Fix a price for a date, within the margin each side posts.
Who it serves. Miners and holders hedging a sale or a purchase at a date, and those taking the other side.
How it is composed. Two obligations, one each way. At expiry each is resolved from a designated SpotAuction clearing S against the agreed price F: the long owes max(F − S, 0), the short max(S − F, 0), each within the margin. Each side's obligation is secured by a margin lien.
The forward price is set by auction, or agreed between the two parties.
At expiry the side that owes pays. If it does not, its margin lien is enforced and the other side is paid from the margin.
What is different. No margin calls during the term and no price feed: the only price used is the auction's clearing at expiry.
Status: Designed. Depends on: SpotAuction; amounts resolved from a clearing (the contingent obligation, a variant); a settlement-writer mechanism. Whether it is built on the blocks or as its own contract is chosen after the core is built.
Caveats. It is capped by its margin. With no continuous price there are no margin calls, so a move is covered only up to the margin posted: the instrument is a collar (a call spread), not a future without limit. More cover needs more margin.
The settlement price is a target: a party with a position to gain could try to move a single batch. Reading the median of several slots, or requiring a minimum depth, is the mechanism's choice and is not yet specified.
It settles in cash; no bitcoin changes hands. A hedger buys or sells its bitcoin separately, at the price that trade clears.
Nothing described here is deployed; the v2 contracts are unaudited.
Nothing on this page is an offer to provide this instrument or a recommendation to use it. The v2 contracts are unaudited.
Go deeper: the blocks · price discovery · the argument