Nobody gets stranded
D17 blog · 07 · settlement & the permissionless endgame
There's a failure mode in on-chain systems that gets far less attention than theft: abandonment. The sale that can't finalize because only the deployer can press the button and the deployer is gone. The claim window that closed while you were on holiday. The funds that aren't stolen, exactly - just unreachable, forever, behind a step someone else was supposed to take.
D17's endgame is built so that no single absent, lazy, or malicious actor can strand anyone else. The design rule: every step that must happen can be triggered by anyone; every claim that belongs to you waits for you indefinitely.
Finalization is a public service
When the five rounds complete, the launch needs finalizing - the step that snapshots the raise, locks the outcome, and burns what didn't sell. On most platforms this is the deployer's job, which means it's also the deployer's hostage.
On D17, finalize is permissionless. Any address can call it once the rounds are done. The creator finalizing their own launch is a courtesy, not a requirement; if they vanish at the finish line, the next interested participant - or an indexer bot, or you - completes the launch. The contract doesn't care whose gas it was.
Being away costs you nothing
After finalization comes settlement: each participant's locker converts its committed WETH into tokens, paying the published fees and sending the liquidity share to the pool. Trading opens only once every position is settled, so nobody's liquidity arrives after the market has moved.
If you are away when the claim window closes, anyone can settle your position for you - typically the creator, who wants trading to open. You receive exactly the same tokens for the same commitment and pay exactly the same fees; the tokens land in your own vault, and the person who settled you gets nothing but the gas bill. There is no deadline after which your position decays and no unclaimed-position sweep to anyone.
Even settlement itself can be done for you
One more layer down: after a grace period passes, anyone can trigger settlement on a locker's behalf. Not redirect it - the tokens still land in that locker, owned by that owner - just execute it. Lost your keys for six months? Your position settles into your locker anyway, safe, waiting. The permissionless caller gets nothing but the satisfaction; the locker owner loses nothing but the excuse.
The same philosophy runs through every other step:
- Pool creation is permissionless once its conditions are met.
- Creator vesting is released by anyone who presses the button - and the tokens can only go to the creator address fixed in the rules.
- Cleanup is public too: once everyone has settled, anyone can burn the rounding dust left in the launch. If a launch fails, every buyer gets back everything they put in, early-refund penalties included.
Every step from "rounds over" to "token trading" can be walked by the public.
Why this matters more than it sounds
Strandedness is the quiet tax on-chain systems levy on ordinary life - on people who travel, forget, procrastinate, or lose a phone. A mechanism is only as fair as its treatment of the participant who shows up late. D17's endgame treats the absent deployer as a nuisance to route around and the absent participant as someone whose property is simply held - not forfeited, not diluted, not swept.
The lifecycle has no step that requires a specific person, and no claim that expires. It finishes because anyone can finish it.
The mechanics: finalizeLaunch is permissionless once rounds complete; createOfficialPool requires every final commitment settled; after the grace period anyone may run settleAfterGrace for any locker, or settleAfterGraceBatch for up to 4, with outcomes identical in tokens and fees; createOfficialPool, releaseCreatorTokens and burnResidualTokens are permissionless; a failed launch's refund returns principal and penalties.