# Perennial Intro

Perennial in its most basic form is infrastructure for derivative markets.

A market in Perennial is a two-sided market (makers & taker) that trades synthetic exposure derived from a price oracle, over a given payoff function. Each market is independent & has isolated risk.

A Market in Perennial is defined by things like:

* [**Oracle**](perennial-intro/oracles)
* [**Payoff function**](perennial-intro/payoff-and-positions)
* [**Fee structure**](perennial-intro/trading-fees-and-price-impact)
* [**Funding Rate**](perennial-intro/funding-rate)
* [**Interest Rate**](perennial-intro/interest-rate)
* [**Leverage & Liquidation**](perennial-intro/leverage-and-liquidations)

Implications of this worth calling out:

1. **Payoffs are fully synthetic** — There can be a Perennial market for any price feed (or any programmable deviation of that price feed). A market could theoretically be created for crypto tokens, currencies, commodities, or any other non-manipulable price feed.
2. **Each price feed may have multiple markets** —  There may be a Long-ETH market with the payoff function 1\*ETH, and a Short-ETH market with the payoff (-1)\*ETH)
3. **Each payoff function may have multiple markets** — There may multiple Short-ETH markets (payoff: (-1)\*ETH), each with its own utilization curve, fees structure, parameters, etc.
