Greetings PUBLISH0X community, today I want to introduce you to the OpenOcean and the unique algorithm behind it to give everyone the opportunity to maximize the efficacy of capital. OpenOcean is the primary aggregator of many blockchains, today. For better understanding, an aggregator on the DeFi ecosystem means a smart contract/tool that searches for the best price and the lowest slippage ratio continuously. It searches for many DEXes and/or CEXes to find the best price and the most appropriate liquidity for the trading volume. So, the user can easily swap the relevant tokens without doubt of facing extreme slippage or price differences caused by low liquidity or any kind of reason.
OpenOcean not only aggregates the DEXex or DeFi apps, but it also added BINANCE as a CEX for further research. Now, it works for both CEX & DEX traders as a decentralized trading module. After a brief explanation, let me explain to you about OpenOcean more. Keep reading...
What is OpenOcean?
As I've said previously, OpenOcean is an exchange aggregator. It serves a bridge function between many chains including Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and many more with using PolkaBridge. By doing so, OpenOcean aims to reach as many people as possible to enhance the trading strategy, increase comfort, and lower the barriers to permissionless value exchange.
OpenOcean is first introduced to the crypto community in the late 2020s. On that days, it only includes 3 DEXex and not a CEX. In the first half of 2021, the aggregated CEX count doubled to 6, and the first-ever aggregated CEX appeared on the screen: Binance. On the latest article published by the OpenOcean Medium page, you can see that the HECO chain is the 7th chain to be aggregated. Now, it supports 7 different chains and hundreds of DEXes.
The image above is taken from the homepage of the OpenOcean website. It explains the main theme behind it, ''All For Your Trading''. OpenOcean not only receives data and sorts them from best to worst. It also gives you the opportunity to monitor all possible exchanges for the relevant pair, and create a manual arbitrage between them. I highlighted the word ''manual'' because, in the near future, it's expected to see an automated arbitrage tool built on OpenOcean. It'll be reviewed again on the last part of that article. Keep reading...
How to Use OpenOcean?
To use OpenOcean, you must have any of the 7 chain's wallets. Then head over to ''Connect Wallet'' section on the homepage. That's all! I choose Binance Smart Chain to show you how it finds and lists the best places to start trading. It supports Metamask, BSC Wallet, Wallet Connect for mobile wallets and many more.
After connecting your wallet, you should select the pair you want to trade. Just find them on the screen and continue. I choose BNB/USDT for the reference trading pair. At the time of writing, CoinGecko BNB's price was 316.92$ per 1 BNB. Below, you can see the price of BNB in different exchanges.
As you can see in the image above, OpenOcean searched many other exchanges than PancakeSwap and a better price of 317.10$ per 1 BNB on the MDex platform. It's nearly 0.05% higher compared to CoinGecko and nearly 0.26% better price according to PancakeSwap pricing. When you think about the 0.25% trading fee of the PancakeSwap platform, OpenOcean let me save that amount. Great! For any other trading pairs and different chains, please go back to the beginning of the ''How to Use'' section, or please read that guide prepared on the Docs page of OpenOcean.
If you ever realized, there is no point that indicates the Binance exchange, here. It's because this is OpenOcean Classic. You should switch it to the OpenOcean PRO on the homepage. It has 2 different columns that show DeFi and CeFi markets together.
Please be aware that the price difference is caused by the time difference when two pictures are taken. So, no better price on the PRO version :)
Why Do You Need OpenOcean?
- OpenOcean saves time for you: Now, please assume that you check every single DEX for only 1 trading pair. Even with the best quality net connection, it takes several minutes to check the prices and record them. In addition to that, you should mark them one by one with your hand. But using OpenOcean makes all the processes automated. So, you don't need to waste time anymore.
- OpenOcean saves gas fees for you: Please assume that you need to make a multi-path transaction. (ETH to USDT, then USDT to AMPL for example) OpenOcean finds the best pathway to shorten this process. So, you can save time as well as saving the gas commission because of the lower transaction count.
- OpenOcean prioritizes wallet balance: It may be a little confusing for some of you. I want to say that OpenOcean looks for the most fitting price for your wallet. Either you want to sell or buy, doesn't matter. In both ways, OpenOcean finds the lowest or highest prices!
- OpenOcean doesn't have a premium membership fee: As you can understand, some of the trading bots which claims to be the most accurate and the most profitable ones charge you some $$$. Mostly, these bots can't even trade the most liquid markets rather than making profits for you. So, you lose 2-times because of low liquidity and the wrong trading way ahead. On the other hand, OpenOcean doesn't and won't charge you any $$$ to use it. It may change in the future according to the community's voice but the charge fee will cover some trading tools such as automated arbitrage function.
- OpenOcean provides a one-click solution for cross-chain swaps: As you know, some tokens are available on more than 1 chain. For example, you can send/receive $POLS token both on ETH and BSC chains. Even though the project has an interchain bridge, it may be hard for somebody to proceed with it. Now, OpenOcean makes it more simple by enabling cross-chain token swap function.
- There is no specific fee for trading through OpenOcean: Let's assume that you directly use Uniswap rather than thorough OpenOcean. you should pay 3 different commissions. One for token approval for the Uniswap contract, one for the Uniswap LP fee, and the last for the Ethereum chain to run. Please note the total commission is equal either you use OpenOcean or not. So, it's FREE to use!
- OpenOcean uses the D-Star algorithm: D-Star is the abbreviation of the Dijkstra algorithm. It consists of 3 different tools that OpenOcean needs to maintain the efficacy of its smart contracts: SOURCING, PRIOTIZING, and SPLITTING. This ensures that users get the best price on the market with less gas consumption and lower slippage.
The Native Token: $OOE
Although OpenOcean launched in the late 2020s, the native token just went live on Polkastarter in May 2021. The total supply of $OOE is set to be 1,000,000,000 with no minting available. Nowadays, the circulating supply is 78,989,285 units. 1.9% of the total supply is airdropped to the early users of OpenOcean in the first half of 2021. $OOE token is known as the primary governance and the utility token OpenOcean platform. It provides direct access to governance voting and lets anyone to stake-and-earn. You can check the schedule of token unlock periods from the picture below.
In addition to governance and stake functions, the $OOE token gives you the opportunity to gain access to future VIP functions. According to the docs about the $OOE token, VIP tools include the SaaS platform (which gives anyone the opportunity to trade via arbitrage bots), CEX fee discounts, and combined margin pools (which facilitate one-step exposure to leveraged products). It's not clearly stated how it works so please keep an eye on official OpenOcean social media channels.
As I've said before, 1.9% of the total supply has been airdropped to early adopters. Please go to the relevant page if you used OpenOcean before and met the criteria to receive the airdrop.
Is OpenOcean Safe?
Until now, many cryptocurrency firms got much hype and just disappeared in the universe. To overcome that situation, people started to coordinate with others to control the safety of the underlying protocol before using it. Over time, this process became more professional way under the name of ''auditing''. Because everyone wants safety first, the audits became more and more important. The APYs may be attractive for many of us but safety FIRST!
OpenOcean is built on smart contracts that PancakeSwap is already using. It can't guarantee that these contracts are 100% safe, nothing can actually. But it gives some confidence to users. On the other hand, OpenOcean passes 3 different security audits until now. One from Certik, one from SlowMist, and the latest one is completed by KnownSec. Please be aware of any kind of issue that may happen during your trading experience, so always DYOR! If you face any type of system bugs, please contact the team immediately by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. Please check the security page of OpenOcean for further information.
What are the Disadvantages of Using OpenOcean?
- If you are a regular CEX trader and have a wide network, it may cause a reduction in referral commissions.
- If you are not a whale trader, the lower slippage count and the best price may not be your first interest. But it's still important.
- In the future, you should hold some $OOE to gain access to all tools represented under the name of the OpenOcean platform.
*This article is created to join the ''OpenOcean Article Writing Contest''. So, it's a part of the rewarded contest. To complete the requirements needed to join the contest, my BSC wallet's last 7 digits are ...BeeF29c. You can check the details here and join, too.
*This article is created to spread the awareness of OpenOcean and its features by utilizing my own experiences, the OpenOcean docs, and the OpenOcean Medium Blog. None of the words above contain any kind of investment advice! Please DYOR (Do Your Own Research) before investing.
**If you are interested in writing articles about ANYTHING on Publish0x, you can follow this link.
