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Build Plan - Fully Onchain Perps CLOB on Solana

Summary​

Artifi Labs is building a fully onchain perpetual futures protocol, anchored by a central limit order book (CLOB) with isolated margin, USDC collateral, and SOL as the first market. Total grant ask: $65k (BSL 1.1 monorepo). Independent security audit funded separately by the Solana Foundation.

Locked Decisions​

#DecisionValue
1ArchitectureOnchain CLOB, slab-based, price-time priority
2Matching modelFully onchain execution; no offchain sequencer or matching engine
3Initial marketSOL-PERP (BTC-PERP and ETH-PERP optional, post-MVP)
4Margin modeIsolated margin only for MVP
5CollateralUSDC only for MVP
6LicenseBSL 1.1 (programs + SDK - source-available, prevents commercial closed-source forks)
7AuditStaged approach: targeted reviews during grant, full audit post-launch from protocol fees
8Team6 people (5 engineers, 1 designer)
9Funding ask$65k (Milestone-based grant; audit funded by Solana Foundation)
10Project name[TBD - Artifi Labs is the company; project name to be finalized]
11Revenue model5bps taker / 1bps maker rebate; 10% of protocol revenue routed to Solana public goods at protocol level

Architecture (one-pager)​

+----------------+ +-------------------+ +-------------------+
| Trader Web UI | <----> | TS SDK + Indexer | <----> | RPC / Stream |
+----------------+ +-------------------+ | Provider (gRPC) |
+-------------------+
|
v
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+
| SOLANA PROGRAMS |
| +----------+ +----------+ +----------+ +--------------+ |
| | CLOB | | Vault | | Risk / | | Keeper / | |
| | (slab) |<->| (coll.) |<->| Margin |<->| Liquidation | |
| +----------+ +----------+ +----------+ | Bot | |
| ^ ^ ^ +--------------+ |
| | | | |
| +-------------+-------------+--------------------------+
| | |
| +------+------+ |
| | Pyth Oracle | |
| +-------------+ |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------+

Core principles (mapped to Solana Foundation criteria)​

  • Fully onchain execution - every place, cancel, match, and settlement is a Solana transaction
  • Real price discovery - slab-based CLOB, price-time priority; no AMM or pool-based pricing
  • Solana-first - uses native SVM features (versioned transactions, priority fees, Pyth, SPL); no EVM bridges
  • Open source - programs and SDK published under BSL 1.1; app includes proprietary components
  • Isolated risk - each position carries its own collateral, so bad trades cannot socialize losses

Streaming Infrastructure (Staged)​

Perps DEXes require sub-second data for liquidations, funding rate updates, and oracle price feeds. A dedicated Geyser node is overkill for the MVP. We follow a tiered approach:

Stage 1 - Devnet (Cost: 0−0-49/mo)​

  • Stream: Standard Solana WebSockets (accountSubscribe, programSubscribe) - free and fast enough for bot logic testing
  • RPC: Helius or Chainstack devnet endpoints
  • Oracle: Pyth Network devnet feeds (pull oracle architecture, sub-second updates)
  • Transaction delivery: Standard tx submission; no Jito bundles needed yet

Stage 2 - Mainnet Alpha (Cost: 50−50-500/mo)​

  • Stream: Upgrade to a managed Yellowstone gRPC connection
  • Providers: Chainstack Growth plan (~49/mo)orHeliusDeveloper/Startupplans(49/mo) or Helius Developer/Startup plans (19-499/mo)−gRPC−backedWebSocketsandwebhooks;sub−secondspeedswithoutthe499/mo) - gRPC-backed WebSockets and webhooks; sub-second speeds without the 3k/mo hardware bill
  • Oracle: Pyth mainnet pull oracle feeds
  • Transaction delivery: Integrate Jito bundles for liquidation transactions - free off-chain revert if a liquidation would fail, saving tx fees

Stage 3 - Mature Mainnet (TVL >5M,Cost:5M, Cost: 2k+/mo)​

  • Stream: Dedicated RPC node with Triton One Yellowstone gRPC
  • Transaction delivery: Priority fee bidding + Jito bundles to guarantee liquidation txns land before toxic flow

Milestone Overview​

See Milestones for the full breakdown.

#FocusBudget
M1Research, architecture & visual prototype$5,000
M2Core on-chain programs & devnet integration$15,000
M3Complete on-chain programs$12,000
M4Off-chain infrastructure (indexer, keeper)$10,000
M5Full trading interface & monitoring$8,000
M6Security & mainnet$10,000
M7Developer SDK & ecosystem$5,000
Total$65,000

Risks​

See Risks & Security for the full risk register, threat model (top 10 attack surfaces), and incident response plan. Top three:

  1. Compute budget onchain - mitigated by batched matching and early CPI budget audit
  2. Oracle manipulation or staleness - mitigated by Pyth EMA + deviation circuit breaker + chaos tests
  3. Insufficient MM liquidity - mitigated by shipping a reference MM bot in M4 and seeding it ourselves

Audit Strategy​

A full professional audit will be completed before mainnet deployment. Security is a prerequisite for launching any protocol that handles user funds. The independent security audit is funded separately by the Solana Foundation (see Grant Application - Support Beyond Funding).

PhaseSecurity Activity
M1Threat model documented
M2Property-based tests for slab matching
M3Targeted external review of liquidation math + oracle guards
M4Friends-and-family test program; open-source release enables community review
M6Multi-sig governance, SEAL Framework certification, mainnet deployment

Revenue Routing to Solana​

Addressing the Foundation criterion that "application revenue should be structurally routed back to the chain, preferably set at protocol level from launch":

  • 10% of net protocol revenue (retained protocol fees after maker rebates/payouts) hardcoded to a Solana public goods treasury
  • Fee schedule: 5bps taker / 1bps maker rebate (net 4bps protocol revenue on taker flow)
  • Governed by 3-of-5 multi-sig during MVP, transitioning to SPL Governance
  • Hardcoded in the risk program - no future governance vote required to maintain the Solana routing

Mapping to Solana Foundation Criteria​

Foundation criterionWhere in this plan
1. Fully onchain executionclob, vault, risk programs - all state and matching onchain
2. Real price discoverySlab CLOB with price-time priority; no pool/AMM pricing
3. Solana-firstPyth, SPL, versioned txs, priority fees, managed gRPC streams, Jito bundles for liquidations, + 10% protocol revenue routed to Solana chain
4. InnovationIsolated-margin CLOB with onchain insurance fund and explicit ADL fallback
5. Experienced teams6-person Solana-native team
6. Open sourceCore protocol (programs + SDK) BSL 1.1 from day 1

Open Items​

  1. Legal entity registration - working as Artifi Labs; welcome Solana Foundation assistance with establishing entities that control the protocol and token
  2. Market maker partnerships - identify 1-2 MMs willing to quote on mainnet before launch
  3. RPC/stream provider - Helius or Chainstack for managed Yellowstone gRPC during alpha; Triton One at scale
  4. Token launch - not in scope for this grant. The protocol will launch without a token, using a points-based incentive system for early trading activity. Token economics will be defined in a future phase. Protocol fee routing to Solana treasury is hardcoded in risk program
  5. Full professional audit - funded separately by the Solana Foundation; to be completed before mainnet deployment
  6. High-speed data infrastructure - the trading app requires sub-second data feeds; understanding Solana's event system (Geyser, program logs, account subscriptions) is critical for the indexer and real-time UI