> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sidepit.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sidepit.com/appendix/sidepit-primitives.md). # Sidepit Primitives Plain definitions for Sidepit's market structure and first live implementation. Sidepit is neither a crypto exchange nor a traditional-finance exchange. It is a live, mechanism-designed market protocol grounded in game theory. Its rules are designed so self-interested participants compete on price and risk instead of private infrastructure speed. The protocol eliminates MEV and HFT as sources of matching priority. Automated traders may participate, but a faster machine does not own the front of the line. These definitions explain the market structure. The trading pages and public protocol remain the authority for current products, fields, and session values. ## Market structure **Exchange** — The place where liquidity goes to discover price. It eliminates bilateral counterparty risk by putting common market rules between buyer and seller. It is different from a dealer that publishes its own quote around a price formed elsewhere. **Price discovery** — The process by which competing orders move a market toward an equilibrium price as new information arrives. It is not merely the last trade, an index, or a price displayed by one dealer. **Mechanism design** — Choosing the market's rules so individual competition produces the intended market outcome. Sidepit changes the ordering rule itself: participants compete on price and risk rather than on who can reach the matching engine first. **Speed advantage** — The priority a participant gains by reaching a continuous matching engine sooner. Continuous markets award it privately through shorter wires, colocation, and specialized hardware. DLOB captures that advantage inside a shared second and prices it openly instead of giving it to the fastest machine. **A free market on top of the free market** — Once each second, DLOB creates a market for the speed advantage above the market for the asset. Speed is priced openly; then the underlying order book discovers price. **DLOB** — Sidepit's patented Distributed Limit Order Book. DLOB accepts signed transactions into one-second epochs, prices the speed advantage, produces a deterministic sequence, and applies price-priority matching. **Epoch** — Sidepit's one-second execution window. Transactions accepted for the same epoch share its timing boundary and resolve through one deterministic auction. An epoch is not a guaranteed fill and not a promise that every request completes in one second. **Execution risk** — Hidden uncertainty while trying to complete a trade, including information leakage, adverse selection, slippage, and an outcome changed by faster participants. **Liquidity risk** — The visible, priceable trade-off between the price offered and the quantity available. Sidepit does not remove liquidity risk. Its market structure is designed to move competition out of hidden execution speed and into price. ## First live implementation **Sidepit 1 — Centralized Exchange Echo Protocol** — The first live implementation of the Sidepit market structure. Its centralized engine runs DLOB on real Bitcoin accounts while the public protocol exposes the market's signed inputs and resulting state. The `sp1-cex-echo` repository records this implementation lineage. **CEX Echo** — The observable path from signed intent to exchange outcome. A client submits a signed action, receives a receipt, and can follow public order, rejection, fill, market, and account-state surfaces instead of treating silence as success. **ProofNet** — The live Sidepit 1 exchange environment. It trades dated, Bitcoin-margined USDBTC forwards and publishes the active contract and session values through the [Public API](https://github.com/sidepit/docs-gitbook/tree/docs/proofnet-r2-production/appendix/api.md). **USDBTC** — Sidepit's direct expression of dollar exposure using Bitcoin. Each contract carries the published fixed USD unit; the native price is satoshis per USD, and margin, fees, and P\&L are measured in satoshis. A client or agent may translate that native value into forward USD/BTC, today's dollars, JPY, or another view without changing the signed order. Continue with [How Sidepit Works](/use-sidepit/beta/l2-overview.md), [Contract Specifications](/use-sidepit/beta/trading/contract-specifications.md), or [DLOB Auctions](/use-sidepit/beta/trading/auction-bids.md). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. 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