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A Coincidence of Wants Mechanism for Swap Trade Execution in Decentralized Exchanges

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

Paper Summary

Paperzilla title
DEX Matchmaker: How to Get Everyone What They Want (Theoretically) Without a Middleman

This paper presents a mathematically rigorous framework for identifying and completing Coincidence of Wants (CoW) cycles in decentralized exchanges (DEXs) using graph theory and linear algebra. The proposed algorithm aims to detect both complete CoW cycles and generate "bridging orders" to complete partial ones, demonstrating its application on a small real-world Arbitrum swap dataset.

Explain Like I'm Five

Scientists figured out a clever math trick to help people on online trading platforms swap digital stuff directly with each other, even if they don't have a perfect match, making trades smoother and cheaper.

Possible Conflicts of Interest

An author (Tanuj Behl) is affiliated with "EQ8 Network." Depending on the nature of EQ8 Network and its involvement in decentralized exchanges or related blockchain infrastructure, this could represent a conflict of interest, as their work might directly benefit from or influence the adoption of such a mechanism.

Identified Limitations

Limited Empirical Validation
The algorithm was simulated on a very small dataset (10 swap transactions from one day on Arbitrum), which is insufficient to fully validate its real-world performance, scalability, and robustness in diverse market conditions.
Computational Complexity
The algorithm has exponential worst-case complexity, meaning it could become impractically slow for larger batches of transactions or more complex graphs, despite assertions of tractability under "realistic market conditions."
Reliance on Oracle Prices
The value-feasibility and dollar-normalized transfer matrices heavily depend on external oracle prices, introducing a dependency on their accuracy and potential vulnerabilities if oracle prices are manipulated or stale.
Future Work Implies Current Limitations
Discussions of "fee welfare for traders and LPs," "incentive mechanisms for synthetic bridging," and "dynamic graph updates" as future extensions indicate that these crucial aspects of a practical DEX mechanism are not fully addressed in the current framework.

Rating Explanation

The paper presents a strong, mathematically rigorous theoretical framework for a complex problem in DEXs. However, the practical validation is limited to a small-scale simulation, and concerns remain regarding computational scalability and the real-world implications of certain assumptions and future work items. A potential conflict of interest is noted due to an author's affiliation with "EQ8 Network."

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File Information

Original Title: A Coincidence of Wants Mechanism for Swap Trade Execution in Decentralized Exchanges
Uploaded: October 02, 2025 at 01:00 PM
Privacy: Public