may have high fees that result in an expensive swap. 

Instead, 1inch may swap your token over several protocols and pools to complete your request. In the end, the cost of the trade found by 1inch will likely be the cheapest possibility. 

How does 1inch make money? It doesn’t. Since 1inch is decentralized, it is not run by a for-profit company. Instead, liquidity providers on the network can earn returns for providing their capital, but the network does not have any fees of its own. 

1inch Crypto Features

Wide Compatibility

1inch offers support for 5 different networks: Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon and BNB Smart Chain. No matter what network you choose, you can access the 1inch protocol to help ensure your trades are low cost.

Multi-Path Swaps

The protocol supports multi-path swaps, which is useful when the cost of a direct trade is higher than one with many intermediate steps. Multi-path swaps imply that the protocol can swap your provided token over several in-between sources to arrive at the final token. 

Governance

1inch is a decentralized protocol and so is its governance. You can participate in decision-making for the protocol as long as you own 1INCH tokens. There are two ways you can do this – Instant Governance allows you to immediately vote on an issue using your staked tokens. DAO governance enables you to create a proposal and allow other users to vote on it. 

Pros and Cons of 1inch Network

1inch Network Pros

• No Fees – The only fees you pay on 1inch are the ones levied by DEXs. The 1inch protocol itself does not charge any additional fees. 
• Best Rates – Using its multi-path swaps and arbitrage bots, 1inch offers the lowest possible fees for your trades. You are never paying more than you have to for your tokens. 
• Extensive Wallet Support – 1inch offers support for 16 different crypto wallets, which include its own 1inch wallet service. You can likely get started using 1inch with your current wallet. 

1inch Network Cons

• Not Beginner-friendly – 1inch is designed for seasoned investors and those familiar with crypto. Beginners in the field may find the platform daunting to use. 
• Fees of Underlying Networks– While 1inch does not have any charges on its own, it still suffers because of Ethereum’s high gas fees. While your trade may be at the lowest price possible, Ethereum’s congestion may still result in high total costs.
• Limited Fiat Support – Most DEXs do not let you purchase tokens using fiat currencies like the US dollar. While 1inch allows you to buy Ethereum with fiat through moonpay, it involves steep processing fees. 

Read more: Fiat Vs Crypto

Conclusion

1inch offers a unique service not found on many other DeFi platforms. Its multi-path swaps are an innovative method to automatically find the best price for your trades. But the network still suffers from issues, owing to Ethereum’s problems with cost and scalability. Its future looks bright as long as it continues to innovate and makes it easier for novice traders to get started. 

You can trade 1inch coin on ZebPay. Level up your trading experience using ZebPay’s brand new upgrade.

FAQs on 1inch Network