Uniswap is an automated liquidity protocol; it allows anyone with an Ethereum wallet to exchange tokens without the involvement of any central party. The Uniswap protocol was created by Hayden Adams in 2018.
There is no order book or any centralized party needed to make trades. Uniswap works with a model that involves liquidity providers creating liquidity pools. Any ERC-20 token can be launched as long as there is a liquidity pool available for traders.
Uniswap token (UNI)
Uniswap (UNI) is the native token of the Uniswap protocol, and provides its holders with governance rights; UNI holders can vote on changes to the protocol. 1 billion UNI tokens have been minted at the beginning. 60% of those are distributed to existing Uniswap community members, and the other 40% will be made available to team members, investors, and advisors. Community members are the Ethereum addresses that have interacted with Uniswap.