Order Execution

How Urani Settles Orders on Solana

The Solana network can be thought of as a high-speed stream of blocks, where block production is much faster than on EVM-based blockchains (around 400-600 milliseconds block times, as opposed to 12-13 seconds on Ethereum).

The Urani Protocol is designed to collect and aggregate intents and settle them into batches within a few seconds. This design choice is similar to leading intent-based projects on EVM-based blockchains (where around 20% of the orders are matched within the designated time frame). However, this can change in future versions of the protocol.

Since Urani Protocol's on-chain settlements are derived from batching, order executions have some latency compared to the network's underlying speed. However, as a trade-off, users benefit from secure trading.

As the system scales, network effects, and enhanced peer-to-peer and ring matches should allow improvements in the speed at which order flows are settled, reaching parity while offering unmatched price discovery.

Before the system reaches a certain volume and network effects, it's impossible to benchmark performance accurately.

Therefore, until then, the protocol will ensure that if the solution of the batches is unavailable within the desired time frame (set to 3 seconds), the order fallbacks will be filled with the current best price available.

---

Considerations Regarding Protocol vs. Agent Settlement

Generally, protocol execution is more straightforward to implement, but it carries higher centralization risks. Leaving the execution to agents, on the other hand, can be more adaptable to last-minute changes and is directly permissionless.

For the v1 (alpha) launch, we had to choose between prioritizing the agent's full permissionless-ness or eliminating entry barriers (i.e., not relying on KYC or bonds).

Since anonymously onboarding anyone who writes code and wants to become a MEV agent operator is our main priority, this first version of the protocol includes settlement managed by the protocol.

Once we have the right incentives in place to ensure minimal attack surfaces, we plan to transfer settlement responsibilities to the agents (so that the protocol can become permissionless).