# Exchange Architecture Historically in DeFi, exchanges have been limited by the underlying infrastructure. Blockchains have been too slow to facilitate the transaction volume required to create an experience similar to that of a centralized exchange.\ \ As a result, building orderbook style exchanges which both retail traders and professionals/institutions are familiar with has been next to impossible. This has resulted in DeFi trading experiences that diverge significantly from the centralized experience. Zeta changes this. In order to build an experience that is inline with a centralized experience a key decision was picking a high performance blockchain. The Solana blockchain met our needs by providing: * High Transactional Throughput: 50,000 per second. * Low Fees: Less than $0.1 in gas fees typically. * Fast Settlement Times: 400ms block times. Solana does this all whilst maintaining necessary security and decentralization guarantees. As such we are able to build a decentralized exchange as performant as a centralized exchange. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://docs.zeta.markets/zeta-protocol/exchange-architecture.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.