A Standard for the Transmission of
Bonding Curve Trades on Avian Carriers

Status of This Memo

This memo describes an experimental method for trading pump.fun-style tokens using carrier pigeons. It is a specification, not a product. Nothing in this document has been implemented. The pigeons have not been consulted. Distribution of this memo is unlimited, mostly by pigeon.

Abstract

Solana produces a block roughly every 400 milliseconds. This is far too fast for anyone to make good decisions. This document specifies PoAC (pump over Avian Carriers), a transport in which every buy, sell and creator-fee sweep is written on a small scroll, attached to the leg of a pigeon, and flown to the curve loft. Settlement is final once the bird is seated.

1.Introduction

In the trenches, a wallet can buy the top and sell the bottom inside the same second. Under PoAC, the fastest possible round trip is one full flight each way. A jeet who panics at 14:00 settles at around 18:12, by which time the panic has usually passed.

PoAC also removes sniping in its current form. To land a trade before yours, an attacker needs a faster bird. See Section 8.

2.Conventions

The key words MUST, MUST NOT, SHOULD, MAY and COO in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119], except COO, which is to be interpreted by the bird.

3.Terminology

LOFT

The bonding curve. Physically, a shed. Holds the SOL reserve and a bowl of seeds.

CARRIER

A homing pigeon, Columba livia domestica. Not a wallet. Has no seed phrase, only seeds.

SCROLL

The transaction payload. Handwritten, 256 bytes maximum, rolled.

COOP

The mempool. Birds wait here until wind conditions are acceptable.

CRUMB

The unit of gas. A standard flight costs 1 crumb per 2 km. Priority fees are paid in sunflower seeds.

HAWK

An adversary with unbounded airspeed and no interest in your position.

4.Scroll Format

Each scroll MUST carry the following header, written left to right in waterproof ink:

 0                   1                   2                   3
 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|Version|  Op   |L|              Leg Ring Number                |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                     Amount (lamports, in ink)                 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|      Slippage (feathers)      |       Checksum (crumbs)       |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                     Payload (handwritten) ...                 |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Op

0x1 BUY · 0x2 SELL · 0x3 COPE · 0xF PANIC

L (leg)

0 = left leg (buys), 1 = right leg (sells). Implementations MUST NOT attach a buy and a sell to the same bird. The bird will be confused.

Checksum

One crumb per valid byte. If the bird eats the checksum, the scroll is discarded.

5.The Curve

Pricing follows the standard pump.fun constant-product curve, x · y = k, where x is the virtual SOL reserve and y is the number of tokens left in the loft. A buy scroll moves the price only after the carrier is seated and the loft keeper has countersigned it with a stamp.

When the curve completes, the loft graduates. The birds are released and the liquidity migrates, in formation, to the AMM. Migration SHOULD avoid October through March.

6.Performance

7.Packet Loss

This has been tested. In 2001, the Bergen Linux User Group in Norway implemented RFC 1149 and sent 9 ping packets by pigeon. 4 came back, for a packet loss of 55%. Round trips took between roughly 53 and 87 minutes. This is still a better fill rate than most wallets in the trenches.

Known causes of loss:

• HAWK: adversarial. Scroll and carrier are both lost.
• BREAD: Byzantine. The carrier stopped in a park and did not continue.
• STATUE: the carrier sat on a statue and forgot.
• WEATHER: the carrier waited it out in the coop. This is a delay, not a loss.

A lost scroll MUST NOT be retransmitted on the same bird. It is not the bird's fault.

8.Security Considerations

Front-running. A peregrine falcon in a dive exceeds 300 km/h. An attacker with a falcon can land ahead of any trade. This is called Maximal Eagle Value. Yes, a falcon is not an eagle. The acronym was already taken.

Replay attacks. Homing pigeons are replay attacks by design. They always come back. Lofts SHOULD track ring numbers.

Sybil attacks. All pigeons look the same. Ring numbers are mandatory.

Rug pulls. Pigeons have no hands and cannot rug. Developers still can. See Section 10.

9.IANA Considerations

This document requests no IANA action. IANA was sent a pigeon. The pigeon has not returned.

10.The Boring Part (not a joke)

Author's Address

p/pigeon working group
The roof, left of the chimney
Email: not supported. Send a pigeon.