SIP-149: Deprecate Binary Options

Kain Warwick (@kaiynne), Anton Jurisevic (@zyzek)

Simple Summary

This SIP proposes to deprecate the binary options contracts from the Synthetix smart contract suite.

Abstract

What are binary options? Binary options enable users to go long or short on specific outcomes around price feeds. Currently, whenver the Synthetix contract suite is deployed the binary options contracts all get deployed along with the rest of the Synthetix contract suite. With the implementation of this SIP the binary options contacts would no longer be deployed whenever the Synthetix contract suite is deployed to mainnet.

Motivation

Deprecating the contracts from the Synthetix repo grants the Thales team access to make changes as needed, reduces the cost of deploying the Synthetix contract suite, and supports an independent timeline for Thales to deploy binary options contract as required.

In exchange for the joy to further develop the binary options contracts from the Synthetix codebase, SNX stakers will be able to claim 35% of the new protocol’s native token.

I am leading the Thales team to develop a platform for swapping binary options positions on 0x’s limit order books with the help of my co-founder Danijel.

The 0x protocol uses off-chain order books and on-chain settlement to enable liquid trading of binary options positions. This is a solution to address a critical shortcoming of the current binary options offering, which can only be swapped via OTC transactions. With an orderbook solution in place users and market makers have a venue for swapping binary options positions in liquid markets.

Since the new project is owning all aspects of the binary options project there is no longer a need for the binary options contracts to be deployed with the rest of the Synthetix smart contracts.

Specification

The following contracts would be deprecated from the Synthetix codebase if the SIP is implemented.

BinaryOptionMarketManager.sol BinaryOptionMarketFactory.sol BinaryOptionMarketData.sol BinaryOption.sol

Rationale

These are all the contracts touching the binary options product offering in the Synthetix repo.

Test Cases

n/a

Implementation

n/a

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.