Order-Book Auction-Based Exchange

Background and Motivation

In GSoC 2025, we have built an auction platform (Hammer) and an auction-based liquidity pool exchange (Maelstrom).

Auctions are a key mechanism for proper price discovery and thus are essential for stability in highly volatile cryptocurrency markets.

In GSoC 2026, we would like to continue our research and development in the area of auctions and we suggest building a variation of Maelstrom that is based on order books instead of liquidity pools.

Overview of Tasks

In a traditional order-book exchange, orders are matched at a fixed limit price. In this project, instead of static pricing, the exchange will use a dynamically varying price mechanism inspired by reverse Dutch auctions, similar to the approach used in Maelstrom.

The primary challenge is to design efficient on-chain data structures and matching logic that can handle dynamic pricing, order storage, and execution without relying on any centralized or off-chain backend.

Key tasks include modeling the pricing function, storing and updating orders efficiently, and ensuring fair and gas-efficient matching under EVM constraints.

Candidates are expected to refine above tasks in their GSoC proposals.

Requirements

• Research and design solutions for a fully on-chain order-book exchange on the EVM, without relying on off-chain matching engines or external servers.
• Design and implement a modular EVM-based smart contract architecture supporting limit/market orders, order matching, cancellation, and settlement for ERC-20 trading pairs.
• Build a functional frontend to demonstrate core exchange features, including buy/sell order placement, order-book visualization, trade history, price charts, and wallet integration.

Resources

• Hammer Auction House Contracts
• Hammer Auction House WebUI
• Maelstrom Contracts
• Maelstrom WebUI

Mentors

• Look for mentors with the roles @Hammer and @Maelstrom in the Discord of the Stability Nexus
• Github: @Zahnentferner; Discord: @b.wp
• Github: @kaneki003; Discord: @kaneki003

Communication Channel

Join our Discord servers (https://discord.gg/xnmAPS7zqB and https://discord.gg/fuuWX4AbJt) and discuss this idea in (https://discord.com/channels/995968619034984528/1458849723296256050).