DEX API & RPC Specification

Documentation: dex.lux.network

Source: github.com/luxfi/dex

Part of LP-9000 Series: This LP is part of the LP-9000 DEX Series - Lux's standalone sidecar exchange network.

LP-9000 Series: LP-9000 Overview | LP-9001 Trading Engine | LP-9003 Performance | LP-9004 Perpetuals | LP-9005 Oracle

Implementation Status

Component	Source	Status
JSON-RPC API	dex/pkg/api/jsonrpc.go	✅ Complete
WebSocket Server	dex/pkg/api/websocket_server.go	✅ Complete
Trader Client	dex/pkg/client/trader_client.go	✅ Complete
gRPC Protocol	dex/pkg/grpc/pb/	✅ Complete
Market Data Aggregator	dex/pkg/marketdata/aggregator.go	✅ Complete

Abstract

This addendum to LP-006 (X-Chain Order-Book DEX) formalizes the API, wire-format, and tooling changes required to integrate a high-performance, on-chain order-book DEX into the Lux X-Chain node software. It covers new transaction types, codec definitions, JSON-RPC and gRPC methods, WebSocket feeds, indexer extensions, mempool prioritization, CLI enhancements, governance parameters, and performance guard-rails.

Motivation

To build a native, LX-style DEX on X-Chain, we must extend the core UTXO/Fx transaction model with order/trade primitives, provide rich API surfaces for real-time and historical data, and integrate indexing and signing tools. This addendum specifies every required change so that explorer, wallet, and bot developers can rely on a uniform, performant interface.

Specification

0 Principles

Goal	Implementation choice
Backward-compatibility	Keep existing UTXO/Fx bookkeeping untouched; DEX logic in new DexFx plugin
Single source of truth	All order, trade, funding & PnL state lives on X-Chain; external via Warp
Uniform tooling	Extend JSON-RPC dex.*, add gRPC, WS feeds
Sub-second UX	Push-first streaming APIs (no polling)
Auditable history	Dedicated DEX indexer tags orders/trades for full reconstruction

1 New Transaction Types (Codec layer)

TxID	Name	Purpose	Typical size (bytes)
0x5a	OrderTx	Place limit/market/stop/TWAP order	260–320
0x5b	CancelTx	Cancel up to 32 order IDs	120–450
0x5c	ModifyTx	Amend price/size/flags of an open order	160
0x5d	BatchLiquidationTx	Liquidate N traders in one transaction	200+40×N
0x5e	FundingSettleTx	System-generated funding payment transfers	180+40×numTraders

1.1 OrderTx serialization (AVAX codec v1)

type OrderTx struct {
    BaseTx          `serialize:"true"`         // Ins/Outs, memo, fee
    MarketID  uint32 `serialize:"true"`         // asset-pair index
    Side      byte   `serialize:"true"`         // 0=buy,1=sell
    Price     uint64 `serialize:"true"`         // Price *1e6
    Size      uint64 `serialize:"true"`         // Size *1e6
    OrderType byte   `serialize:"true"`         // 0=limit,1=market,2=stop,3=twap
    Flags     byte   `serialize:"true"`         // postOnly,reduced,IOC...
    StopPrice uint64 `serialize:"true,optional"`// if stop-order
    Expiry    uint64 `serialize:"true,optional"`// GTC=0
    TWAP      uint16 `serialize:"true,optional"`// seconds between slices
    SubAcct   uint32 `serialize:"true"`         // sub-account ID
}

// Validation: Size>0, Price>0 unless OrderType==market.

1.2 DexFx extension

Register a new feature extension DexFxID = 0x08. Nodes load the DexFx plugin to:

• Validate order/cancel business logic
• Maintain in-memory order book (price→b+tree)
• Emit TradeLog, OrderLog, LiquidationLog to database

2 Node RPC – JSON-RPC namespace dex.*

All methods exposed under /ext/bc/X endpoint. Public reads are open; state mutation calls require X-Chain-Signature header.

Method	Input	Output	Notes
dex.placeOrder	{txBytes,signature}	{txID}	Client pre-builds OrderTx, node validates & submits
dex.cancel	{orderIDs[]}	{txID}	Packs up to 32 IDs per CancelTx
dex.modify	{orderID,newPrice?,newSize?,newFlags?}	{txID}	Emits ModifyTx
dex.getOrderBook	{market,depth}	{bids[],asks[]}	depth ≤500
dex.getTrades	{market,limit,before?}	{trades[]}	newest-first
dex.getAccount	{address}	{balances,margin,subAccounts[]}	includes open orders & PnL
dex.getPosition	{address,market}	{size,entryPrice,uPnL}	cross or isolated
dex.getFundingRates	{market}	{current,hourly,nextTick}	per funding epoch
dex.getMarkets	{}	{markets[]}	tickSize,lotSize,leverage,status

3 gRPC Service (port 9760)

service DexService {
  rpc PlaceOrder   (OrderRequest) returns (TxAck);
  rpc Cancel       (CancelRequest) returns (TxAck);
  rpc StreamBook   (BookSub)    returns (stream BookDelta);
  rpc StreamTrades (TradeSub)   returns (stream TradeEvent);
  rpc StreamAccount(AcctSub)    returns (stream AccountUpdate);
}

Latency target: <25 ms; back-pressure window = 64 MiB.

4 Web‑Socket Push Feeds

URL	Payload	Throttle
wss://node:9650/ws?streams=book.{mkt}@100ms	L2 book deltas	100 ms
…streams=trades.{mkt}	{price,size,side,tid}	real-time
…streams=ticker.{mkt}	{last,indexPrice,funding}	1 s
…streams=account:{addr}	position & margin deltas (JWT)	event-driven

Auth handshake: sign keccak256(nonce) with X‑Chain key; send {auth:{addr,sig}}.

5 Indexer (DEX-IndexDB)

Extend indexer plugin with column-families: orders, trades, positions, liquidations keyed by (market,seq). TradeLog must include seq, taker/maker IDs, price, size, fees.

6 Mempool & Prioritization

Priority = (gasFeeCap μLux × weightFee) + makerBonus – cancelWeight. Fast‑lane for CancelTx bypasses queue (–10 ms).

7 CLI Enhancements

lux-cli dex markets
lux-cli dex place --mkt BTC-USD --side buy --price 63421.5 --size 0.8 --post-only
lux-cli dex cancel --order 0xabc123
lux-cli dex positions
lux-cli dex funding --market ETH-USD

8 Governance & Params

Store fees/limits in DAO DexParams contract; updatable by ≥⅔ vote. Example:

Param	Default	Range
makerFeeBps	−1	−5 … 0
takerFeeBps	3	0 … 10
fundingInterval	3600	600 …86400

9 Performance Guard‑Rails

OrderTx gas≈1400; CancelTx≈500 → 40 M-gas block supports ~1 M tx/s across markets. CI harness xchain-loadgen runs 1000 TPS×20 markets, CPU<75%.

10 Roll‑Out Sequence

1. Devnet (Q4 2025): spot only, example markets BTC-USD, ETH-USD.
2. Beta (Q1 2026): add perps, funding, cross-margin.
3. Mainnet (Q2 2026): 50 markets, fees → validator reward pot.
4. Phase 2: Z‑Chain shielded trading, dark‑pool orders.

Rationale

This addendum standardizes all API and wire-format changes for a DEX extension without altering X-Chain UTXO semantics, enabling explorer, wallet, and bot support from day one.

Backwards Compatibility

DEX features live behind the DexFx extension; nodes without DexFx see no behavior change.

Test Cases

1. Place/cancel/modify flows with valid and invalid inputs.
2. Market depth and trade feed integrity under load.
3. Indexer correctness for historical queries.

Implementation

X-Chain DEX Extension Architecture

Location: ~/work/lux/node/vms/avm/ GitHub: github.com/luxfi/node/tree/main/vms/avm

Core Components:

• plugins/dex/dex_fx.go - DexFx plugin implementation
• plugins/dex/transactions.go - OrderTx, CancelTx codec
• plugins/dex/orderbook.go - In-memory order book
• plugins/dex/rpc.go - RPC methods

DEX Indexer Service:

• Location: ~/work/lux/stack/dex-indexer/
• main.go - Service entrypoint
• indexer.go - Event indexing engine

Order Book Implementation:

// From plugins/dex/orderbook.go
type OrderBook struct {
    bids *bplus.Tree  // price descending
    asks *bplus.Tree  // price ascending
    mu   sync.RWMutex
}

func (ob *OrderBook) PlaceOrder(order OrderTx) error {
    ob.mu.Lock()
    defer ob.mu.Unlock()

    side := &ob.bids
    if order.Side == SELL {
        side = &ob.asks
    }

    // Insert at price level
    return side.Insert(order.Price, order)
}

func (ob *OrderBook) GetBook(depth uint16) (bids, asks []PriceLevel) {
    ob.mu.RLock()
    defer ob.mu.RUnlock()

    for i := 0; i < depth; i++ {
        if item, ok := ob.bids.At(i); ok {
            bids = append(bids, item.(PriceLevel))
        }
    }
    return
}

Testing:

cd ~/work/lux/node
go test ./vms/avm/plugins/dex/... -v -bench=BenchmarkOrderBook

cd ~/work/lux/stack
go test ./dex-indexer/... -v

RPC & WebSocket Performance

dex. RPC Endpoint Performance*:

• dex.placeOrder: <50 ms
• dex.getOrderBook(depth=500): <20 ms
• dex.getTrades(limit=100): <10 ms

WebSocket Streams (latency from event to push):

• book.{market}@100ms: 100 ms throttle
• trades.{market}: <5 ms real-time
• ticker.{market}: 1 s throttle

Reference Implementation

See plugins-core/dex for DexFx code and stack/dex-indexer for indexing service.

Security Considerations

• Validate all DEX transactions in plugin before UTXO application.
• Rate-limit RPC and WS streams to mitigate abuse.
• Implement market circuit breakers for extreme price moves.
• Enforce minimum order sizes to prevent dust attacks.

Copyright

Copyright and related rights waived via CC0.