LibraryMarkets2021Design paperCorpus record
Everlasting Options
Everlasting options. Dave White and Sam Bankman-Fried.
An everlasting option is funded so that holding it approximates a rolling option position. The funding payment, not an expiry, keeps the price near the claim.
A reading of the public document. Not a copy of it, and not a claim about a later network that reused the name.
A perpetual product should say what funding is pegging the price to. If it cannot, it is a swap with a nickname.
- Evidence
- Primary paper
- Re-measured
- No
- Assumptions
- 3
- Records linked
- 1
Code
Source, repository, and what is actually hosted
- Paradigm, 2021https://www.paradigm.xyz/2021/05/everlasting-options
- The source URL is not a GitHub repository. No code remote is invented.
- Full text is not mirrored. Public availability is not a licence to copy the file onto this site.
- Add to a reading list
01 Claim ledger
What the paper is allowed to say
Each row is a sentence already in the study. The status is the same on every row: a model claim, not a live measurement.
Claim 01 · Paper model
The defect
Listed options expire. A dealer who wants continuous exposure has to roll. Rolling is a calendar, a fee, and a gap.
Claim 02 · Paper model
The rule
An everlasting option is funded so that holding it approximates a rolling option position. The funding payment, not an expiry, keeps the price near the claim.
Claim 03 · Paper model
How it is put together
There is no expiry date. Funding is the mechanism that replaces expiry. The payoff still depends on a defined underlying.
Claim 04 · Paper model
Where the claim stops
The note is a design, not a risk disclosure for a venue.
02 Three cuts
Observation, model, falsifier
A desk does not stop at the summary. Each claim is cut three ways, using only this study's own assumptions and checks. Nothing here is a new figure.
01 The defect
Observation
What the study says
Listed options expire. A dealer who wants continuous exposure has to roll. Rolling is a calendar, a fee, and a gap.
Model
What has to hold
The note is a design, not a risk disclosure for a venue.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What index is funding measured against?
02 The rule
Observation
What the study says
An everlasting option is funded so that holding it approximates a rolling option position. The funding payment, not an expiry, keeps the price near the claim.
Model
What has to hold
Funding can be wrong if the index is wrong.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Who pays funding when the price is above the formula?
03 How it is put together
Observation
What the study says
There is no expiry date. Funding is the mechanism that replaces expiry. The payoff still depends on a defined underlying.
Model
What has to hold
Funding can be wrong if the index is wrong.
Falsifier
What would retire it
Is there an expiry or not?
04 Where the claim stops
Observation
What the study says
The note is a design, not a risk disclosure for a venue.
Model
What has to hold
The note is a design, not a risk disclosure for a venue.
Falsifier
What would retire it
What index is funding measured against?
03 Sequence
One action, as an operating tape
- 01The contract quotes a price.
- 02Holders pay or receive funding against a formula tied to the option's theoretical value.
- 03A trader can enter or leave without waiting for a roll.
- 04What index is funding measured against?
04 Load-bearing
The argument, and where a pitch drops it
Why it is still on the desk
The cut
A perpetual product should say what funding is pegging the price to. If it cannot, it is a swap with a nickname.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
Funding can be wrong if the index is wrong.
After the text
The cut
Power perpetuals are the sibling note. Venues implemented pieces. The formula is the paper.
Why it carries weight
If this cut is skipped, the paper's name is being used without the mechanism that makes the name mean anything.
Where it is dropped
A later client, parameter or reward formula is a different object from this paragraph.
05 Register
What has to be true
Model · Not re-measured
The note is a design, not a risk disclosure for a venue.
Model · Not re-measured
Funding can be wrong if the index is wrong.
Model · Not re-measured
It does not remove leverage risk.
06 Divergence
What happened after the paper
Power perpetuals are the sibling note. Venues implemented pieces. The formula is the paper.
A later client, parameter set, or reward formula is a different object. Cite this paper for the mechanism. Cite a primary release for the network. This desk has not re-run the proof.
07 Pre-mortem
What to check before you use the idea
- 0 of 3 marked on this browser. A mark is a reading note, not a pass, a rating, or a recommendation.
08 Anatomy
The paper, in the order a builder needs
The problem it names
Listed options expire. A dealer who wants continuous exposure has to roll. Rolling is a calendar, a fee, and a gap.
What the design proposes
- There is no expiry date.
- Funding is the mechanism that replaces expiry.
- The payoff still depends on a defined underlying.
How the mechanism is specified
- The contract quotes a price.
- Holders pay or receive funding against a formula tied to the option's theoretical value.
- A trader can enter or leave without waiting for a roll.
What this page does not treat as proven
- The note is a design, not a risk disclosure for a venue.
- Funding can be wrong if the index is wrong.
- It does not remove leverage risk.
Why the desk still reads it
A perpetual product should say what funding is pegging the price to. If it cannot, it is a swap with a nickname.
09 Lexicon
Terms, opened into the record
- Funding
- A periodic payment that pulls the contract toward a target value.
- Everlasting
- A contract that does not expire and must be kept honest by funding.
10 Repository
Every linked record on this page
Underlined words open a page that already exists: a concept, a protocol profile, a failure record, or another paper. If a word is not underlined, this desk does not have a record for it.
Papers
This is Blockchain Lab's reading of a public design paper. It is not the paper, not a copy of it, and not an offer of tokens, equity, custody or a partnership. Later network behaviour can diverge from the text. Nothing here is investment, legal or technical advice.
Research status: Design paper. Last reviewed: 1 October 2026. This is a reading of a public paper, not investment, legal or security advice.