Opportunity / protocol / 01
The mechanics
behind the choice.
An interactive guide to Opportunity’s first options primitive: what an option fixes, how the right moves, and what happens at exercise or expiry.
Accepted v1 design specification, not a deployment or audit claim. Robinhood Chain is the first implementation target.
01 / The idea
A fixed exchange. A transferable right.
An issuer locks a fixed amount of one ERC-20 token in its own escrow. In return, an NFT represents the right to exchange another fixed amount of a different ERC-20 token for that collateral before expiry.
Terms stay fixed
Collateral, payment amount, token addresses, and expiry are set at creation in raw token units.
The right can move
Standard ERC-721 transfers change the holder. They do not change the original issuer or terms.
Exercise is active
The eligible holder must exercise before expiry. A market price crossing a threshold does nothing on its own.
02 / Explore
Follow an option.
Choose an ending, then move through the sequence. These are design rules, not a live trade simulator.
The holder exercises
Before expiry · holder is not issuer
Create
The issuer deposits an exact ERC-20 collateral amount into an individual escrow. A transferable ERC-721 exercise right is minted.
A right becomes a completed exchange only when the holder actively exercises before expiry.
03 / Terms
The contract uses exact amounts.
Creation fixes the collateral token and amount, a different payment token and amount, and a future Unix expiry timestamp. Display decimals, stock-token multipliers, and price feeds do not alter those raw amounts.
Native ETH is not a settlement asset. Exercise is single use, all or nothing, and requires a holder other than the issuer.
04 / Custody & risk
One escrow per option.
Each option receives an ERC-1167 clone escrow bound to its collection. This separates accounting across options. The obligation is the stored collateral amount, not everything in the escrow. Unsolicited token transfers create no option rights.
Token behavior matters
Funding and contractual transfers require exact observed sender debits and recipient credits. Taxed, rebasing, frozen, confiscatable, or dishonest tokens can make fulfillment impossible. A collateral shortfall makes exercise fail; cancellation or reclaim may return less than originally deposited. There is no protocol insurance or administrator repair path.
Only the original issuer can recover residual ERC-20 balances after closure. Shared code vulnerabilities can still affect every escrow despite separate custody.
05 / Versions
Management applies to future issuance.
A registry administrator registers immutable collection versions and selects the version permitted to create new options. Existing options keep their original NFT ownership, escrow, and settlement logic. Retired versions still serve their outstanding options.
The registry cannot withdraw escrow assets, rewrite NFTs, or arbitrarily upgrade a live option. Selecting a version is not a security audit, and an unsafe version can still be selected for future issuance.
06 / Scope
What this design does—and does not—settle.
Specified in v1
- Fixed raw ERC-20 exchange terms
- NFT-held exercise right and lifecycle
- Individual escrow custody
- Future-version selection and threat assumptions
Outside this primitive
- Sales, premiums, pricing, and marketplace matching
- Liquidity, pools, staking, and fees
- Cross-chain transfers and public rollout
- Audit, legal availability, and launch timing
Status This is an accepted protocol design. Robinhood Chain is the first implementation target. Ethereum, Base, and Solana are broader intended targets. This page does not establish that contracts are deployed, audited, liquid, or available for trading.
Go deeper
Read the complete normative text for permissions, token edge cases, callback safety, interfaces, and verification requirements.
Download the full v1 specification