Uniswap is about to “turn on the switch.” with Hayden Adams
Show notes
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams joins us right as the UNIfication (Unification) proposal has moved to a final governance vote—a sweeping plan from Uniswap Labs + the Uniswap Foundation that would activate protocol fees, introduce a programmatic UNI burn, and realign how value accrues across the Uniswap ecosystem. We go deep on what’s actually inside the proposal (and what isn’t), why this moment feels like the end of one DeFi era and the start of another, and how years of “regulation by enforcement” shaped Uniswap’s product decisions—down to Hayden’s firsthand experience with debanking, legal pressure, and the chilling effect on builders. What we coverWhy UNIfication is being pitched as a once-in-a-cycle reset for UniswapThe real mechanics of the fee switch(es) (plural) and how the “token jar” burn design worksThe perceived tension between UNI token holders vs. equity/VC value capture and whether this vote changes thatWhy Uniswap wants to shift from “best frontend” to protocol-first infrastructure (APIs, ecosystem engineering, aggregator hooks)How Unichain fits into the broader strategy—and what “near-free trading” could mean in practiceGovernance backlash: is Uniswap becoming more centralized or more decentralized?Context: the vote is live! Hayden shared that the UNIfication proposal is now in the final governance vote stage.Subscribe for more founder-level conversations at the intersection of DeFi, regulation, and market structure.
Guests
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