The App Store of Ethereum is Powered by Tokens

Published in

Fluidity

4 min readJun 21, 2018

The term “consumer web” was coined to make a distinction between consumer and business applications on the web. Likewise, a distinction has emerged between consumer and security tokens on the blockchain — but the nature of consumer tokens forces us to rethink the token trading experience altogether.

Blockchain assets can represent the authenticity and ownership of anything, including securities like stocks and real estate. While this is incredibly compelling, there’s something new in assets that lend holders a license, a right to participate, or a way to consume value on a decentralized network.

In the last year, development teams around the world have launched new networks for everything from managing advertising domains to facilitating bounties, all based on the utility of their respective consumer tokens. Often these tokens are only available for purchase on “exchanges” with investment-like features such as order books and price charts. Many of these are centralized and custodial, leaving them vulnerable to insider abuse and manipulation, and increasingly widespread hacks, loss, and theft.

An App Store for Ethereum

In the past, a friendly and safe model emerged when the consumer web moved to mobile: the Apple App Store offered an integrated shopping experience and in-app purchases.

An exciting piece of the AirSwap marketplace launch was the introduction of an embeddable, responsive widget that provides decentralized trading functionality to any web application on any Ethereum-enabled browser, desktop, or mobile. Today, we are re-introducing this as “in-app trading” and will soon be rolling out a new destination at www.airswap.io that suits the needs of both consumer token networks and their communities.

The power of decentralized trade

AirSwap is not just a marketplace, but a secure consumer token trading network that can only exist with a truly decentralized peer-to-peer protocol. When you buy and sell on AirSwap, you’re doing so with others around the world, wallet-to-wallet, between a buyer, a seller, and a smart contract. No friction, no custody, no fees.

Peer-to-peer embraces the power of blockchain — and is the only trading experience that suits the consumer token phenomenon. AirSwap aims to become the App Store of Ethereum, powered by tokens.

Ethereum Apps on AirSwap today

Several Ethereum applications and networks have already launched tokens and have integrated in-app trading with AirSwap. Many more are on the horizon, and we are excited to work with the best teams in the ecosystem to help them bring their tokens to life.

Developers: Publish your app and use in-app trading

If you’ve launched a consumer token and have a live product, we welcome you to publish to AirSwap and integrate in-app trading. Integrating the trading widget is as easy as dropping in a line of JavaScript and opening with a button click. Check out the integration documentation.

We showcase full integrations, and will work with your team to provide a smooth trading experience and ensure that buyers will be able to find sellers. Join the AirSwap Developers group on Telegram for support anytime.

Market makers: Buy and sell consumer tokens

AirSwap was built from the ground up with market makers in mind. We’ve published Swap Protocol clients for both JavaScript and Python, with quick start guides coming soon. For full support and help getting started, reach us at liquidity@airswap.io or join the AirSwap Developers group.

We look forward to working with you and developing an ecosystem that serves the unique potential of consumer tokens with an equally unique trading experience. Join our community of developers, traders, and everyday consumers coming together to create something that hasn’t been seen before.

About AirSwap

AirSwap enables peer-to-peer trading on the Ethereum blockchain. Built on a decentralized protocol, traders can add or remove liquidity through a suite of trustless products that are easy to use and free. Our mission is to empower the world with frictionless trade.