# DarkPool.Design Researchathon: Quoting Strategies @EthCC

**URL:** https://collective.flashbots.net/t/darkpool-design-researchathon-quoting-strategies-ethcc/3718
**Category:** Events
**Tags:** event
**Created:** [July 31, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://collective.flashbots.net/t/darkpool-design-researchathon-quoting-strategies-ethcc/3718 "2024-07-31T14:55:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![kenneth](https://collective.flashbots.net/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/94ad74/32.png) [@kenneth](https://collective.flashbots.net/u/kenneth)
#### Post date: [July 31, 2024, 2:55pm UTC](https://collective.flashbots.net/t/darkpool-design-researchathon-quoting-strategies-ethcc/3718/1 "2024-07-31T14:55:39Z")

</div>

**From the DarkPool.Design Researchathon in Brussels on July 13, 2024**

Our breakout group focused on the question: How do you quote in dark pools?

**Open Questions** :  
How would this work practically?

- If everyone were to use dark pools, you would lose optimal price discovery thus losing the greatest benefits
- if goal of dark pool is to find mid/market price then must have some opaqueness
- How does zk work with dark pools?
- there’s pi squared, maybe now risk squared

**Why is quoting important**

- different services have different goals
- setting objectives
  - different DEX designs for quoting
  - tradeoffs for each quoter

**Quoting Strategies**

- users need to know what price to expect
  - optimistically - Uniswap, good marketing & UX
  - pessimistically - CoW, poor marketing & less risky

**Dark Pool Designs (continuous)**

- Orderbook
  - LOB
  - all private

- Batch Auctions
  - CoWswap
  - private

- Hybrid
  - orderbooks, Uniswap v4
  - some dark, some lit

| Strategy | Pros | Cons | alpha |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| **Discrete Quoting (Speedbump)** - orderbook snapshots | accurate, easy, optimistic | - getting interval right is hard and inconsistent - privileged snapshotter needs to be trusted - lags & delays - potential for stat arbs | |
| Quote based on last fill - in darkpool - how late to reveal? - assume public settlement | easy, works, no leak | - inaccurate (outdated) - can be missing depth | this is better than vvv (no quotes) |
| **No quotes** - tradfi | easiest, battle tested for sophisticated actors, no leak | leaves Idaho Joe/retail users confused without quotes on frontend | |
| Quote from other venues - based on Binance or other DEXes | | inaccurate | |
| Increasing uncerntainty - add book noise | | makes everything a stat arb | |
| Stake for quotes - slash if misbehaving (TEEs/AVS) | | - no consequences from slashing - KYC or reputation based | |
| Lock for quotes - delayed withdrawal if no execution - pay in time | | - implementation details for time constraints - not foolproof - potentially need KYC | |
| **Pay for quotes (basically Sentinel orders)** - refund if you execute - could be managed in an auction | really good UX | - implementation details are complicated - worse spreads - potential for stat arb | |
| Smart orders | | | |
| Set order sizes - tornado cash-like - quote at some price X | good UX | - how does it work? - leak A LOT of info - complicated to implement | |