Reactor

Given recent events, I think now might be a good time for someone to launch a dark pool perp DEX. I have always been puzzled with the fact that everyone can see your orders in real-time on a DEX. The problem is worse on a perp DEX where there are liquidations. Even with a CEX order book, where orders aren't linked to a specific individual, if you're looking to purchase $1 billion worth of a coin, you generally wouldn't want others to notice your order until it's completed. Otherwise, people might try to buy before you, effectively front-running you. In the case of a DEX, this can lead to MEV attacks. This results in increased slippage, worse prices, and higher costs for you. For this reason, the large traders in TradFi use dark pools, which are often 10 times bigger than the “lit pools" (ie, normal orderbooks). For perps (or futures), it is even more important to not let others know/see your orders. If others can see your liquidation point, they could try to push the market to liquidate you. Even if you got a billion dollars, others can gang up on you. This was possibly what we have seen recently. The counter argument I have seen is that being more transparent allows market makers to absorb your large orders. This is possibly true. I won’t get into an argument on which is right or wrong. Different traders may prefer different types of markets. Now might be a good opportunity for someone to launch an on-chain dark pool style DEX + perps, either by not showing the orderbook, or even better not showing deposits into smart contracts at all, or until much later. This should be doable with ZK or similar encryptions. Just a Sunday idea. If you are building such a project, feel free to reach me on reachme.io/@cz_binance. No guarantees I will invest, or even reply. 🙏