IDEX : HOW GOOD IS IT?
The influx of people into the crypto space over the years has created a need for more exchange gateways. Many centralized exchanges(cex) sprang up. People trade their crypto assets on these cex that involves third party wallet holders and trade executioners. Users funds on these cex are held centrally making them prone or susceptible to theft and hacking. The crypto world has experienced many hacks over the years , about 1.1billion dollars was lost to hackers between january to may 2018 , the most infamous was the MT GOX hack, MT GOX lost about 1.35 million btc , which is roughly about 7billion dollars according to today's btc rate. Other popular exchanges such as poloniex ,bitfinex, bitgrail, bitstamp, coinrail and some more were also hacked resulting to tens of billions of dollars lost to hackers.
These hacks were made possible in most cases because users funds were centrally kept and managed by third party. Cex has always been vulnerable to these hack as a result of this, some of these hacks were sometimes even carried out with the aid of staffs working in these exchanges. These unfortunate happenings gave traders and the crypto world a lot of concern , leading to the invention of decentralized exchanges(dex).
Decentralized exchange is an exchange that is void of central account , exchange is open source and trades are carried out in a peer to peer manner while users holds their funds in their wallet. There are many popular dex currently like bitshares, waves, etherdelta, kyber network, omg, ox and lots more. But today, we are going to talk about one which I think is relatively best for me , IDEX
THE IDEX EXCHANGE
Idex is a decentralized exchange built on the ethereum blockchain, supporting erc20 tokens . Meaning you cant find btc or other main chain tokens there. Idex supportd the trade of over 300 tokens in a peer to peer environment using smart contracts to relay transactions on the ethereum blockchain. Idex acts as an intermediary that communicates transactions upon users command. 
Idex cannot access users fund until users signs the permission to do so. As a part of https://auroradao.com/ which is a collection of ethereum dapps(check out some dapps on https://www.stateofthedapps.com) and other protocols that makes up a dex trading platform, Idex parades as one of the big giants in the dex business after surpassing etherdelta in trade volume .
Idex boasts of a users interface that is simplified making it look like cex that trades in dex manner. With the integration of https://www.tradingview.com/ charts and encrypted wallets , Idex provides fast and simple trading atmosphere for traders. The exchange updates the account balance and order books in such a real time by broadcasting transaction on the ethereum blockchain through smart contract protocol.
WHY DEX
- zero fees on deposits and withdrawal of funds making it cheaper to use already
- provides support for a wide range of tokens ,one can say that almost all erc20 tokens can be traded on Idex
- a very easy to use interface, designed lie a cex but with dex features
- consist of a trading fee that allows makers and takers of trades to earn commission with aura tokens
- supports the use of hardware wallets like ledger,nano. All to increase storage safety
- Idex is globally accessible
- since it runs as a node on the ethereum blockchain,one can say Idex provides the security benefit ethereum can provide
- a fast response customer support teamat your disposal anytime, any day via email and telegram
HOW TO OPEN AN IDEX ACCOUNT
You can open an account in idex by signing up to https://idex.market/
This image pops out once you login
After exploring, you can now unlock your wallet either by importing an existing ethereum wallet or by creating a new one entirely
Idex provides 4 ways in which you can unlock your wallet
below is a guide on which choice to make in creating your wallet
Always remember to use strong passwords when creating your wallet, the use of hardware wallets is the safest in my opinion
IN CONCLUSION
The fact that it supports only erc20 token isn't a good one because it makes traders miss out on other good coins and tokens, imagine not trading bitcoin, monero, ripple, litecoin and so much more, lack of fiat integration is also disturbing. Idex can be a bit difficult to navigate and use as a newbie despite having made it user friendly as good as possible although being difficult to use is applicable to all dex, in general, idex seems better, i will love to see more coins introduced into idex- coins like btc, xmr, ltc, dash, xrp to attract more users and volumes. So far so good, Idex seems safe to me, security still uncompromised and interface not as complicated as other dex. I'll give Idex a 4.5/5 rating.
follow idex :
https://twitter.com/aurora_dao
https://www.reddit.com/r/auroradao/
https://discordapp.com/invite/UHAGGBz
follow author on https://www.linkedin.com/in/tochi-immanuel-9b56a2111/ and https://steemit.com/@tboyloyal
DISCLAIMER : Please do your own research before using any exchange, this is not a financial advice by any means