Overview

Starling is a pooled opening for launches on Pons V2, the launchpad of Robinhood Chain. A creator opens a flock. People deposit ETH. After a deadline, one transaction creates the token and buys the whole pool on its bonding curve, at the start price. Everybody in the flock gets the same price per ETH.

The problem

On a bonding curve the price rises with every buy, so who buys first pays least. On Robinhood Chain a block takes about 0.1 seconds, and the first seconds of a launch are decided by whoever is already waiting with a script. We replayed 8,135 launches over 4 days: in the first 30 seconds of a median launch, 3 wallets buy, the biggest takes 71% of those tokens, and 48% of them are bought in the first 3 seconds. A buyer arriving 10 seconds late pays a median +41% above the first price.

The idea

Do not race. Join a flock before the token exists, and let one transaction buy for everyone, first, at the start price. Nobody can be in front of the flock, because there is nothing to buy until the same transaction creates it.

What you get, and what you do not

• Same price for every member, whatever time they joined, and a bot that joins gets the same price as you.
• A floor. The start of the curve is also its lowest price: a flock that sells back at once recovers about 94.1% of what it put in at a 2% creator tax. What you can lose on the curve is the fees, 5.9%.
• No owner, no fee of ours, no upgrade. The contract is one file.
• It does not pick good tokens, does not stop the creator from selling, and the floor ends if the token graduates (26 of 8,135 did). See Limits.

Where to go next

• How it works, step by step.
• Quickstart: open, join, launch, claim with real commands.
• The Lab: replay a flock on real launches.
• Proof: every number and how to rerun it.