In the past year, the narrative in the Layer 1 track has fallen into a digital game. Various testnets have taken turns breaking TPS records, with theoretical peaks in the millions and tens of millions displayed as the crown jewels. It seems that whoever can present higher numbers on a PPT can win the ticket to the next bull market.
However, several deep conversations I had with friends who engage in quantitative trading during the Spring Festival led me to develop a subtle doubt about this indicator. They had six screens on their table, with the fluctuations of candlesticks reflected in their pupils, but very few actually cared about the theoretical throughput of a certain chain. What they repeatedly emphasized was another term: the stability of latency.
1. The truth obscured by TPS
The essence of TPS is bandwidth. It measures how many transactions a chain can process in parallel, like how many planes an airport can take off and land simultaneously. But for already departed flights—an already submitted transaction, TPS cannot answer the most critical question: when will it actually land?
In the world of quantitative traders, time is not measured in seconds or milliseconds. Their unit of time is 'slippage.' When the market fluctuates violently, market liquidity retreats like receding sea water, instantly withdrawing from the order book. At that moment, every take-profit and stop-loss instruction you press is racing against the speed of light. If your order is stuck on the chain for 200 milliseconds, the price may have already penetrated your expectations, turning profit into loss, and stop-loss into taking over.
This explains why many traders are skeptical about 'high TPS public chains.' Network congestion during peak periods can render all theoretical numbers ineffective. You never know which block the next crucial transaction will be stuck behind.
2. Another optimization philosophy
FOGO's idea precisely hits this pain point.
It has not placed all its chips on maximizing TPS—although its architecture based on the Firedancer client has achieved a peak of 136,000 in the testnet. More critically, it has invested significant energy in optimizing underlying latency: compressing the block time of validator nodes to within 40 milliseconds, with final determinism locked at 1.3 seconds.
What does this number sequence mean? For a high-frequency strategy, it means that you can complete the full loop of 'entry-confirm-exit' within a price signal's fluctuation cycle. More importantly, this low latency is stable, rather than an occasional peak.
I once ran a simple grid strategy on a popular public blockchain. Most of the time, it was smooth sailing, until one time during a spike market—my buy order was stuck halfway, and by the time it confirmed, the price had already rebounded past my sell order range. After that experience, I realized a truth: the 'average performance' of the chain is not important; what matters is whether it can provide you with a certain channel at the most crowded moments.
3. Hidden 'transaction tax' and Sessions standard
Another detail worth noting about FOGO is the Sessions standard.
In traditional public blockchains, high-frequency trading faces an invisible threshold: every interaction requires paying Gas fees. For small arbitrage strategies, this is almost a disaster—frequent transaction fee consumption can completely wipe out the thin profit margin.
FOGO allows the application party to pay Gas on behalf, and users only need to complete the signature within the Session. For traders, this means the marginal cost of each strategy is significantly compressed, and those previously 'not worth doing' small arbitrage opportunities have re-entered the operational range.
Behind this design is a recognition: in the competition at the application layer, whoever can minimize friction costs can retain the core users who truly generate trading volume.
4. The ultimate outcome of public chains is 'the choice of traders'
I am increasingly inclined to a judgment: the ultimate division of public chains does not depend on whose code is more elegant or whose theoretical throughput is higher, but on a simple standard—where those who truly hold funds and run strategies are willing to place their positions.
Traders are the most discerning users in this ecosystem. They are sensitive to delays, demanding of stability, and meticulous about friction costs. If a chain can still provide a consistent trading experience under the most extreme market conditions, it will be included in the strategy library and become a 'main venue' that continuously generates trading volume.
The direction chosen by FOGO precisely addresses the core demands of this group. It does not paint an infinite throughput pie, but rather focuses its energy on ensuring that every transaction can reach its destination at a certain time. For those holding spot assets, this clear technical path may be a more reassuring reason than short-term price increases.
