Uniswap v4's Five Big Upgrades

Uniswap v4 has finally landed and its launch across 12 different chains brings some very cool additional features that enable new experiences!

The key standouts of the v4 launch are centered on features around gas optimization and pool customization. On top of v4 coming out, a handful of new applications are launching, seeking to build on the fresh Uniswap upgrade. 

Below, check out five of the most notable upgrades for Uniswap v4 and see some of the early dapps leveraging v4 to enable new user interactions! 👇

1️⃣ Cheaper Pool Creation

In earlier versions of Uniswap, creating a new pool required deploying a separate contract, which was costly and gas-intensive. With the launch of Uniswap v4, this cost is cut down by around 99.99%! Instead of launching a whole new pool and contract, the singleton contract now creates the pool and tracks its state.

2️⃣ Native ETH Support

When users previously wanted to swap ETH on Uniswap, the ETH would need to be wrapped first and then transferred, a process that could lead to higher gas costs. Now, users are able to swap native ether directly on its platform without having to pay additional gas fees for wrapping, saving around 15%. 

3️⃣ Lowering Swapping Costs

If a user previously wanted to swap two tokens that did not have a liquidity pool, Uniswap would handle it in the backend, swapping tokens between multiple pools to return the users their desired token. This would all be fairly costly for the user as multiple smart contracts would need to be interacted with and multiple token transfers would have to occur. Thanks to Uniswap v4’s singleton contract design, users will be able to swap tokens at a much lower cost without costly interactions bouncing among multiple contracts.

4️⃣ Introduction of Subscribers

If a protocol offers extra rewards for providing liquidity on Uniswap, liquidity providers (LPs) typically need to transfer their liquidity position receipt to another wallet. This creates a risk since the new wallet owner gains control over the liquidity position. To solve this in v4, LPs can subscribe to a contract that tracks their position—whether they add, remove, or transfer liquidity. This enables external protocols to reward LPs without requiring them to transfer their liquidity receipt, improving security and ease of use.

5️⃣ Welcome Hooks

Hooks are a powerful new feature in Uniswap v4. They are external smart contracts that can be attached to any pool, allowing developers more pool customization. Hooks have a variety of different use cases, for example, if some liquidity is out of the current price range and sitting idle, hooks can enable that liquidity to be deposited into another protocol to earn additional yield instead of going unused. 

🦄 Dapps Leveraging v4 Upgrades

Uniswap v4's buzzy new upgrades don't only mean a more streamlined experience for users of the Uniswap front-end, developers building on v4 have new tools in their arsenal to offer more customizable experiences. Here are three early dapps that tap are already tapping into v4.

◾️ Flaunch

Twitter | Website

Flaunch is the new memecoin launchpad on the block, utilizing Uniswap v4’s hooks to offer users a better memecoin experience. When users are launching their memecoin on Fluanch, they have the ability to offer fixed price launches, auto buybacks, and customizable revenue distribution to creators. 

◾️ Doppler

Twitter | Website

Doppler is a liquidity bootstrapping protocol that helps price new token launches by composing Dutch-auction mechanics while also reducing MEV extraction through Uniswap's hooks!

◾️ Sorella Labs

Twitter | Website

Sorella Labs is developing a project called Angstrom to assist apps in minimizing the amount of MEV that can be extracted from its protocol. It does this through application-specific sequencing in which apps are able to determine how transactions are sequenced. Angstrom is also a Uniswap v4 hook that assists in protecting LPs from arbitrageurs and swappers from sandwich attacks.