The Challenge

Properly rendering NFT media is difficult

There is no standard for NFT media, which range from still images to animations, audio files, video files and even complex HTML. Even if an application supports most media types, it must constantly monitor for edge cases that might require specialized handling. On top of that, NFT media can change after reveals — and failing to account for this results in poor experiences for end users.

Uniswap has a lot of competing priorities — but cannot afford to provide a lackluster experience

Uniswap plays in a very competitive market. It cannot afford to load NFT media slowly, fail to support certain media types, or serve outdated media. However, supporting all of this in-house would require significant overhead and engineering resources — a daunting challenge for a protocol with many other competing priorities.

Solution

3.is provides an easy-to-use renderer that solves Uniswap's problem. Uniswap can simply ping the 3.is API with the address and token ID, and we take care of the rest — providing instant access to the NFT's media. 3.is provides support for all of the tricky problems that Uniswap would otherwise have to solve in-house:

  • Lightning-fast load times: Media served through the 3.is API loads in milliseconds
  • Complex file types: 3.is supports animations, audio files and video files
  • Reveal tracking: Proprietary methods for detecting metadata reveals ensure that Uniswap is always serving the freshest media

Results

  • Uniswap saves time and money — no investment of time or money required to maintain support for NFT rendering, stay up-to-date on edge cases and troubleshoot issues that may arise
  • Uniswap supports complex media types, including animations, audio and video
  • 3.is renders millions of NFTs per month at https://app.uniswap.org/nftswith lightning-fast load times (<75ms p95 response times)