Build on Balancer — Ep 1: CowSwap

Episode 1 of the Build On Balancer podcast features CowSwap — the MetaDEX Aggregator — and its relationship with Balancer.

Balancer Labs
Balancer Protocol
2 min readSep 19, 2022

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We are thrilled to share with the community that our first episode of Build On Balancer with CowSwap CEO Anna George is now live. DeFi is abundant with brilliant and talented teams using Balancer Protocol to #buidl cool sh*t. The Build on Balancer podcast series will highlight those teams and how they use the Protocol.

You can find the first episode below. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for new episodes which will be released bi-weekly.

Watch the first episode here

CowSwap is a MetaDEX aggregator. But what does the COW in CowSwap really stand for? COW comes from Coincidence of Wants, a phenomenon where two parties can exchange items directly without the aid of a third-party exchange. Think of people waiting in line at a currency exchange swapping between themselves instead of using the exchange. Users of CowSwap benefit from:

  • Gasless trades
  • MEV Protection
  • Best on-chain prices available
  • No gas fees charged for failed transactions

Users of the Balancer trade interface also benefit from these points, achieved through the Balancer-CowSwap-Protocol (BCP). The BCP uses CoW Solvers that integrate with the Balancer Vault to execute trades in batches. The solvers look for the optimal execution path for a trade to benefit the user.

Topics Covered

00:00–00:42 Welcome to Build on Balancer
00:42–02:41 Anna’s background
02:41–04:21 What is CowSwap? MetaDEX vs DEX Aggregators
04:21–06:22 What does the COW in CowSwap mean?
06:22–12:02 CowSwap and MEV Protection
12:02- 14:32 What is a CowSwap solver? How does someone become a solver?
14:32–18:20 The Balancer CowSwap Partnership (BCP Partnership) and its advantages
18:20–20:00 No gas for failed transactions
20:00–23:26 How can a DAO benefit from using CowSwap?
23:26–25:35 CowSwap’s roadmap

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Balancer Labs
Balancer Protocol

Balancer Labs contributes to Balancer Protocol — the leading platform for programmable liquidity.