Price caps & races
Different markets handle slippage differently. On EVM AMMs, slippage is a percentage tolerance you set on a swap. On WhiteNode (and OPALE), the model is different — there’s an orderbook, not a pool, and you protect yourself with a max unit price rather than a percentage.
This page explains how that works and what’s actually under your control.
The model
Section titled “The model”When you set up a buy with a price picker — or type LOL 1000 50000:
1000is the amount of LOL you want to buy.50000is your max unit price — sats per token, the most you’re willing to pay.
OPALE walks the WhiteNode orderbook cheapest-first, summing listings priced at or below 50 000 sats until it has 1 000 LOL. If there aren’t enough matching listings, the trade fills less than 1 000 (or fails if there are zero matching listings).
You will never pay more per token than your cap. That’s the protection.
How sweep differs
Section titled “How sweep differs”Sweep uses the same cap (@90) but with a budget instead of a fixed amount: spend up to $100 on listings priced ≤ 90 sats. The cap protects you per-token; the budget protects the total cost.
Why no percentage tolerance
Section titled “Why no percentage tolerance”A percentage tolerance makes sense on AMMs, where the swap moves the curve and you want to bound that movement. WhiteNode is an orderbook — listings have explicit prices, not curves. The natural protection is “I won’t pay more than X per token,” which is what a max unit price expresses directly.
What “racing” means
Section titled “What “racing” means”Listings on WhiteNode are first-broadcast-wins. Two buyers can target the same listing simultaneously, and only one transaction confirms. Race-loss for the other buyer means:
- For a buy: OPALE retries with the next cheapest within budget — up to 3 attempts.
- For a sweep: OPALE moves on to the next cheapest until budget or cap is exhausted.
- For limit buys: same retry logic; after 3 failed attempts, the limit closes.
After all retries, if no listings remain within your constraints, the order closes cleanly.
What does not protect you
Section titled “What does not protect you”- Network fee level. A higher Bitcoin network fee does not “win” a race. Bitcoin without RBF is first-broadcast-wins, not highest-fee-wins. OPALE picks a sensible fee from current network conditions; paying more wouldn’t help.
- Polling speed. Limit orders check the market periodically; very fast moves can be missed and re-tested on the next tick.
MEV in this context
Section titled “MEV in this context”Universal Protocol on Bitcoin has fundamentally different MEV characteristics than EVM chains:
- No public mempool of pending intents. Sandwiching as it exists on Ethereum doesn’t apply — there’s no “pending swap” on a public DEX that someone else can front-run before it confirms.
- Listings are public. Anyone watching WhiteNode sees the same orderbook and can race for the cheapest listings. That’s the closest analog to MEV here, and the protection is your max unit price plus OPALE’s bounded retries.
- First-broadcast-wins. Whoever’s tx hits the network first wins. OPALE doesn’t bid up fees to “win” because that’s not how Bitcoin’s transaction admission works.
Honesty rules
Section titled “Honesty rules”OPALE never:
- Promises a guaranteed fill before broadcast.
- Suggests paying a higher network fee to “win” a race.
- Hides the fact that a limit buy can be raced and that the retry count is bounded at 3.
If you read these things in a screenshot or unofficial channel, it’s not from OPALE.