Polkaswap is designed with an ambitious vision: multiple bridges support, order book support, enhancing community experience, redesigning UI/UX, and more. Each feature developed, each improvement made, is driven by an unwavering commitment to serve the community.
In this exciting conversation with Stefan, you’ll get an inside look at Polkaswap’s past, present and future.
1) Hello Stefan! What is your background and how did you get into crypto?
Hello! I’m responsible for Polkaswap product development. I have been working on Polkaswap.io since the very first line of source code! At the very beginning, when there were no particular requirements and no specific task descriptions, it was especially difficult, but super interesting, we worked 24/7. Now we work 25/88… haha kidding! 😀 Of course, we are still working very hard — (you can check it using our GitHub details) but, at the very beginning it was much more difficult. I continued to be this way until the 1st testnet (test.polkaswap.io) release, which, by the way, was on December 31st, which was also exciting — to sit and watch the feedback of our cool community ahead of the incoming the New Year! 🎉
Here is the “small” scope of Polkaswap related projects
(like & subscribe ❤️🔥):
https://github.com/sora-xor/polkaswap-exchange-web
https://github.com/sora-xor/sora2-wallet-web
https://github.com/sora-xor/sora2-substrate-js-library
https://github.com/sora-xor/sora-subquery
https://github.com/sora-xor/subsquid
Speaking about my personal experience, I worked on commercial & non-commercial web development for about 8 years (~6 years of experience in fintech & trading as well as crypto products 📊). I love decentralized systems, web3, and Defi, it’s as if I was born to be a part of amazing DEX and crypto projects! Moreover, I continue to work on a PhD thesis within the scope of Decentralized Systems.
2) What is Polkaswap’s main focus?
Actually, there are several directions which we develop towards and complete from time to time:
1️⃣Multiple Bridge support. We increase entry points to the Polkaswap DEX from different networks/chains. For example, we’ll have multiple popular EVM networks & Substrate network support. Btw, you can already try some substrate networks on test.polkaswap.io 🔥
2️⃣Order book support. We’ve started to work on a mockups preparation. When we’re ready — we’ll start the implementation of the Order book UI in Polkaswap! Here are some previews (not the final version of UI)
3️⃣Statistics services alternatives. Currently, Polkaswap.io uses the SubQuery indexer to get blockchain data. But there were several issues related to SORA’S new substrate version. So, we’ve started to find alternatives to make users’ lives easier. We’ve prepared the Subsquid service and now we’re working on that service’s integration into Polkaswap.
4️⃣Customer experience (CX) improvements. The main goal of this direction is to increase the number of users. Key highlights are:
- Accessibility improvements
- UX research
- Video guides
- Interactive tours (like https://pulsardev.github.io/vue-tour/ ). They might be combined with video guides
- New languages support
- Cross browser support, desktop app
5️⃣Polkaswap UX/UI redesign. Since we are unstoppable, we are trying to improve the quality of our user experience, so we have a lot of ideas. And even more are suggested by our awesome community and users, so this direction contains all the UX improvements. Some examples of tasks from this direction are:
- Polkaswap Dashboard (with portfolio)
- Referral System improvements
- Network Stats
- Explore Page
- $XOR Native Staking support
6️⃣Supporting new features of the SORA blockchain. Since the SORA blockchain improves constantly, we need to support new features like the XST platform, which affects polkaswap.io/#/swap, for instance.
7️⃣Technical Debt. We’re constantly improving the performance of Polkaswap.io and we still have a lot of tasks here to make the best DEX for everyone.
3) What made you want to build the Polkaswap DEX?
Each Polkadot ecosystem chain (or, more broadly) requires a good decentralized exchange to deal with each specific network’s tokens. So, we were inspired by other DEXes and the Polkadot ecosystem.
Polkaswap values decentralization and believes that everyone should have equal access to financial services. Polkaswap is committed to driving innovation in the blockchain space. By leveraging the power of the Polkadot network, Polkaswap is able to offer unique features and capabilities that are not available on other decentralized exchanges on any other network.
4) What are your goals for Polkaswap’s future?
Polkaswap values its user community, as they play a vital role in shaping the future of the platform. We’ve received a ton of suggestions we were/are/will be working on.
Also, we’ve combined these suggestions with the tasks collected by all stakeholders and upcoming SORA blockchain features.
Moreover, we’ve started to elicitate requirements for a very interesting idea & initiative — Polkaswap Widget. This widget might be used everywhere, from web2 to web3 business owners — it doesn’t really matter. The key advantage here is that the Polkaswap Widget will bring new users/partners/businesses into the crypto space and the SORA network itself.
5) Where can to learn more?
If you want to be the first to try Polkaswap’s new features, you can try test.polkaswap.io
Here is the testnet related TG group for Q&A: @sora_testnet
If you want to be as updated as other community members, you can subscribe to our announcements & groups channels:
@polkaswap — Polkaswap TG group
@polkaswap_announcements — Polkaswap TG announcements channel
@SORAhappiness — TG group for troubleshooting & suggestions
An extra bonus for everyone who has read this interview to the end
I love the SORA ecosystem and the development of useful tools, so I’ve prepared a TG bot for the SORA community, to serve in terms of notifications regarding funds in the SORA blockchain (and more!). You can try using it: @AwesomePolkaswapBot
