TLDR Tech / Crypto
When Throughput Is Not Enough: What Financial Markets Need From Blockchains
Aggregate blockchain throughput has grown over 100x in five years, with some production systems now clearing tens of thousands of TPS, removing raw capacity as the primary barrier to onchain finance. The conversation has shifted to market microstructure: millisecond inclusion uncertainty forces market makers to widen spreads against stale prices, and discretionary block-building gives MEV extraction the same structural character as privileged order-flow access in traditional markets. a16z researchers propose "Strong Chain Quality" to prevent single-actor control over block inclusion by reserving portions of each block for transactions surfaced through alternate network paths, while protocol designers are evaluating timelock and threshold encryption to hide transaction contents until settlement. Predictable execution, unambiguous priority rules, resilient access, and pre-execution confidentiality with post-execution transparency together define what a settlement layer must deliver before onchain finance works at institutional scale.
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