Thoughts on AMMs and how they aren't decentralized
Pancake Swap's team controls 10 billion dollars in funds. Who are they? What if they decided to act against the interest of Cake holders? I mostly trust Binance but supposedly the relationship between Pancake Binance Chain and Binance is not so tight.
As I waited patiently for Pancakeswap to burn tokens last night a thought occurred to me. I was probably waiting on a person to do a transaction. What if this person didn't do the transaction? What if their whole team was unavailable. There are about 10 billion dollars staked at PancakeSwap and they are emmitting about 10 million dollars per day. Who is they? I always assumed that Binance Smart Chain was backed by Binance and that Pancake Swap was backed by Binance but maybe not.
They are anonymous developers. How do we know that they are altruistic. Many tokens tell you to look at the code if you have any questions. I am not concerned about the code. I am concerned about manual decisions that the Pancakeswap team seems to make.
I would like to see the protocol automated and for Cake holders to vote on resolutions. If a new version of Pancake Swap comes out with enough liquidity and it is run by the people for the people, I think I would be compelled to switch.
I believe there are other AMM like Kyber that are actually governed by the Kyber stakers. I can't say that for certain but I am pretty sure there is a model out there that doesn't rely on a few men on a cell phone making billion dollar decisions. While I don't totally trust Chase or Citibank, I do understand the rules that they play by. When it comes to Defi, I understand the limits of what is possible and I rely on people not just contracts to have integrity and do what's best for their token.
My new mission is to find a truly decentralized version of Pancake Swap that has great rates and trust factor and an automated burn system. If you know what that is and still has a great yield, please make a comment.
PancakeSwap and Uniswap are decentralized exchanges (DEXs) that are built on top of the Ethereum blockchain and Smart Chain blockchain respectively. They allow users to buy and sell cryptocurrencies using smart contracts, rather than relying on a central authority or intermediaries to facilitate transactions.
An automated market maker (AMM) is a type of algorithm that is used to facilitate trades on DEXs like PancakeSwap and Uniswap. An AMM maintains a liquidity pool of assets and uses a predetermined formula to determine the price of a trade based on the supply and demand of the assets being traded. AMMs do not require a central authority or intermediaries to facilitate trades, and they can operate 24/7 without the need for manual intervention.
One of the main benefits of AMMs is that they can provide more liquidity and faster trading speeds than traditional exchanges, as they do not rely on a centralized order book to match buyers and sellers. However, it is worth noting that AMMs are not without risks, as they can be vulnerable to liquidity attacks, frontrunning, and other types of market manipulation.
As for whether AMMs are safer than centralized exchanges, it depends on the specific context and the risks and vulnerabilities of each platform. Centralized exchanges may be more vulnerable to cyber attacks, as they rely on a central authority to hold and manage user funds. However, decentralized exchanges and AMMs may be more vulnerable to liquidity attacks and other forms of market manipulation. It is important for users to carefully evaluate the risks and vulnerabilities of any platform before using it and to take appropriate precautions to protect their assets.