Happy April, or if you use a quarterly calendar, happy Q2! The next generation of Rubicon is right around the corner with the launch of Rubicon v1. Catch up on the latest developments before the v1 launch!
The first generation of our order book protocol, Rubicon v0, saw over $9 million in notional trading volume and more than 10k unique users since its launch on Optimism.
Armed with months of market data, our team set out to improve the protocol in Rubicon v1, focusing on reducing the risk exposure of Pools liquidity providers and improving gas efficiency for market makers and traders.
We are in the final testing phases of this comprehensive upgrade, which includes a new version of the order book protocol, a revamped trading app, and rebuilt market-making and trading systems. Continue reading for a rundown of the Rubicon v1 upgrades!
In other news, we are happy to announce we acquired the rubicon.eth ENS name, and have some exciting plans for using it, stay tuned.
Rubicon v1 Rundown
Last week we released the Rubicon v1 whitepaper. It outlines the specs of the new version of the protocol as well as our vision for the Rubicon order books. For some of the highlights you can check out the launch tweet thread (below), or you can read the Rubicon v1 code on GitHub.
Rubicon v1 is an order book protocol for Ethereum, which makes it an order book protocol for the world!
As a refresher, order books are the simplest way for markets to reflect supply and demand for assets. With a limit order, a trader has the ability to choose the price, size, and the direction of their trade(s). Rubicon order books are housed in the RubiconMarket smart contract.
Rubicon’s order books have native liquidity pools. In Rubicon Pools, passive liquidity providers (LPs) can deposit crypto assets into a pool, and active liquidity managers (strategists) can use pool assets to make markets on the order books. Yield from market-making goes to the Pools’ LPs, while strategists earn a performance fee. For more background on Rubicon Pools, check out the explainer post. Here’s a high-level overview of the Rubicon v1 protocol with contracts in red:
The Rubicon protocol is built on layer 2 (L2) networks, starting with Optimism, to bring traders low gas fees (<$1) and instant trade confirmations. Throughout #L222, Rubicon will continue to launch on the leading L2 networks! Look out for Rubicon on new networks soon 📈
The biggest protocol changes from v0 → v1 are permissionless liquidity pools and external pool rebalancing.
With permissionless liquidity pools, anyone can create a new pool on Rubicon and choose its first trading pair! More details on this process and an official guide will go live with the v1 launch. With one function call (and soon a few button presses) you can bring order book liquidity to any ERC-20 token!
With external pool rebalancing, pools have the ability to realize yield by dumping risk on external trading venues, like AMMs. For more details on pool rebalancing and why it is important, we recommend you read the Rubicon v1 whitepaper, but the TL;DR is this change can massively reduce the risk exposure of a pool. This is great news for LPs who will now realize yield more frequently (less risk exposure), and great news for traders because it should lead to an increase in order book depth!
New App Features!
The Rubicon App is getting a ton of upgrades along with the v1 launch.
New classic charts from TradingView are already live in the app, and Technical Analysis charts for the Rubicon order books are coming soon after launch!
As Rubicon v1 launches across multiple L2 networks, it’s important that users are able to easily move assets between these networks. To give Rubicon the best possible cross-chain UX, we are launching an In-App Bridge so users can seamlessly send tokens between networks. Here’s a sneak peek of the UI:
Look out for a more detailed post about the Rubicon In-App Bridge soon!
Rubicon APIs
Rubicon smart contracts store data directly on-chain, and soon across multiple chains as we launch on more L2 networks. This can make it difficult to query and analyze historical market data.
The Graph is a decentralized protocol built to solve this problem. By automating the indexing and querying of data from blockchains, The Graph allows for easy and direct access to blockchain data across multiple networks.
Core Rubicon contracts have a subgraph you can use to easily query and view historical data. To get started with Rubicon data, visit our API docs for an overview and some example queries. You can also interact with the Rubicon subgraphs through the Graph Playground (RubiconMarket, BathToken).
A more detailed blog post about the Rubicon subgraphs is coming soon!
What’s Next?
We are so close to the launch of Rubicon v1! The first launch will be on Optimism, with launches on new L2 networks coming shortly afterward. Make sure you join the Rubicon Discord and follow our Twitter to be the first to hear about it.
Rubicon is Hiring!
We are always looking for more highly motivated individuals to join the Rubicon team.
Interested in helping us build the world order book? Apply.
Passionate about building beautiful and efficient apps on Ethereum? Apply.
Want to help build future versions of the protocol and products on top of it? Apply.
Think you can build elegant trading systems and master DeFi on L2s? Apply.
Not an engineer but passionate about what we are building? You should still apply! You can send a note to contact (at) rubicon (dot) finance about what you would bring to the team.
Rubicon Resources:
Reach us at contact (at) rubicon (dot) finance
Alea iacta est.
Thanks to Denver Baumgartner for their feedback on this post.
(This post is for educational purposes only. Nothing in it should be construed as financial advice. Do your own research before making investments)