# Concentrated liquidity

Uniswap v3  introduced concentrated liquidity. LPs no longer needed to always provide full-range liquidity, and as such the simple `xy = k` equation was not enough for most calculations. We ended up with more complex calculations - the specifics of which are not very relevant right now - to figure out things like output amounts and token ratios when adding liquidity.

But when we enable concentrated liquidity, and LPs must choose a "price range" where they're willing to add this liquidity, that implies that the curve must be finite now.

<figure><img src="https://1824764265-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FnAUvb5SJC61bSqvMZRtb%2Fuploads%2FbxE9jUnFNj3sQuvFKL59%2FUntitled.png?alt=media&#x26;token=6ce35087-a4bd-4fd1-aa51-c17f0f93ee7d" alt=""><figcaption><p>A real example from an ETH/USDC pool from Uniswap v3</p></figcaption></figure>

### Liquidity Spread

Going back to Uniswap v2 - since all LPs are adding full range liquidity over an infinite curve - the liquidity is spread something like the following diagram.

<figure><img src="https://1824764265-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FnAUvb5SJC61bSqvMZRtb%2Fuploads%2F5oArDG1QPRQoU3WTt2b3%2FUntitled%20(1).png?alt=media&#x26;token=db310def-c8f8-497a-89d9-8a2d782c6a3e" alt=""><figcaption><p>Full spread</p></figcaption></figure>

A flat amount of liquidity available throughout the curve regardless of what price tokens are currently trading at.

In v3, however, the liquidity is spread around more like this:

<figure><img src="https://1824764265-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FnAUvb5SJC61bSqvMZRtb%2Fuploads%2FYGPhjSHc3fdmnF8j8nba%2Ff5caa1eb-84fc-4517-b998-c27afc9b16ab.png?alt=media&#x26;token=afabdac4-ece2-4057-b5ef-fb4e931406bc" alt=""><figcaption><p>An example of 3 liquidity positions at different price spreads</p></figcaption></figure>

The LPs choose a "price range" where they add their liquidity. These "liquidity buckets" can overlap with each other, increasing the total amount of liquidity available with a subsection of their price ranges - and can be non-overlapping as well. These overlaps cause the spikes in liquidity what you saw on Fig.1

## Tl;dr

Since we don't need to spread all our liquidity across all price ranges, we can have more liquidity around the current prices that accrue more fees since the distribution of fees don't happen to all LPers on every transaction.
