What is Scalar
A fully collateralized onchain derivatives protocol. Any market. Any payoff.
Overview
Any market. Any payoff.
Scalar is a fully collateralized, onchain derivatives protocol. Each contract settles to a continuous value between 0 and 1, enabling any payout structure, from Yes/No prediction markets to exotic options and structured products. Scalar unlocks unlimited new market primitives for traders.
ETH is at $3,000 and you think it's rising. You go long on "ETH $3,000–$4,000" at a $3.00 entry. ETH ends at $3,500, halfway up the range, so the contract settles at 0.50 and pays you $5.00 per contract: a $2.00 profit, risk capped at your entry. No liquidations, no margin, every payout backed by collateral locked onchain.
Scalar never takes custody of your funds. Collateral sits in the contract, payouts are enforced onchain, and you can never lose more than your entry.
Why Scalar Is Different
Prediction markets are binary. Every question is yes or no, paying out fully or nothing. Bet on anything with nuance and they chop it into dozens of separate yes/no markets, scattering liquidity across all of them.
Scalar settles on a continuous scale from 0 to 1. One contract can resolve anywhere in between, so a single market does the work of dozens and can express payoffs that don't even exist as yes/no questions.
Any market. Any payoff.
| Traditional prediction markets | Scalar | |
|---|---|---|
| Max payout | $1 | $10 |
| Settlement | Binary (0 or 1) | Continuous (0 to 1) |
| Market types | Yes / No only | Yes/No + spreads, accruals, one-touch |
| Liquidity | Fragmented | Concentrated in one book |
How a Contract Works
The $10 contract. Every contract has a fixed $10 maximum payout (par), fully backed by collateral locked onchain when you trade. You enter at any price between $0 and $10: pay $2 if you expect a low settlement, $8 if you expect a high one. At settlement you receive between $0 and $10 per contract, and your P&L is the gap between your entry and the payout. Same math for every market.
The price is the expected payout. Trade at $6.00 and the book is pricing a 60% expected settlement. One market, one number, real price discovery, all onchain.
Long and short. Every market has two sides:
- Long: profit when the settlement value is high.
- Short: profit when the settlement value is low.
They share one order book. A long and a short are opposite legs on the same contract, so they trade directly against each other.
Payoff parity. A long and a short on the same contract always sum to the $10 max. Whatever the long gains, the short gives up: a clean, zero-sum pair that nets to par.
Settlement. At expiration, every contract settles to a value between 0 and 1, for example 0, 1, 0.5, or 0.8. Payout per contract:
- Long:
value × $10 × position size - Short:
(1 − value) × $10 × position size
Settle at 1 and the long gets the full $10 (short gets nothing); 0 reverses it; anything in between splits the payout.
| Settlement value | Long gets | Short gets |
|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | $10.00 | $0.00 |
| 0.8 | $8.00 | $2.00 |
| 0.5 | $5.00 | $5.00 |
| 0.0 | $0.00 | $10.00 |
Per contract, position size of 1.
Resolution is permissionless. Price markets resolve from Pyth Network oracle data committed to onchain settler contracts — no centralized party. Anyone can trigger resolution by posting valid oracle data.
Capital Efficient
Opposing size nets to zero and collateral is freed instantly. Reuse your capital without waiting for expiry.
Close a position early by opening the offsetting leg: a long is flattened by going short, and vice versa. You're never locked in until expiration.
Markets Scalar Can Express
One Scalar contract covers payoffs that prediction markets need many markets to replicate, or cannot offer at all: binary, spread, range accrual, and one-touch. See What You Can Trade for how each works.
Hybrid Architecture
Scalar pairs orders offchain in a Rust matching engine for instant fills, then settles every trade onchain for verifiable trust and self-custody. See Architecture for the full breakdown.