EXP-004 · THE STAIRCASE
An automated pool whose curve is not a curve
FAILED SUCCESSFULLY PUBLIC
A hook whose pricing function is a step function. It is drawn as an actual staircase on the machine's front panel. Inside a step the quoted rate does not move. At the edge of a step it moves all at once.
The premise was unreasonable on purpose: hold the rate flat across a band, then jump. We wanted to see where it broke. It broke straight away, and not where we expected. The flat regions did exactly what the spec said and were pleasant to use. The routing layer above them was the problem, because it assumes a pool's function is continuous. Aggregators split an order into pieces, every piece landed on the same step, and each piece cost gas to change nothing. The device works. Everything reasoning about the device does not. Filed FAILED SUCCESSFULLY, which here means the hypothesis was wrong in a way that taught us more than being right would have.
RECORD
- Chains
- base
- Protocols
- uniswap
- Assets
- None
- Opened
- 2025-11-11
- Located
- PROTOCOL LABORATORY
READINGS
RESEARCH LOG
- deployed. front panel drawn as actual stairs because the whiteboard drawing was better.
- first edge event. it did what the maths said. nobody enjoyed it.
- aggregators keep splitting into pieces that land on one step. they are talking to themselves.
- a step is a great place to be and a terrible place to leave.
- wound down. keeping the panel. it explains the whole idea without a single word.