5 ms·

Etheropt, a decentralized options exchange built on Ethereum

134 points by frenchhoudini 11y ago

BWStearns 11y ago
This is awesome! I've been wondering when we were going to see some of these DAOs come online. (Assuming OP is author or author is reading) Have you written up/do you have any resources on writing a smart contract like this?
- sneezeplease 11y ago
  Seconded, very cool stuff
- frenchhoudini 11y ago
  I am the author, and I think the best way to get started is by looking at existing contracts, which are generally written in Solidity, Ethereum's language for writing smart contracts. Here are a few examples that I found helpful: - https://github.com/etherpot/contract/blob/master/app/contracts/lotto.sol https://github.com/etherpot/contract/blob/master/app/contrac... - https://etherdice.io/#contract https://etherdice.io/#contract - https://ethereumpyramid.com/contract.html https://ethereumpyramid.com/contract.html - And of course the main docs, http://solidity.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ http://solidity.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ (see also https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Solidity-Features https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Solidity-Features) Once you have a smart contract, it's a good idea to provide some interface to help people interact with it. There are a number of JS libraries to help you interact with Ethereum available at https://github.com/ethereumjs https://github.com/ethereumjs.
  - kwikiel 11y ago
    Please contact me using my email address or kwikiel at Gmail. I would like to ask you few question about feasibility and technical complexity of creating things on the ethereum
  - DennisP 11y ago
    Once Ethereum's gas price adjustment is operating, what would you think of an option contract that uses the gas price data instead of an external feed?
  - xavieryvez 11y ago
    Adding a couple more, i.e. 3 of mine - tried to comment thoroughly. https://github.com/thelooneyfarm/contracts https://github.com/thelooneyfarm/contracts In my experience it is not that much of an uphill battle to start, it is quite similar to the stuff devs do in their normal dayjob.
jboggan 11y ago
Very interesting, I hope you are not in the United States. I doubt the CFTC would take too kindly to this especially since they are binary options. Good luck!
- GigabyteCoin 11y ago
  From the intro: >Etheropt has no owner. Its entire operation is described and executed by an Ethereum smart contract.
  - jboggan 11y ago
    That smart contract was written by a person and they should realize that there might be legal repercussions in the US at least. I have a great interest in this space (I started a failed cryptocurrency options exchange myself) and I hope that it blossoms. I would like to see regular puts and calls instead of binary options, the latter is ill-suited for hedging and really just a speculative instrument.
    - GigabyteCoin 11y ago
      >That smart contract was written by a person and they should realize that there might be legal repercussions in the US at least. Satoshi Nakamoto created the world's most powerful cryptocurrency and nobody knows anything about that person or group, remember.
      - s_q_b 11y ago
        Nakamoto took careful steps to hide his identity. The creators of Ethereum have not. That said, this is one of those "holy shit" moments for me. Once a DAC is running, there isn't a damn thing a government can do about it. Or even its creator. It's like a creature let loose in the wild, or a virus with a checkbook. The mind reels at the possibilities.
    - amazon_not 11y ago
      Isn't this limited to binary options because binary options have a set price and payout? Regular puts and calls have a potentially unlimited payout which means the seller would have to put up some serious collateral and/or hedge their exposure. If nothing else, I'd figure that would add some complexity and/or counterparty risk. I'm not well versed in these matters, so perhaps you could enlighten me.
sonium 11y ago
> ... verified by Reality Keys. Etheropt has no owner. Its entire operation is described and executed by an Ethereum smart contract. Tell me if I'm wrong but isn't your trusted third party now simply Reality Keys?
- linagee 11y ago
  If they used Oraclize (secured by TLSNotary), impossible to forge any data, it would be as authentic as Poloniex/Kraken's APIs say it is.
  - cslarson 11y ago
    so it means trusting Poloniex/Kraken's API, so not decentralized and trustless.
    - gellej 11y ago
      it also means trusting TLSNotary
- joosters 11y ago
  Yes, 'smart' contracts are great until they actually have to interact with the real world, and suddenly they lose their automatic, unstoppable, trustless features. So far it seems that the only true reliable ethereum use cases have been ponzi schemes and dice games, because these can be implemented completely in the system. Ethereum's much-promoted gambling app, 'Augur', gets very messy when it comes to settling market winners. I wonder how they will cope with fixing wrongly-settled events, and who will foot the bill?
- DennisP 11y ago
  Yes, but it at least reduces your counterparty risk to trusting someone to deliver an accurate price feed, rather than trusting them to deliver a pile of money. There are various ways to reduce the trust in a single party, from simple multiparty voting to ambitious betting schemes like Augur.

134 points by frenchhoudini 11y ago

This is awesome! I've been wondering when we were going to see some of these DAOs come online. (Assuming OP is author or author is reading) Have you written up/do you have any resources on writing a smart contract like this?

sneezeplease 11y ago
Seconded, very cool stuff
frenchhoudini 11y ago
I am the author, and I think the best way to get started is by looking at existing contracts, which are generally written in Solidity, Ethereum's language for writing smart contracts. Here are a few examples that I found helpful: - https://github.com/etherpot/contract/blob/master/app/contracts/lotto.sol https://github.com/etherpot/contract/blob/master/app/contrac... - https://etherdice.io/#contract https://etherdice.io/#contract - https://ethereumpyramid.com/contract.html https://ethereumpyramid.com/contract.html - And of course the main docs, http://solidity.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ http://solidity.readthedocs.org/en/latest/ (see also https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Solidity-Features https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Solidity-Features) Once you have a smart contract, it's a good idea to provide some interface to help people interact with it. There are a number of JS libraries to help you interact with Ethereum available at https://github.com/ethereumjs https://github.com/ethereumjs.
- kwikiel 11y ago
  Please contact me using my email address or kwikiel at Gmail. I would like to ask you few question about feasibility and technical complexity of creating things on the ethereum
- DennisP 11y ago
  Once Ethereum's gas price adjustment is operating, what would you think of an option contract that uses the gas price data instead of an external feed?
- xavieryvez 11y ago
  Adding a couple more, i.e. 3 of mine - tried to comment thoroughly. https://github.com/thelooneyfarm/contracts https://github.com/thelooneyfarm/contracts In my experience it is not that much of an uphill battle to start, it is quite similar to the stuff devs do in their normal dayjob.

jboggan 11y ago

Very interesting, I hope you are not in the United States. I doubt the CFTC would take too kindly to this especially since they are binary options. Good luck!

GigabyteCoin 11y ago
From the intro: >Etheropt has no owner. Its entire operation is described and executed by an Ethereum smart contract.
- jboggan 11y ago
  That smart contract was written by a person and they should realize that there might be legal repercussions in the US at least. I have a great interest in this space (I started a failed cryptocurrency options exchange myself) and I hope that it blossoms. I would like to see regular puts and calls instead of binary options, the latter is ill-suited for hedging and really just a speculative instrument.
  - GigabyteCoin 11y ago
    >That smart contract was written by a person and they should realize that there might be legal repercussions in the US at least. Satoshi Nakamoto created the world's most powerful cryptocurrency and nobody knows anything about that person or group, remember.
    - s_q_b 11y ago
      Nakamoto took careful steps to hide his identity. The creators of Ethereum have not. That said, this is one of those "holy shit" moments for me. Once a DAC is running, there isn't a damn thing a government can do about it. Or even its creator. It's like a creature let loose in the wild, or a virus with a checkbook. The mind reels at the possibilities.
  - amazon_not 11y ago
    Isn't this limited to binary options because binary options have a set price and payout? Regular puts and calls have a potentially unlimited payout which means the seller would have to put up some serious collateral and/or hedge their exposure. If nothing else, I'd figure that would add some complexity and/or counterparty risk. I'm not well versed in these matters, so perhaps you could enlighten me.

sonium 11y ago

> ... verified by Reality Keys. Etheropt has no owner. Its entire operation is described and executed by an Ethereum smart contract. Tell me if I'm wrong but isn't your trusted third party now simply Reality Keys?

linagee 11y ago
If they used Oraclize (secured by TLSNotary), impossible to forge any data, it would be as authentic as Poloniex/Kraken's APIs say it is.
- cslarson 11y ago
  so it means trusting Poloniex/Kraken's API, so not decentralized and trustless.
  - gellej 11y ago
    it also means trusting TLSNotary
joosters 11y ago
Yes, 'smart' contracts are great until they actually have to interact with the real world, and suddenly they lose their automatic, unstoppable, trustless features. So far it seems that the only true reliable ethereum use cases have been ponzi schemes and dice games, because these can be implemented completely in the system. Ethereum's much-promoted gambling app, 'Augur', gets very messy when it comes to settling market winners. I wonder how they will cope with fixing wrongly-settled events, and who will foot the bill?
DennisP 11y ago
Yes, but it at least reduces your counterparty risk to trusting someone to deliver an accurate price feed, rather than trusting them to deliver a pile of money. There are various ways to reduce the trust in a single party, from simple multiparty voting to ambitious betting schemes like Augur.