Uniswap

Every stock exchange depends on human market makers,traders standing between buyers and sellers, profiting on the spread. In twenty eighteen, Hayden Adams built a protocol where algorithms replaced humans entirely. Two smart contracts could facilitate any trade without a middleman taking a cut. This was the radical idea behind Uniswap, the decentralized exchange. Instead of manual order books, Uniswap used automated market making. Liquidity pools held token pairs. The algorithm set prices based on supply and demand. Anyone could become a market maker by depositing tokens and collecting fees. No permission. No gatekeepers. The system was transparent and open to the world.