What Is IDEX (IDEX)?

IDEX is a hybrid liquidity decentralized exchange (DEX) that combines a high-performance orderbook and matching engine with an automated market maker (AMM). Orderbook refers to a list of orders for a specific asset organized by price level. The platform blends the advantages of centralized and decentralized exchanges with the performance and characteristics of a traditional orderbook and the liquidity and security of an AMM. IDEX permits traders to obtain the best practices, prevent failed transactions, while providing liquidity, all with the power of actual limit and stop-loss orders. IDEX operates on the Polygon blockchain, supporting MATIC and ERC-20 assets. 

The three important aspects of the platform are high-performance exchange, hybrid liquidity, and smart contracts. The high-performance exchange component is analogous to that on top of centralized exchanges. This design allows IDEX to match centralized exchanges in latency and performance that are unavailable from other DEXs.Further, the IDEX Hybrid Liquidity (IDEX HL) incorporates a traditional orderbook and matching engine with AMM liquidity pools. So, traders are seamlessly matched against the most suitable combination of limit orders and pool liquidity for low-cost execution without any additional efforts. IDEX HL relies on smart contracts to handle security and trade settlement, enforcing the constraints of the AMM pricing curve and enabling users to manage custody of their assets. 

Next, the IDEX smart contract contains three settlement processes employed in various circumstances depending on the type of liquidity being matched. The IDEX smart contracts bring programmatic guarantees to the platform. So, IDEX utilizes a series of smart contracts to decentralize fund custody and trade settlement by introducing such novel DeFi mechanisms.

About the economics of the token, the IDEX token aligns rewards between the exchange and IDEX token stakers who play a vital role in the operations of IDEX. Stakers are rewarded with half (50%) of the trade fees for their participation.

Stakingnodes keep a real-time record of system data. This reduces the IDEX's operational cost by offloading popular API (application programming interface) operations. Staking nodes are evaluated by their uptime to determine their performance. Uptime is a function of API performance and online sessions.

IDEX tokens should be placed as collateral to act as nodes and receive payment for node operations. In the event of serving incorrect data, the respective node address will be blacklisted, and the operator must re-incubate their tokens. IDEX staking allows for “riskless” staking from cold storage as no slashing mechanism is involved.

The governance contract manages the upgrade process. The contract contains the logic and constraints for changing the exchange and governance contract addresses within the custodian. This enables changing both the exchange features and governance process without requiring users to migrate funds from the custodian contract.

History of IDEX

Alex Wearn and Philip Wearn cofounded IDEX.

Alex has led product development and software teams at Adobe, Amazon, IBM, and other industry-leading tech companies. With a dual MBA in finance and operations and MS in design and innovation from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management, Alex specializes in leading operations, marketing, and sales analytics for cutting-edge software products. Before joining Aurora, he led a product management team to re-platform their application to operate on a private Ethereum blockchain.

Philip Wearn also cofounded EtherEx. He also served as an account specialist in Janus Capital Group. Philip has completed his bachelor's degree in aerospace from Virginia Tech.

How to Earn IDEX

One can earn IDEX by running nodes on the main network by staking and validating transactions.