Cross-chain DEX Platform for Seamless and Secure Crypto Trading

NIX assisted a fintech company in creating a DEX platform that enables peer-to-peer trading, gives users direct control over their funds without intermediaries, and supports cross-chain transactions.

Business Domain

Financial and Banking
Service

Web Development, Blockchain
Technologies

Golang, Interchain Token Service, go-ethereum

Business Overview

Our client, a fintech company, envisioned a decentralized exchange (DEX) platform for seamless crypto trading to diversify its holdings. This peer-to-peer marketplace would empower traders to engage in direct transactions, retaining full control of their funds without relying on intermediaries or custodians, while also facilitating cross-chain trading.

In a departure from traditional centralized exchanges, the client’s DEX platform distinguishes itself by maintaining the independence of trader assets from the platform’s value and strictly adhering to a zero-user-data policy.

The client sought NIX’s expertise to test the idea for feasibility and develop a scalable DEX platform from scratch that will provide a fast, secure and convenient tool for managing blockchain assets.

Scope

Scope

In translating our concept into reality, we committed to the following deliverables:

Architecting a robust and scalable platform capable of handling a minimum required of 100,000 active users and processing hundreds of events per second
Ensuring seamless accessibility to comprehensive historical trading data for all users
Implementing real-time data updates to provide users with up-to-the-minute market information and enable timely trading decisions

Solution

After validating the concept and assessing scalability with a PoC, the NIX team proceeded to create a full-scale DEX platform with enriched functionality.

The front-end of the platform seamlessly interacts with smart contracts via user wallets and a WebSocket connection for secure order execution and dynamic data updates.

To develop smart contracts for the DEX platform, we harnessed Solidity, the EVM’s de facto standard, empowering it to handle intricate transaction logic. We also incorporated the ability to participate in liquidity pools as an investor apart from only swapping assets in peer-to-peer transactions and automated market makers (AMMs).

Smart Contracts

Several types of smart contracts are deployed to every supported blockchain:

Order Book provides users with an unparalleled level of transparency and the ability to place different types of orders (Limit Order, Market Order, Take-profit, Stop-limit), enhancing the overall trading experience.
Liquidity Pool leverages the AMM mechanism to facilitate seamless and efficient trading by enabling users to provide liquidity, earn fees, and maintain market depth.
Liquidity Token represents the share rights of Liquidity Pools participants—all records about current participants are stored in the blockchain, so nobody can manipulate this data.
ERC-20 token standard enables cross-chain bridging and swapping.

GO-powered Backend for Scalability

The backend of the platform is built on top of Go, given its excellent performance in dealing with high loads. To ensure that the platform will keep up with the future rapidly growing number of simultaneous users, the NIX team implemented the scalable architecture where independent additional instances of the Backend API service can be created on demand.

Blockchain Data Management
Integrations and Third Party Solutions

Blockchain Data Management

To effectively manage blockchain data and provide real-time updates to users, we implemented several backend services:

Blockchain listener continuously monitors the blockchain for events generated by smart contracts. This data is then stored in a highly scalable database, allowing users to access historical data for comprehensive analysis and exploration.
GraphQL API server ensures seamless data delivery and responsiveness and accommodates increasing data demands. This serves as the backbone of the front-end application, providing a comprehensive range of information, including system settings, trading activity data, and real-time updates.
Next.js backend component plays a crucial role in handling server-side rendering (SSR) and preprocessing web pages. This optimization ensures faster page loading times and a more responsive user experience, providing a seamless interaction for our users.

Integrations and Third Party Solutions

MetaMask crypto wallet to request users’ blockchain accounts and read data from connected blockchains
Interchain Token Service from Axelar to support cross-chain token transfers
Chainstack, a blockchain infrastructure provider to get access to dedicated nodes in every blockchain which allows to listen to blockchain events for data indexing and real-time updates
CoinGecko API for data overview such as live crypto prices, trading volume, and market capitalization for the blockchains supported by the platform

Outcome

With the launching of a new DEX platform, our client gained a new thriving business division and additionally introduced a whole new customer base to their main online banking product. The platform’s robust architecture and comprehensive features that prioritize security enabled the company to expand into new markets and increase its global reach, fueling market share growth.

Key success points of the solution:

Decentralization: It operates on a peer-to-peer network without relying on a central authority to execute trades or manage funds.
Cross-Chain Compatibility: Support of cross-chain token swaps, enabling users to trade assets across different blockchains.
Low Fees: Low transaction fees to make it accessible to users of all sizes
User-friendly Interface: Simple, intuitive, and user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate, even for first-time users.
High Liquidity: The solution has high liquidity, allowing users to swap tokens quickly and efficiently.

Team:

10 Experts (Project Manager, Business Analyst, Solution Architect, Tech Lead, QA Engineer, 3 Web3 Engineers, UI/UX Designer, Markup Engineer)

Tech Stack:

MetaMask, Solidity, Next.js, GraphQL, Avalanche, Arbitrum, BNB Smart Chain, go-ethereum, Interchain Token Service, PostgreSQL, Ganache, Truffle, RabbitMQ, Golang, WebSockets, TypeScript, Nginx