• Uniswap Labs is readying to launch the fourth iteration of its platform, v4, and is offering $2.35 million in the largest prize pool in DeFi history.
• Applicants will help Uniswap independently review its v4smart contracts and Universal Router System, which facilitates ERC-20 swaps.

Uniswap Labs, the company behind the leading decentralized crypto exchange, has announced the largest prize pool in the DeFi ecosystem.

The $2.35 million prize pool is available to developers who participate in the independent review of its upcoming fourth iteration, better known as v4. The Uniswap Foundation, whose mission is to build a self-sustaining community for the Uniswap Protocol, and Cantina, a Web3 security platform, also contributed to the prize.

In its announcement, Uniswap revealed that the competition kicks off on September 4 and runs for three weeks. All security experts and general enthusiasts are welcome to submit any vulnerabilities they discover in the v4 codebase, whose draft code founder Hayden Adams released to the public in June last year.

Uniswap will grant rewards based on the severity of a developer’s bug. The competition focuses on the v4 Core Repository, the v4 Periphery Repository, and the Universal Router. The latter is an ERC20 and NFT swap router that gives users flexibility across multiple tokens. It allows users to purchase NFTs across eight marketplaces, wrap and unwrap ETH, fill trades partially, split trades, and more.

The new competition will be posted on Cantina’s Competition Page in September. Cantina conducts competitions for developers to find bugs in blockchain and crypto applications. Its most recent one was completed in June for Euler v2, awarding developers $1.2 million in USDC. Others have included Blast, Curvance, Aave, Centrifuge, Eigenlayer, and the Venus Protocol.

The Uniswap v4

Uniswap’s v4 is expected to launch later this year. With every new iteration, the DEX introduces new features to enhance user experience. With v2, it launched liquidity pools, while v3 brought concentrated liquidity.

v4’s new features will include ‘hooks,’ which the DEX describes as smart contracts that can be attached to liquidity pools. It also comes with a Singleton contract, which consolidates all pools into one contract, cutting down on gas fees. Unlimited fee tiers, native Ether support, and the Flash accounting system are among the other innovative features.

As with all its other developments, Uniswap involves its community in every step of the v4 journey.

“Uniswap V4 emphasizes a community-driven approach to development and innovation. Since its code release, there has been active community engagement, with many issues, pull requests, and unique feature ideas contributed by users. The protocol is designed to encourage innovation, allowing the global community to shape the future of AMMs,” the protocol states in one of its updates.

UNI trades at $6.15, shedding 4% for a $3.688 billion market cap in the past day.