The wait is over. Our testnet Beta opens up to our first batch of users Monday 3/18!
Today, we're incredibly excited to announce the formal launch of Ostium's testnet Beta on Arbitrum. Access to the first batch of users will open next Monday 3/18, and scale to include everyone on our waitlist over the course of the following weeks.
More below on what we’ve been cooking, how we’re rolling out access across the 80k+ signups on our waitlist, and how to secure a spot if you missed the signup window.
TLDR;
- Sorry for the delay, we had to build an oracle
- Testnet opens next Monday 3/18
- If you've ever traded >$1M notional in fx/metals anywhere onchain, we gave you early access
- Missed the boat? You have one more shot to get access – climb to the top of our viral waitlist
The last few months
After a quiet gated launch of our Alpha in late Q4, we took in feedback from our ~100 testers and rebuilt our integration stack from the ground up to support longer-tail assets & higher throughput. Why? It turned out none of the most unique assets users were most excited about trading were available through any existing off-the-shelf oracle. Further, no self-service oracle enabling custom APIs was designed to support our ultra low-latency use case.
This turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Integrating something custom could enable a litany of benefits, both strategic and technical, like the ability to:
- React quickly to list assets in the meta (recall FCOJ mooning?),
- Minimize trust assumptions by moving market hours data at the oracle level, rather than front-end or manual blocks during out-of-market hours as is currently standard practice,
...and more.
So we set out to build an oracle in-house. First, we sourced reliable, real-time, sub-second latency Real World Asset data (no trivial feat). Today, we have partnerships with 7 unique data providers, with more on the way. We then built node-level price aggregation logic and metadata customization based on the futures roll structure and market hours of each asset type.
However, when it came to aggregation/consensus across nodes, node operation and maintenance, and onchain verification, Ostium had fewer custom requirements. Further, we wanted the expertise and participation of an unbiased party in operation. Said otherwise, we wanted the benefits of customization, without the bias risks of a protocol wholly operating its own pricing engine.
This is where Stork comes in. We've worked closely with them over the last eight weeks to hand off node operation to their network and to customize their aggregator to support our unique metadata structure, and can now say we have the best of both (all) worlds:
- The technical features of an oracle system built from the ground up to support RWAs,
- The strategic benefit of being able to act quickly to list new assets, and
- The decentralization and bias-minimization of a network bootstrapped by a third party.
Traders on Ostium will be able to gain access to a first-of-its kind financial primitive – onchain perpetuals of Real World Assets. Oil, copper, platinum, the Hang Seng Index, and more will all soon be tradable onchain, permissionlessly, with leverage, settled fully onchain.
Subscribe to Ostium Labs
Receive the latest updates directly to your inbox
Your subscription could not be saved. Please try again.
Your subscription has been successful.
Wen Testnet?
Ok, onto the fun stuff. Wen testnet?
Testnet formally opens to the first batch of users in one week, on Monday, March 18th. To ensure ensure our systems can scale to accommodate the 80k+ signups on our waitlist, we’ll be rolling out testnet in five phases:
(A) Aluminum: 350
(B) Brent: 3,000
(C) Copper: 10,000
(D) Diesel: 80,000+ (entire waitlist)
(E) Electricity: everyone (permissionless)
The length of each of these phases will depend on how our and our integration partners’ systems scale, but you should expect each to last 7-10 days.
So who’s in what category? We’re glad you asked. Some onchain sleuthing and number crunching yielded a list prioritizing the highest volume traders and most active community members first.
In batch A, we focus on OGs: partners, advisors, early and involved community members (including our earliest Zealy participants), and active large traders who provided feedback during our Alpha.
In B, we open trading to more of our earliest community participants, as well as, critically, large wallets and high volume Real World Asset traders across the onchain ecosystem. If you’ve ever traded >$1M notional in FX or metals anywhere onchain, we’ve whitelisted you. Additionally, if you had an amount equalling $20k or more in your wallet when you verified during signup, you are also whitelisted for this round.
In C, we extend to early waitlist signups who completed all three verification steps (Discord, Twitter, Telegram) as well as sizeable onchain liquidity providers. If you're in the top 1,000 wallets by LP volume across any of the major perp exchanges, you've been whitelisted for this round.
In D, anyone who signed up for the waitlist today before this announcement will get access. Please note the original signup form has now closed and is no longer accepting responses.
Finally – everyone!
Next Steps
The old waitlist has been closed and a snapshot taken – everyone who signed up, you will get early access. No need to do anything else.
If you missed the boat, there’s one lucky catch: you still have an opportunity to get early access. How? Climb to the top of our viral waitlist here by referring friends and earning points. You have four days; a snapshot will be taken Friday 3/15 at 5pm UTC. The top contenders will earn access to phase D of our waitlist.
We'll be releasing a new page on our website Friday afternoon with final testnet access information, where you'll be able to check your eligibility and ranking for testnet early access.
