Uniswap Revitalization and Growth Proposal

Forum thread Temperature checks Post-Temp check post

TLDR

Uniswap v3 utilized its first mover advantage and achieved dominance on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Optimism, and Polygon, but on more recent EVM chains has seen limited market share growth.

The goal of this proposal is to take Uniswap on the offensive by actively supporting and incentivizing new deployments of Uniswap v3. If successful, we will be able to grow Uniswap's market share and increase the amount of volume growing through protocol-owned deployments rather than leaving the opportunity for more Uni V3 forks to grab market share.

To put Uniswap back in the driver's seat, this proposal creates an Onboarding Package that the DAO can proactively deploy to new EVMs and invite EVMs to seek out official Uniswap v3 deployments.

How can we increase Uniswap’s market share?

• By supporting the latest emerging EVM chains and securing Uniswap a dominant position early
  • For example, Monad, Linea, Scroll, Polygon zkEVM, Bera, Taiko, etc
• By further investing in current deployments where Uniswap is not a dominant player
  • For example, Binance Smart Chain, zkSync, Base, etc

Since Uniswap v3 launched, little has been done to drive the growth of any Uniswap v3 deployments outside of Polygon, Optimism, and Arbitrum. Of which, each strongly benefited from early mover advantages. Today, there are 13 deployments of Uniswap v3. Many of the new deployments are newer chains that, while today, don’t have the usage seen on Arbitrum, Polygon, or Optimism, one or multiple of them will likely grow to be as big or bigger.

On each of these deployments, Uniswap is currently the underdog. We’re competing against Uniswap v3 & v2 forks and other concentrated liquidity protocols, which often have more focused resources for marketing and distribution than Uniswap and often boast close relationships with the chain’s team.

The good news is these chains are still generally nascent. So, if Uniswap acts quickly, it can take the lead spot and likely hold it thanks to its robust ecosystem of tooling and support.

Introducing the Onboarding Package

It is high time we made getting Uniswap v3 on new EVMs easy. The package covers everything from deployment of contracts, data infrastructure, user interface, liquidity incentives, and tooling to distribute the incentives. With this package, the Uniswap DAO can go live on new EVM chains significantly faster.

GFX Labs will handle the deployment of Uniswap v3 core and peripheral contracts, verifying the contracts, making data available to other ecosystem projects and players via the Oku API, and integrating the deployment into the Oku trade and analytics interface. Angle Merkl will handle the distribution of UNI rewards.

Lastly, the Uniswap Accountability Committee will escrow the funds in their multisig for the packages.

Liquidity Incentives

Liquidity incentives will range between $250k and $1m and be voted in on a Temperature Check. Incentives will be distributed in UNI over three months. Once the three months are completed, delegates should look at the remaining liquidity and Uniswap's market share position to gauge the program's success. Overall, the program is meant get Uniswap's foot in the door and secure a stronger brand position on the chain.

The package will target 3-5 pools. Generally, mainstays like ETH/USDC, ETH/BTC, USDC/USDT, and one or two key local pairs. For example, MATIC/ETH on Polygon.

Pricing

• For Oku to support a new chain, it’s $45k for the initial integration and $5k/month for 12 months. This covers deploying the contracts, getting the new chain onto the frontend, the Oku API (free), our onchain limit order functionality, our cloud costs for hosting the API, our global system for quoting, node requests, and DevOps maintenance.
  • Oku currently supports 11 chains. Any of the current chains or chains that we're already in the process of adding to the frontend do not necessitate an additional cost. Oku only charges for new deployments requested by the DAO.
• Angle Merkl has a one-time setup fee of €20k for going to a chain that they do not support. For chains they do support, but don't have Uniswap configured for the have a one-time setup fee of €10k. Supported chains
  • Merkl charges 3% on funds distributed using their tool. They have offered a 25% discount on their base 3% fee for incentives distributed between $2.5m-$5m, a 50% discount on incentives distributed between $5m-$10m, and a 75% discount on all incentives above $10m in a 365-day period.

First round of Onboarding Packages

The initial Temperature Checks ended two weeks ago. For links to them, go here. For the Post-Temp check summary, go here.

This onchain proposal funds the following Onboarding Packages. For pool and allocation info click here.

1. Linea: $250k (w/Oku + Merkl)
2. Scroll: $250k (w/Merkl)
3. Polygon zkEVM: $250k (w/Merkl - UniV3 only)
4. zkSync: $500k (w/Merkl)
5. Blast: $500k (w/Oku + Merkl)
6. Base: $500k (w/Merkl)
7. BSC: $1m (w/Merkl)
8. Mantle: $250k (w/Oku + Merkl)

Based on a UNI price of $7.42 and a EUR/USD price of $1.08, the image below shows the investment the DAO will make by approving this proposal.

The Uniswap Accountability Committee Multisg will receive the UNI, and Oku/GFX and the Angle team will work closely with them to get the infrastructure setup and incentives rolling on each of these chains.

Conclusion

If this proposal is approved, when a new chain wants a deployment, we can offer this package and roll it out as part of the governance proposal. This would end the current status of rubber-stamping deployment proposals and provide a reason for new chains to seek the support of Uniswap governance proactively.

Uniswap could quickly take the lead on 5-10 chains through this initiative. If one of these chains grows into a major player (like Arb/Op/Poly), it will have paid for the entire program multiple times over (assuming the fee switch is someday turned).

Providing a modest onboarding package helps Uniswap diversify and develop new markets without waiting to see which chains become long-term relevant - at which point it is often too late or too costly to get market share.