Currently, no "solver" is able to clear the MTA auction.
This is comparable to "maker keepers" not participating in auctions. This is our fault.
This is comparable to "maker keepers" not participating in auctions. This is our fault.
Funds of buyers or sellers are not at risk. But it creates potentially exactly the same problems the a batch auction was supposed to fix. We are working on it with the highest pressure right now.
Solvers submitted solutions by now. The sale cleared.
In total 2.6M MTA have been sold for $4,728,391 setting the average sale price to $1.81
In total 2.6M MTA have been sold for $4,728,391 setting the average sale price to $1.81
I resulted in similar behavior as if everything would have worked as expected but with a time delay of 1h.
A proper post mortem will follow.
A proper post mortem will follow.
More context: Gnosis Protocol is fully permissionless and decentralized. For it to function properly it does not rely on any single party. However - it does rely on that SOMEONE performs an off-chain calculation on how prices a cleared and submits it to the chain.
The so-called "solver" is rewarded with 50% of the trading fees. The first batch that successfully started to clear the sale generated >$1,700 in fees for the solver. (0.1% of the trade volume)
Anyone could have claimed that.
Anyone could have claimed that.
However - performing this calculation is not a trivial task. We don't know who is running a solver but after today it became clear that the current solver infrastructure is not diverse and resilient enough.
We ourselves published an open-source solver: github.com/gnosis/dex-ope…
We ourselves published an open-source solver: github.com/gnosis/dex-ope…
However - the instances that were running today were apparently not configured properly to handle this number of trades properly. The problem could be eventually solved by running them in different configurations.
We will make it a priority to create a much more diverse solver landscape. We will do that by educating about running solvers and creating additional token incentives beyond the fees earned.
Here are the prices at which the batches cleared. The first at $1.7 with the highest volume. The last at $2.18. Given that the token is now trading at ~$2.80 the mechanism after all nevertheless provide a reasonable price discovery. 
