I've recently spent a lot of time running trades on Helix, Injective's flagship DEX. My immediate impression is that it's nothing like the DEXs we're used to. It doesn't have an AMM pool, no slippage, and the interface shows candlestick charts on the left, an order book on the right, and "limit orders," "market orders," and "take profit/stop loss" options at the bottom. Isn't this just like Binance or OKX? But it's definitely 100% on-chain.
This kind of "on-chain order book" DEX is actually a long-held dream in the industry, but it hasn't been successful before, either because it's too slow or the gas fees are too expensive (placing and canceling orders both cost money). My research shows that Injective's success relies mainly on two "cheating" methods. First, its own L1 performance: a block speed of 0.64 seconds and almost zero gas fees make the high-frequency actions of "placing" and "canceling" orders feasible. Second, its "Frequent Batch Auctions" (FBA) mechanism. The key is the FBA mechanism. It doesn't match each transaction as it arrives; instead, it collects all buy and sell orders within a very short time (e.g., a block) and processes them in batches at a uniform settlement price. The biggest advantage of this mechanism is its protection against MEV (Mean Equity Default). Front-running bots that work well in AMM pools are essentially useless in Helix because they can't predict the final settlement price and can't profit by jumping the queue. This is a huge benefit for professional traders.
Of course, its disadvantages are also obvious. First, liquidity. Unlike AMMs, the order book model doesn't allow anyone to "mindlessly" inject liquidity. It requires professional market makers to provide depth, resulting in poor liquidity for many smaller, long-tail cryptocurrencies. I tried several smaller coins, and the bid-ask spreads were alarmingly large. Second, user habits. Users accustomed to Uniswap's "one-click exchange" might not want to understand the complex order book.
Helix isn't designed for everyone. It sacrifices the simplicity of AMMs for a professional trading experience and MEV resistance. It's more like a "decentralized backup" for CEX traders. If you're a professional user accustomed to CEX interfaces and have a strong preference for on-chain self-custody of funds, Helix is almost the optimal solution currently available. However, for DeFi beginners, the barrier to entry is still a bit high.
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