Pitch Lake

Abstract

We present Pitch Lake - DeFi vaults allowing to trade Ethereum mainnet basefee contracts. Pitch Lake uses StarkNet STARKs to calculate time-weighted averages of basefee (TWAPs) in a given month to be used for cash settlement of basefee option contracts. Access to verified Ethereum mainnet block headers is achieved with the help of Fossil that uses the Cairo architecture.

Pitch Lake is built around the design principle of oracle-lessness: All input data to the option protocol are obtained from Ethereum mainnet and processed through Fossil. No external data feed or oracle is needed to mint, price or settle an option contract. Liquidity is rolled-over continuously, and strike, collateral and reserve price calculations are done fully automatically using Fossil.

Keywords: Options, basefee, oracle, blockchain, ethereum

JEL Classification: G13, D44, D47, C88