Research doc: ‣.

Overview

Currently, Connext based applications are directly connected to a single router. Not only does this pose a censorship risk, but this directly exposes users to a single router's liquidity limits. A way we can resolve this is by using an auction mechanism to allow routers to "bid" to fulfill forwarding requests.

The basic flow looks like:

• User requests a transfer to a counterparty using their Vector publicIdentifier. User will specify the assetId and chainId for the receiver to receive funds in.
• The user's browser node broadcasts a message through the messaging service with the specific parameters.
• Routers are listening and will respond to the message with their current swap rate and additional fees (such as channel creation), if applicable.
• The user's browser node collects responses and returns the cheapest router's publicIdentifier to allow the application to continue the process by transferring through that router.

High Level Flow

MVP Tasks

• Create RPC method chan_runAuction to collect quotes from routers and return the best price after accounting for potential channel deployment costs.
  • Add method name and payload to types.
    • Request params: amount, senderPublicIdentifier, senderAssetId, senderChainId, receiverPublicIdentifier, receiverAssetId, receiverChainId.
    • Response params: routerPublicIdentifier, swapRate, totalFee.
  • Add messaging method publishStartAuction to node messaging service.
    • Publish message to subject PUB_ID.PUB_ID.start-auction with request data. Publish unique INBOX for collecting responses.
  • Add messaging method onReceiveAuctionMessage to node messaging service.
    • Subscribe to provided INBOX, unwrap results and call provided callback.
  • Add messaging method onReceiveStartAuction to router messaging service.
    • Not to be confused with above method which is for the engine, this is specific for the routers to respond with their fees and swap rates.
  • Add private method runAuction to the engine main index.
    • Call publishStartAuction with provided data.
    • Call onReceiveAuctionMessage to listen on unique INBOX and collect responses for 5 seconds (will tweak and tune this number). Maybe something like wait for 5 responses or 5 seconds? Watch out for race conditions of setting listener after message is already sent.
    • Turn off listener (might need a separate method, or have onReceiveAuctionMessage return an off method.