Funds are in the user’s custody at all steps of the Gluon Plasma Protocol

We recently published a paper on Gluon Plasma on which Leverj will be built.

The first DEXes showed us that non-custodial trading was possible but a DEX that had decent user experience and centralized speeds seemed like a faraway dream.

Oh, we heard the suspicions and objections when we set out to build one.

“Its impossible!”

“Fast and decentralized can’t happen together”

“How will you know its really secure?”

All the reactions above were quite expected. We had asked the same questions when we embarked on this journey in 2015.

The most iron-clad safety is pointless if trades take days to settle. Decently high liquidity is only marginally useful if trading is uneconomical at high-fee situations. Indeed, most DEXes are non-starters because there can never be liquidity without speed. Profit margins diminish at moderate speeds and turns into outright loss margins at low speeds.

We had to build a trustless exchange with the UX, features, speeds and costs comparable to centralized exchanges. The only way to do this was to stay off the chain as far as possible. The team discussed around the campfire (actually our monitors) and agreed that we absolutely will not compromise on the following:

Exchange should trade at high-speed regardless of network congestion. Network costs should be constant even with increased trading volume. Centralized-like UX as much as possible. Proof of security.

We had it mostly worked out. The final piece of the puzzle fit when we saw the plasma paper in 2017. At that point Plasma was still a research paper, discussing the possible. As traders, we are concerned with the feasible. Many flavors of plasma could not handle the fundamental UX elements of trading such as:

Orders should match if users place orders and turn off their laptop. Withdrawals should complete timely, say under an hour. Able to exit a position immediately (sub-second) after entry. High Leverage (100x+) should be possible.

We designed, tested, argued, sought out advice, and iterated until we arrived to the point where the team is reasonably happy with our protocol and is ready to share it with the world for critical feedback.

We will work closely with security professionals and the community to ensure we find any gaps in the security model and implementation.

We are thankful to those who have supported and helped us on our journey and look forward to the start of a new era in crypto trading: the age of non-custodial, leveraged high-speed trading.

Read the full paper and join the discussion on our telegram group.

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