How to use Carbonswap

Carbonswap is a decentralized exchange running on the Energy Web Chain, a low-carbon, low-fee, Ethereum-compatible blockchain. Trading is straightforward once everything is in place, but some setup is required. Documentation is available here, but this guide will show you step-by-step with screenshots.

1. Acquire and install an Ethereum-compatible wallet
2. Connect the wallet to the Energy Web Chain
3. Move assets to the Energy Web Chain
4. Acquire Energy Web Tokens to pay for transactions
5. Trade!

Setting up a wallet

There are several wallet options available — Metamask is a popular one. Setup is outside the scope of this guide, but documentation is available on the wallet sites themselves. Metamask will be used for the rest of this guide, but other wallets will have similar steps.

Connecting to the Energy Web Chain

As the Energy Web Chain is not directly connected to the Ethereum main network blockchain, the wallet needs to know how to talk to it.

Open the wallet and click the dropdown where it says “Ethereum Mainnet”

and select ‘Custom RPC’ from the dropdown.

Enter the details for the Energy Web Chain:

and click ‘Save’.

Select it from the dropdown — the wallet is now connected to the Energy Web Chain.

Moving assets to the Energy Web Chain

In order to trade on Carbonswap, your assets need to be on the Energy Web Chain, not the Ethereum main network. There are two ways to get them moved over:

1. Purchase Energy Web Tokens on a centralized exchange.
2. Use a bridge between Ethereum and the Energy Web Chain

Purchase Energy Web Tokens

This is by far the simplest option — on a centralized exchange that supports the Energy Web Token, purchase Energy Web Token and withdraw it to your wallet address. The same wallet address can be used on both the Ethereum chain and the Energy Web Chain, but be sure to withdraw from the exchange to the Energy Web Chain.

Use a bridge

There is a bridge between chains available from Carbonswap at https://bridge.carbonswap.exchange/bridge. The direction you are moving funds depends on the chain that is selected in your wallet — to move from Ethereum to EWC, for example, select Ethereum in your wallet

and allow it to connect to your wallet.

Select the token you would like to transfer and enter the balance

then click ‘Unlock’ to approve the transaction, then click ‘Transfer’. Note that this will incur potentially substantial fees and require ETH to pay for them. After confirmation, your assets are available on the Energy Web Chain.

Acquire Energy Web Tokens to pay for transactions

Ethereum networks require payment for transactions in a special currency, also known as ‘gas’. On the Ethereum main network this is the Ethereum token, or ETH, on the Energy Web Chain the token required is the Energy Web Token, or EWT.

If you have not purchased EWT on a centralized exchange (option 1 above), you will need to acquire EWT. Because small amounts of EWT are sufficient to pay for many transactions on the Energy Web Chain, Carbonswap provides a site, known as a ‘faucet’, that offers fractions of an EWT for free if you have used the bridge (option 2 above) to move your assets: https://faucet.carbonswap.exchange/.

Open your wallet and click the address (the 0x82E1… below) to copy it:

and paste it in the box on the site

and click ‘Request’.

Trade!

Open the Carbonswap exchange page and connect your wallet. Make sure the Energy Web Chain is selected in your wallet.

Select ‘Swap’ from the top menu and choose the token and amount you want to trade.

and click ‘Swap’. The trade has been executed and the token balances will be reflected in your wallet.