DeFi is a very fast moving space, so it's hard to compare Perpetual Protocol to other projects, or identify competitors. As a growing space, we're rather grow together than focus on comparisons!
That said, to date we are not aware of any project that offers our feature set:
Fully on-chain perpetual swaps
AMM model exchange (no order-book)
On mainnet with fully functional layer 2 👉 zero gas fees for trading
Traders seamlessly interact via Ethereum (layer 1), while trades occur on xDai (layer 2)
We have some basic comparisons with commonly asked about projects below.
New DeFi projects launch almost every day, and projects are in a state of near-constant change. We do not keep the following comparisons up-to-date so please #dyor!
Synthetix
Futureswap
dYdX
Injective
Leverj
Synthetix vs Perpetual Protocol
Perp.fi
Synthetix
Financial Instrument
Perpetual Contract
Synthetic Assets
Slippage
Slippage from constant-product curve.
Roadmap: slippage could be mitigated through the algorithmic adjustment of k.
No slippage because the price comes from the Oracle directly.
✅ Traders can place any size of orders without slippage.
Stakers' PnL
Stakers are not exposed to impermanent loss caused by price fluctuation.
Stakers must take directional positions. (Even minting sUSD is a directional position.)
🤔 Stakers face exposure to price fluctuation in order to earn staking rewards.
Oracle
TWAP is used at the funding time (every hour) to calculate the funding rate.
✅ 1) The price is used to calculate the funding rate only, which greatly minimizes the risk of price manipulation.
2) Using the TWAP adds another layer defense against manipulation.
A continuous spot price feed is needed from the Oracle.
🤔 The Oracle is needed for every block and used to calculate the value of positions. It has a huge risk of being hacked and Synthetix has suffered from different levels of losses.
🤔 Pricing coming from the Oracle directly makes the system easier to be front-run. The prices of orders are settled 3 minutes later due to front-run protection.
Perpetual Protocol has managed to fix or mitigate most of the Synthetix problems detailed here (front-running, skew of the debt pool, Oracle, snapshotting attack): Synthetix — the battlefield
Futureswap V2 vs Perpetual Protocol
Perp.fi
Futureswap V2
Financial Instrument
Perpetual Contract
Margin Trading
Layer 2
xDai chain with Biconomy relayer so users can trade directly from Layer 1.
Homegrown ORN scaling solution mitigates but does not eliminate fees.
Slippage
Slippage from constant-product curve AMM.
Soon: slippage can be mitigated through algorithmic adjustment of k.
Homegrown pricing engine results in slippage based on order size and liquidity available.
Funding payments
FTX-inspired funding algorithm
Homegrown dynamic funding rate calculated by the ratio of longs vs shorts
Open Interest
There is no cap on open interest
Open interest is capped by the size of the liquidity pool.
🤔 This means the growth is also capped by the size of the liquidity pool.
Impermanent Loss
Stakers are not exposed to impermanent loss due to price fluctuation.
Liquidity providers are exposed to impermanent loss.
Underlying Assets
Not limited to ERC-20 tokens.
✅ The underlying assets could be BTC, XRP, ... , and even off-chain assets.
ERC-20 tokens only.
Oracle
TWAP is used at the funding time (every hour) to calculate the funding rate.
✅ 1) The price is used to calculate the funding rate only, which greatly minimizes the risk of price manipulation.
2) Using the TWAP adds another layer defense against manipulation.
A continuous price feed is needed from the oracle.
🤔 Pricing coming from the Oracle directly makes the system easier to be front-run. The prices of orders are settled 3 to 10 minutes later due to front-run protection.
Token
PERP - Transferable ERC-20, for voting, staking
FST - Non transferable ERC-20, for voting, fee discounts
dYdX perpetual contracts vs Perpetual Protocol
dYdX perpetual contracts provide an off-chain order book with on-chain settlement.
Perp.fi
dYdX Perpetual Contract
Liquidity
Guaranteed liquidity from the Virtual AMM (constant-product curve). Potential to offer long tail assets, private markets, etc.
Order book model.
✅ Higher throughput
✅ No slippage
🤔 Need to build up liquidity from scratch.
Auto-Deleveraging
No auto-deleveraging.
Auto-deleveraging position if the counter-party gets liquidated and the system is not able to find a new counter-party.
🤔 When there is low liquidity, the positions are auto-deleveraged much more easily than those on centralized exchanges.
On/off chain
100% on-chain AMM
Off-chain matching engine
Token model
Native PERP tokens to incentivize stakers and traders.
N/A
Transaction fees
Transaction fees are shared with PERP stakers.
Transaction fee revenues accrue to dYdX.
Injective vs Perpetual Protocol
Injective is a DeFi protocol built on Cosmos, providing decentralized exchange functions with permissionless market creation.
Perp.fi
Injective
Blockchain
Ethereum
Cosmos
Scaling
xDai Network (fully EVM compatible)
Injective Chain with Ethermint EVM and ETH peg using Peggy.
Liquidity
Guaranteed liquidity from the Virtual AMM (constant-product curve). Potential to offer long tail assets, private markets, etc.
Order book model.
✅ Higher throughput
✅ No slippage
🤔 Need to build up liquidity from scratch.
Token model
Native PERP tokens for governance voting as well as to incentivize stakers and traders.
Injective governance token for PoS, governance, market making incentives, etc.
Leverj vs Perpetual Protocol
Leverj is a DeFi protocol built on Ethereum, providing decentralized exchange functions with a high speed homegrown scaling solution ca.
Perp.fi
Leverj
Blockchain
Ethereum
Ethereum
Scaling
xDai Network (fully EVM compatible)
Homegrown layer 2 plasma-based solution called Gluon
Liquidity
Guaranteed liquidity from the Virtual AMM (constant-product curve). Potential to offer long tail assets, private markets, etc.
Order book model.
✅ Higher throughput
✅ No slippage
🤔 Need to build up liquidity from scratch.
Token model
Native PERP tokens for governance voting as well as to incentivize stakers and traders.
Injective governance token for PoS, governance, market making incentives, etc.