AirSwap (AST) is a protocol to allow it to become easier for a peer to peer trading ecosystem on the Ethereum blockchain while using a decentralized exchange. The Airswap team understood there was a need to trade ERC-20 tokens faster, the coin used to pay for these “fast transaction speeds” is AST (AirSwap Token). However, the website does not state how it is better than competing decentralized exchanges with transactions speeds, security, and technology, which raises some red flags if this project is legitimate. The white paper can be viewed at https://swap.tech/whitepaper/ (Online PDF)
AirSwap Token is basically a token for designed for the AirSwap decentralized exchange (DEX). Users on Airswaps DEX have a form cryptocurrency that they want to exchange for another cryptocurrency at a specific rate during a specified period, users are basically liquidity providers. The price a user offers to pay for an asset is called the bid price. The price the user wants to sell that same asset either over a short period or long period of time (usually to make a profit) is called an asking price. Users tend to hold large amounts of a specific asset and they make their money on the spread or the difference between the asking and bid prices.
Anyone can be part of the AirSwap decentralized exchange. You simply need to signal that you’re willing to trade assets. In order to signal your intention to trade, you need to possess one hundred AST, that amount of AST is then staked, or locked, for seven days in order to avoid bot manipulation in the market which can cause the value of your asset to fall in price or rise in price, therefore, become “manipulated”.
This amount and the lock duration are determined by the governance mechanism built into the AirSwap Token. Holders of AST can collectively decide on the threshold and lock period at any time. For the time being, locking one hundred AST allows users to make ten trades. Users wanting to “cash out” trade for free on the AirSwap decentralized exchange. Even if they don’t own AST, takers pay nothing to discover users via the AirSwap Indexer, receive pricing information from the AirSwap Oracle, which in turn will be settled via an Ethereum smart contract.
Overall the AirSwap team is really inexperienced with Blockchain Technology which makes us really gambling our money due to the fact they haven’t been in the Blockchain industry for long. However, advisers that have been alongside that could provide a boost to them involve some big names such as Joseph Lubin who is the Co-Founder of Ethereum & CEO of ConsenSys, Brock Pierce who is one of the Co-Founders of Block.one and Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation.
An area where AirSwap lacks detail is their own website, when browsing the page I came across little to no information about the AirSwap token. They also did not include a “how it works” tab so newcomers looking at the website were unaware of the reason of the project.
Moving onto AirSwap’s social media they post quite frequently however most of the information posted isn’t relevant to their exchange or AirSwap Token this is shown in the number of followers and likes on posts (average likes is 15 and followers across three social media’s average 7K) this allows us to understand the engagement rate isn’t ideal for a company that you could hold assets in. In order for AirSwap to gain more attention they definitely need to improve their image and inform people the reason behind the project and a basic run of how it works.
Overall I don’t really see the point in having AirSwap tokens or the AirSwap decentralized exchange if it isn’t different to other competitors. In order for AirSwap to improve they need to focus on features that differentiate them from competitors as well as improving their website so it can become more user-friendly which in turn could allow for an increase of users joining the exchange and holding tokens.
AirSwap ensures security mainly through its decentralized nature, as its services are spread out around the globe. This means that no hacker can directly hack all of their servers, unlike centralized exchanges where all of the information is stored in one location and is vulnerable to attacks. As users do not store their funds in AirSwap’s system, hackers cannot gain access to users’ wallets even if they do manage to hack the entirety of AirSwap’s servers. All of these features combined, AirSwap is very secure and has a very low chance of being a victim to a hacker attack.
AirSwap also has its own token, AirSwap-token. Instead of charging users with a trading fee, it simply requires all "makers to stake 250 AirSwap-tokens”, one exchange review reveals. This provides the exchange with a significant competitive edge, as charging 0 fees is a very appealing feature. The exchange also does not charge any withdrawal or deposit fees, meaning they make all of their profit from the AirSwap-token. The exchange does not allow fiat-crypto trading, which could deter certain new cryptocurrency investors from using the exchange. Users can deposit their existing cryptocurrencies without a fee.
AirSwap created their Swap Protocol to enable transaction free trading. The Swap Protocol uses smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain to settle orders. Everything else is handled off-chain. The AirSwap team believes that connecting traders off-chain makes trading on their decentralized exchange faster than competing decentralized exchanges such as EtherDelta that depend on the blockchain for order fulfillment and the propagation of information.
The AirSwap team realized early that matching trades on-chain wasn’t the best solution because of the delays it creates. When fulfilling trades on-chain you need to wait for nodes to reach consensus on transactions, and on the Ethereum network this takes roughly 15 seconds. That is far too slow for an exchange, where orders should be fulfilled in microseconds.
With only a few messages passed between counterparties, trades can be negoti a te d quickly, fairly, and privately. For the purposes of this d ocument, a Maker is the par ty that provides an order, and a Taker is the party that fills it. Because each party is a peer, any party can assume the role of Maker or Taker at any time. Tokens in the following specification are ERC20 comp l i ant and any token that implements the standard can be traded using this protocol. The core protocol is sequenced in the following diagram. The Maker and Taker perform trade negotiation off-chain. The Contract below is an Ethereum smart contract, which the Taker calls when ready to fill an order on the blockchain.
If you wish to invest in the Airswap Platform, there's no way better than buying its token. The AST token can be bought on Huobi and Binance.
Huobi
Founded in 2013, Huobi is a cryptocurrency exchange with over a million users and more than $1 billion in assets under its custody. Headquartered in Singapore, the company has an international presence. Huobi offers competitive trading fees when it comes to its commissions, as the broker charges 0.2% on major crypto pairs such as BTC/USDT, whether your order is helping to create liquidity or take it away.
Binanace is the leading crypto to crypto exchange around with over 100 coins supported for deposit and withdrawal.
The exchange accepts users from around the world and has received favorable reviews from the crypto community. Recently the exchange has also partnered with Simplex to allow credit card purchases of cryptocurrencies at a premium.
A flat rate of 0.1% is very lucrative fee for any trader who doesn’t need immediate fiat liquidation. Incredibly, it undercuts most other large exchanges, some of which charge upward of 0.2%. That’s a pretty sizeable difference if you’re working with large orders.
Since AST is an ERC-20 based token, it can be stored both on the Ledger and Trezor.
Ledger
As for using the Nano Ledger S, the first step towards setting up your device is unboxing you device and checking if you have received all the accessories with the device. Once you have unboxed your device, you need to configure it and initialize it before being able to use it. The process is quite simple and will hardly take about 20-30 minutes post which you will be set to use your Ledger Nano S device. This video does a pretty good job at explaining how the setup works.
Trezor
As for Trezor, installing is really simple. To properly install it users should attach the unit to the computer. After that continue with installing the bridge which allows the Trezor to join with the computer. The first step is to connect the Trezor to device’s USB slot with the cable given in the box. After that, go to myTrezor.com and proceed with installing the browser extension. Trezor can also be used on Android or an iPhone, or on a Windows or Mac computer. Now, initiate the extension and myTrezor will direct you to pick a PIN. After this, you will notice nine buttons but the numbers are hidden. After this, users should check the Trezor’s screen to recognize which numbers are in which place because it switches every time. Now set the PIN. Shortly after, Trezor should present a 24-word wallet “seed”. In short, one word at a time. Note down this seed and save it carefully. If your Trezor device malfunctions or is lost, you can utilize the seed to reconstruct the complete wallet. This video explains how to set up your trezor quite well.
Exodus
First, we have Exodus, which supports a ton of other cryptocurrencies along with AST and is pretty straightforward and easy to use. Just download the app from the official site(exodus.io) and get straight into creating your wallet. Exodus stores your Private Keys on the machine you choose and not on any server, providing you with a relative peace of mind when it comes to the security of your coins.
Atomic Wallet
Another option is Atomic Wallet.
Atomic Wallet is a desktop wallet built with security, anonymity and decentralization in mind. Atomic Wallet was designed to leverage the potential of atomic swaps and become part of a fully-fledged decentralized cryptocurrency ecosystem. The “physical” wallet itself is a PC application that can be downloaded onto your computer. Your private keys and other data will then be stored on your PC in an encrypted form.
This means you hold your own keys, which are encrypted and kept only on your own device, control your own funds and can efficiently swap tokens without needing to go through a centralized exchange. This application then interacts with the blockchains of supported coins. For example, if you check your transaction history in the program, it looks it up on the blockchain and then shows it to you, rather than storing this potentially sensitive information somewhere.
AST is based on the Ethereum ERC-20 standard which means that all ERC-20 supporting wallets can house your AST. For an online-based wallet, we recommend MyEtherWallet. The wallet offers a brilliant combination of speed, trustworthiness and simplicity, making it the most popular online wallet for ether and any ERC20-based tokens.
MyEtherWallet
Simply visit myetherwallet.com and set up your wallet with a method of your choosing, just make sure to store your private key somewhere safe. It's wise to have it written down on paper in case your PC/notebook malfunctions.
The only downside to using an online wallet like MEW is that there are literally hundreds of phishing scams out there to get your eth, so you better double check the address everytime and make sure to watch out for any malicious activity on your browser or PC.
