Improving Solana Transaction Execution with bloXroute’s Trader API

bloXroute offers several options for users to expedite Solana transactions execution (e.g. inclusion rate). In this post, we will share benchmark results of the advantages of Trader API with regards to transaction inclusion rate. While traders can improve transaction inclusion by optimizing the transaction to have less instructions and avoid hot accounts, in this post we will look solely at the effects of reducing latency and improved infrastructure.

For more information on Trader API options for transaction execution please refer to our docs.

Methodology

The methodology used for this benchmark is the same we use with EVM chains. To compare transaction inclusion rates and latency, we sent a pair of transactions simultaneously with different options (such as different endpoints, or different execute options etc), and compared the slot number and position in a slot that each transaction in a pair is being included (as well as if there are dropped transactions). 

TL;DR
The results highlight the superiority of bloXroute's Trader API, especially when utilizing priority fees and tips together.

Case 1: Trader API vs. Public Endpoint.

In this case, we sent 100 pairs of transactions to both the Trader API and the nearest Solana public endpoint. We confirmed that the Solana public endpoint has similar latency as the Trader API. We ran this test with different options such as with and without priority fee. In the case of priority fee, both transactions in the pair included the same priority fee or zero priority fee when we tested without.

Results 

55%-65% of the txs landed first by Trader API depending on how congested the network is.  

No lost transactions.

Once we established that Trader API is faster than public RPC endpoints, we ran the next few cases comparing different execution flags while using just the Trader API.

Case 2: Trader API with Priority Fee vs. Trader API with Frontrunning Protection

In this case, we sent 100 pairs of transactions to the same Trader API instance. One transaction in the pair utilized only a priority fee while the other transaction tipped the validator (via Jito), being sent as Frontrunning protection (e.g. private transaction). To have a reliable comparison, we made sure that from the user perspective, both transactions cost the same.

In the case of Priority fee - compute limit= 30000 and compute price=50000 resulting with priority fee = 50000 * 1e-6 * 1e-9 * 30000 = 0.0000015 SOL.

In the case of private transaction (e.g.Jito) tip was 1500 lamport resulting with tip in sol = 1500 * 1e-9 = 0.0000015 SOL.

Results 

59% of the txs landed first by Trader API with Frontrunning protection.

3 txs sent with Frontrunning protection were lost.

Case 3: Trader API with Priority Fee and Tipping vs. Trader API with Priority Fee Only

In this case, we sent 100 pairs of transactions to the same Trader API instance. One transaction in the pair only used priority fee and the other  utilized both tipping and priority fees. The total amount of SOL used in each scenario was identical. 

In the case of just priority fee - compute limit= 30000 and compute price=100000.  priority fee = 100000 * 1e-6 * 1e-9 * 30000 = 0.000003 SOL.

In the case of priority fee and bribe (e.g.Jito) - compute limit= 30000 and compute price=50000 and tip was 1500. priority fee  = 50000 * 1e-6 * 1e-9 * 30000 and tip (1500 * 1e-9), which is 0.000003 SOL total.

Results 

83% of the txs landed first by Trader API with both Priority Fee and Frontrunning protection.

No lost transactions.

Conclusion

bloXroute's Trader API emerges as a powerful tool for optimizing Solana transaction execution, offering significant improvements in inclusion rates and latency. As Solana continues to gain traction, leveraging bloXroute's Trader API can enhance transaction processing efficiency and reliability. Explore bloXroute's Trader API further to unlock the full potential of your Solana transactions.