When I published A Record-Breaking Run for Bancor’s Arbitrage Infrastructure, I was reporting on an exciting milestone: five records shattered in three consecutive months on Sei.
The more I sat with the data though, the more I realized it raised a much bigger question — not just about performance, but about purpose.
So I sat down with Bancor Project Lead, Dr. Mark Richardson, and asked a simple question:
“Why is this so significant to Sei, or to other blockchains that might have the Arb Fast Lane deployed on it?”
Here’s what he had to say:
Blockchain Is Always a Work in Progress
When we bring these products to new blockchains, it’s with this sort of unspoken understanding that we’re never complacent. Our products are always a work in progress, just as all of blockchain is a work in progress.
Ethereum has been through several very major and many more minor upgrades since the time that it was released. Even the Bitcoin blockchain has remained not stagnant, and we’re entering into the post quantum world. I expect the Bitcoin blockchain to continue to have to upgrade itself to remain resistant against quantum cryptographic hash attacking techniques and other things.
And so it’s not the case that we finish building something that we consider ready to ship and then we stop building it.
Infrastructure isn’t something you finish — it’s something you maintain, evolve, and adapt. The Arb Fast Lane is no exception. Launching it on a new chain doesn’t mean it’s complete. It means the real work is just beginning.
Launching a Product Is Just the Beginning
We get it to the state that we think is required for it to meet the minimum quality assurance, but that’s really the beginning of the work. Right after that, we wait to see how the market reacts to things. We wait to see what the blockchains that we’re deploying these products on are doing with their own technology stack, and then we react to those forces.
Every blockchain is different. So the infrastructure must evolve in context. It’s not just about watching metrics — it’s about understanding how the underlying chain is changing and responding in real-time.
Why Breaking Records Is a Signal
So it’s a constantly evolving organic thing. And the fact that we’re continuing to break records in the arbitrage component of what we bring to these blockchains is testament to that. If it were the case that we were ever satisfied with anything that we’ve built as is, then we wouldn’t expect it to continue breaking these records. It should plateau off. But very much contrary to that, what we, specifically with respect to the arbitrage infrastructure, have continued to optimize it.
Five records in three months isn’t a coincidence — it’s proof of an engineering culture that doesn’t slow down once something is live. The Arb Fast Lane is still accelerating because Bancor keeps pushing.
A Different Approach to Arbitrage
I would like to bring attention to the Arxiv paper that Stefan Loesch and I wrote that details specifically, how we approached arbitrage from a slightly different perspective compared to traditional convex solver algorithms.
That was a big leg of work, but something that we thought would bear fruit when it comes to being able to perform arbitrage in an extremely competitive environment. And I think that our conviction has rewarded us in this respect. But more than that, having the theory in place isn’t enough.
The Arb Fast Lane wasn’t just built. It was rethought. It represents a new way of looking at arbitrage execution — one designed for high-performance environments and sustained improvement.
Continuous Optimization Is Everything
You need to continuously optimize the implementation. And there are so many ways things can be optimized when it comes to the frequency of RPC calls, for example. And even just the way that the data is organized and handled in the backend is something that can be continuously optimized.
Behind the scenes, tiny improvements add up to major gains. This is what it means to treat performance as infrastructure — you can’t let up.
A Responsibility to the Ecosystem
It’s an important signal that we do take our responsibilities seriously. And that, when we say that we are shooting to become the premier exchange infrastructure provider — not just in terms of offering exchange services to retail, but then making sure that these exchanges, not just ours, but every exchange that is deployed on that blockchain, is operating the way that it’s supposed to.
For blockchains, the value of deploying the Arb Fast Lane isn’t just in instant gains — it’s in knowing the system behind it will keep improving.
Continuous Improvement Is the Goal
We continuously work towards that goal. And if that was true, we would expect to see continuous improvement. And we are, and that is why we’re continuing to break new records.
The milestone matters — but what it represents matters more. Infrastructure that evolves. Execution that improves. A project that doesn’t stop at “good enough.”
And that’s why the Arb Fast Lane is setting a new standard for what onchain arbitrage infrastructure should be.
To hear it directly from Mark, see the full clip from our conversation where he expands on the philosophy behind continuous optimization and what it means for every blockchain Bancor works with.
Recommended Read
Marginal Price Optimization: A New Framework for Arbitrage and Routing in AMM-Driven Markets — arXiv Research Paper
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