A Simple Guide to Totle, the ERC20 DEX Aggregator

Here on CoinGecko, we’ve done reviews on a number of decentralized exchanges such as Switcheo, Ethfinex, AirSwap, and ForkDelta. With the exception of Switcheo, all of these decentralized exchanges specifically cater to Ethereum and its associated ERC20 tokens, which is in line with the overall decentralized exchange landscape.

This can create somewhat of a problem; you might find yourself having too many accounts with too many decentralized exchanges. Since decentralized exchanges on average have lower trading volumes compared to their centralized cousins, many people have accounts on a few decentralized exchanges in order to get more liquidity

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had one central hub from which you could access most of the ERC20 decentralized exchanges out there?

That’s exactly what Totle is for. Totle is a new platform (it is still in its public beta phase that was released in early-June 2018) that connects to various ERC20 decentralized exchanges and allows you to easily trade ERC20 tokens through its central interface. This guide will cover how Totle works, its features, and how to use it.

How Does Totle Work?

Totle basically acts as a trader on various decentralized exchanges, only it is a trader that executes trades on behalf of its users. Think of Totle as an order-relayer. This capability is enabled using various smart contracts. Its smart contract architecture is laid out in diagrammatic form below. You can also see the technical details of these smart contracts on their GitHub page.

What’s important for users to know however, is that Totle will never hold users’ funds. Users are able to trade directly from their wallets, which is important for the security-conscious crowd which gravitate toward decentralized exchanges in the first place.

But how safe are these smart contracts? Totle has shared that a reputable blockchain firm is currently performing an independent audit on these smart contracts. The audit results are planned to be released in October 2018, the same time that Totle moves out of its public beta phase.

Which Decentralized Exchanges Does Totle Connect to?

As at the time of this writing, Totle only connects to six decentralized exchanges. They are:

• EtherDelta / ForkDelta
• Kyber Network
• Bancor Network
• Radar Relay
• Shark Relay
• AirSwap

CoinGecko currently provides trading volume data on the first four of those exchanges. Based on that data, these four exchanges would have a daily trading volume of about $4.5 million, ranking at about #78 among almost 200 exchanges. Not too bad, and this is isn’t taking into account Shark Relay, AirSwap, and future decentralized exchanges that will be added to Totle.

Setting Up an Account on Totle

Totle’s interface is entirely web-based and can be accessed at app.totle.com. From there you have three options to log in, using your MetaMask, your Ledger, or your Trezor. For this guide, I will be using MetaMask.

After signing in to your MetaMask account and clicking the button above, you should see Totle’s main interface. Note that you do not have to create a separate password for Totle; it automatically connects to whichever wallet you selected.

If you want to use Totle on mobile, the only option available at the moment is via the TrustWallet app, which is on both Android and iOS. This is a brand-new partnership which was only launched in August 2018. 

As you can see, Totle’s interface is pretty basic and uncluttered. It also functions as a simple portfolio manager, displaying the breakdown of tokens in your wallet as well your wallet’s portfolio performance. Before Totle launched its public beta trading feature, it started out as a crypto portfolio manager; now it does both. You can track your portfolio’s value in either USD, EUR, BTC, or ETH.

Trading on Totle

To begin trading, click on the ‘Trade’ tab. Select a token from your list of tokens and then click on it. This will bring up the prices, available markets, and aggregated order book on the right hand of the screen.

In this case, I have selected my PowerLedger tokens, and you can see that Totle now pulls in the order books from all of its connected decentralized exchanges to form an aggregated order book. Totle uses a slider function to add or subtract from your ERC20 token allocation. The reason why ether does not have a similar slider is because it is the native currency; if I wanted to have more ETH for instance, I would reduce the amount of PowerLedger and use it to buy ETH.

In this case I already had PowerLedger in my MetaMask wallet. If I only had ETH, I would have to click the ‘Add Token’ button to select an ERC20 token to buy with my ETH. Let’s say I choose to add Civic.

You might also notice the small ‘Selling Disabled’ sign at the top right corner of the screen. Before you can trade any tokens, you’ll have to unlock said tokens on MetaMask. Just click on the ‘Selling Disabled’ sign. You’ll have to confirm this on MetaMask (or whatever wallet you signed in with).

For this guide, I’m going to sell all of my PowerLedger tokens in return for ETH. Meaning I’ll set the slider all the way to zero.

Once you move the sliders, Totle conveniently adjusts your future allocation for you. If I had increased my Civic allocation instead, that would also have been reflected. Here’s an example.

If you messed up, just click ‘Reset Allocations’ to go back. Otherwise, click Next.

As you can see, Totle allows you to combine all the relevant buying and selling transactions that you need to restructure your portfolio in a certain way with one simple click. Hypothetically, if I had a larger wallet balance, I could have bought a dozen different ERC20 tokens (and sold a dozen tokens that I already had) just by adjusting the relevant sliders and clicking a couple buttons.

In any case, as mentioned earlier, for this guide I’m going to do something much more basic; selling all my PowerLedger tokens for ETH.

After you click Submit Transaction, you’ll have to confirm it on your MetaMask (or whichever) wallet. And that’s it! My wallet portfolio is now 100% ETH, you will be able to see your transactions in the Recent Activity box at the bottom left of the screen.

What About Totle’s Fees?

At the time of this writing, as Totle is still in its public beta phase, there are no transaction fees. But you will still have to pay the fee that the decentralized exchange that executes your transactions. At the moment, Totle has not shared how much its fees are going to be once the public beta phase is over. However, Totle will always display the gas fee, the decentralized exchange fee, and its own fee in the confirmation page prior to the transaction being executed.

Does Totle Offer Support?

Right now, Totle has a simple FAQ page for easy reference as well as support chat functionality via Intercom.

Conclusion: Totle Makes Managing Your Crypto Portfolio a Breeze

If you hold a lot of smaller ERC20 tokens in your portfolio (e.g. you invest in a lot of ICOs) then you know that managing them all can be a pain. Not only is there the plain inconvenience of having to manually log on to each decentralized exchange, there is also the difficulty of managing and rebalancing your overall portfolio.

Totle solves all that. By combining the portfolio rebalancing functions with its trading on an intuitive interface, you will be able to easily manage your portfolio with a few clicks of the button. The only unknown factor at this point in time is the amount of fees that Totle will charge once its beta phase is over. However, provided that the fee amount is reasonable, the convenience that Totle provides should be more than worth it.