The problem ZEUS Exchange solves

Most DeFi derivatives platforms still face several structural problems.
First, many protocols rely on partially centralized or offchain components. Trade execution, liquidations or risk management can depend on external infrastructure, which reduces transparency and trust.
Second, the economic design of many protocols is built around short term value extraction. Fees and token incentives often benefit the platform or early participants rather than the broader community.
Third, users rarely participate in the economic value created by the protocol. Traders and liquidity providers generate activity and pay fees, but they usually do not share in the long term value of the system.
ZEUS Exchange addresses these issues by building a fully onchain perpetual trading protocol on Base. All core processes, including trade execution, liquidations and reward distribution, are governed directly by smart contracts.
This approach improves transparency and security while aligning the protocol with its users and enabling them to participate in the value created by the platform.

Challenges I ran into

One of the biggest challenges while building ZEUS Exchange was implementing a fully onchain trading architecture for derivatives.
Most perpetual DEXs move part of the system offchain to simplify execution and reduce network load. We intentionally chose a different approach and designed the protocol so that all critical processes are handled directly by smart contracts.
This created several technical challenges. Complex trading actions often require multiple transactions, which increases gas costs and makes the user experience more complicated.
To address this, we implemented batch transactions that allow several actions to be executed within a single user interaction. This significantly improves the trading flow and reduces friction.
Another challenge was that support for batch transaction standards varies across wallets. Some wallets handle them well while others still have partial or inconsistent implementations.
To solve this, we designed a flexible transaction flow with fallback mechanisms that allow the protocol to work reliably across different wallet environments.

Smart Contract Address(es)

Vault: 0xbc2DC9feB0a8202eE4e3B908f55549684bf1C4e8
VaultUtils: 0x1344ef8b1DD2f7820f87a92d63f044CBf87d61eB
VaultPriceFeed: 0xC63912FA9973F686F47a9666F8ACAe02f0B991F5 VaultReader: 0x7bF4995334e65b13BF1719132FB9501e829C21b0
Router: 0xfd61c684c6025dd30Db53462E2BF89186e125819
OrderBook: 0x510aEe84DDD7a0ee8980AD4F4D9cb1df9b487595
ShortsTracker: 0xb52748154b6732858aB4924C20723fAB851c1a21 ReferralStorage: 0x0d9996aEA2ac28C3Bcd3E5C3dfB9ae783176dcE5 ReferralReader: 0xd5d7B6D8c56e13dE6F7Cdfa2FfCA3a9a72fb2f22 PositionRouter: 0xf9f3881090f263f48cc306549B5E50AE22b5e01A PositionManager: 0xACB602d1F3D94FB3cb337455d5000c3cd0c30945 TokenManager: 0x08E05C80D793c7fDCefD71D969257f7b34f31D6a
Timelock: 0xd358e62D9A5A718198199a9e3cbA1c13B2977eFC
FastPriceEvents: 0x4C69Ae56882d5d584e63651E751724bF18b73120 FastPriceFeed: 0x65f9FfB905983a57E9468003e1925a7FFAc5bFbC
Reader: 0x6c85e04183dC05fA80EA33b0BFe603bC7605d9D6
USDG: 0x4FDA333B733cb903f1ac5eC45d08495AeAde9bA3
ZLP: 0x9C69653F113dC8d7EfE344E0E195B280ab8713a2
ZlpManager: 0xe7499dD441950F743044bf4Bf22D254690B601a3
StakedZlp: 0x48248a88FcBc18A174b5c9805BFaFd71da669fa6
StakedZusTracker: 0x1d90e76E1C754A86bc63573C05a334cC8d5d3Fe7 StakedZusDistributor: 0x8A1644D835D2108Dc5242C0C6BFc15112C8a6e5E FeeZlpTracker: 0x0B3c7a59Eb993956E338aADFBFb651dFAcd285e6 FeeZlpDistributor: 0x5CC4Fb66D5FDeD01904f31d32F4083183700358D StakedZlpTracker: 0xEdF1aa6b641C432dD76C2347F859EEeAFfA4F1A5 StakedZlpDistributor: 0x087Be95153317733A91d45E9dd7eC18c31Cd3208 RewardRouter: 0xaB3B577fc925a309a784A4351Bbe8A5B7716c759 VaultErrorController: 0xC6B36479d34BA01dA1A94C02E3b71fEf3fEe6661

Other Onchain Proof

ZEUS Exchange already shows strong onchain activity on the Base Sepolia.
More than 38,000 users have interacted with the protocol and generated 2,035,480 onchain transactions during the testing phase.
Users interact directly with the smart contracts to open positions, trade and participate in the protocol economy.
The protocol operates fully onchain. Core actions such as opening positions, liquidations and reward distribution are executed directly through smart contracts.
ZEUS is also integrated into Base App as a mini app and supports user profiles via Farcaster, allowing the protocol to use the social layer of the Base ecosystem.

The protocol has successfully completed a full smart contract security audit by Hashlock.