Docs
The opening window
A few closed blocks after every launch. What they stop, and what they do not.
Design · not deployedValues on this page come from the design. Deployed addresses and settings: Contract addresses; live state: Status.
A new market does not trade in the block it is created in, nor in the next few. The token page, the launch form and the trade panel state the block trading opens at:
Opening window
Trading opens at block release block. Until then only the creator's optional first buy, made inside the creation transaction, can trade. The delay does not stop bots: they can still buy first when trading opens.
How the window works
- A launch created in block N with a window of 3 blocks (the design baseline) rejects every trade in blocks N, N+1 and N+2. Block N+3 is the release block: trading is open from then on.
- The hook enforces it for buys and sells, whatever router sends the trade. A trade too early reverts and names the release block.
- The length is fixed per launch, between 1 and 20 blocks. The creator signs the length it expects, so a change by EtherFamily between signing and inclusion makes the creation revert. Status: baseline for new launches · not deployed.
- The app always shows the release block number, never a countdown: block times vary, and a timer would pretend to a precision it does not have.
The creator's first buy
The creator may buy first, and only inside the creation transaction. The hook itself performs that buy in the same step that creates the market, so there is no exception switch that another transaction, another contract or a later block could use. The buy pays the normal fee, fills completely or reverts, and never gives fewer tokens than the creator accepted. There is no free allocation for the creator or for EtherFamily.
Creator's first buy
The creator's first buy pays the normal fee, but the creator/holder part of that fee comes back: to the creator as fee recipient, or, when fees go to holders, to whoever holds the first buy's tokens, the only tokens that earn when trading opens. Its net cost is the EtherFamily part only.
What the window prevents
- Any trade by anyone else before the release block, through any router Design (the block-number gate itself was tested on a mainnet fork Test-proven).
- In particular, bots can no longer buy in the same block as a public creation transaction, right behind the creator. Without a window, every simulated bot did.
- The creator's first buy is the only trade at the opening price.
What it does not prevent
- It does not stop bots from being first when trading opens. In the simulation, bots held about 54% of the supply one block after release in every configuration, and the first human buyers paid 14 to 21 times the opening price, against about 2.5 times without bots Model.
- It does not remove front-running, bundles, sniping or other forms of MEV.
- A longer window did not change those results beyond one block. It only gives people more time to see the release block: about 12 seconds per block.
The 3-block baseline is a product choice, and the upper limit of 20 blocks caps the creator's exclusive period at about four minutes.
The simulation
The simulation uses EtherFamily's exact pool, fee and reward arithmetic: an ETH market opening at $4,000 with the 1% tier, a 0.5 ETH creator first buy, five bots with 0.2 to 2 ETH each bidding for priority, and about two human buys per block from block N+1; 60 seeded runs per configuration. The arithmetic is exact; the behaviour of bots and people is a hypothesis Model.
| Mempool and window | Bot trades in block N | Bots' share of the supply one block after release | First 10 human buys: price ÷ opening price (without bots) | Creator's share of holder fees through release + 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public mempool, no window | 5.0 | 54.5% | 14.4 (2.6) | 32% |
| Public mempool, 1-block window | 0 | 54.8% | 20.7 (2.5) | 96% |
| Public mempool, 3-block window | 0 | 54.5% | 17.6 (2.6) | 97% |
| Public mempool, 5-block window | 0 | 54.4% | 17.4 (2.5) | 97% |
| Private mempool, no window | 0 | 54.2% | 18.0 (2.6) | 98% |
| Private mempool, 3-block window | 0 | 54.0% | 16.0 (2.5) | 96% |
The last column applies to markets that pay holders: there, the creator's first-buy tokens are the only ones earning during the release block, when the bots' buys pay their fees.
What the creator gets
- Exclusive access at the opening price. In the simulation the creator's average price was 1.35 times the opening price, pushed up by its own buy.
- Its fee share back: as the fee recipient, or as the holder of the first buy's tokens when fees go to holders.
- In holder-reward markets, most of the holder fees of the first blocks, as the table shows. Token pages show how concentrated the earning supply is. Holder rewards
Sources: ADR 0002 (decision and simulation); reference model model/opening_window.py; EtherFamily contracts specification §3.3-§3.4 (design); research on Uniswap v4 §3.11 (block-number gate, fork test).