Introducing OFRs: Faster Shreds, Better Performance on Solana

In Solana trading, milliseconds can mean the difference between winning and losing. High-frequency traders (HFTs), market-makers, and validators know that execution speed is critical — whether you’re capturing opportunities in volatile markets or optimizing order flow. The faster you receive and process transaction data, the greater your competitive edge.

That’s why we’re launching Optimized Feed Relays (OFRs, pronounced OFFERs) — a game-changing service that delivers Solana shreds faster than ever through the bloXroute Solana Blockchain Development Network (BDN) Gateway. The name OFRs is also a tribute to Offer Markovich, bloXroute’s late CTO. Offer was a passionate advocate for Solana and dedicated the past two years to building and innovating within its ecosystem. In fact, it was a conversation with Offer about the need for a Solana BDN that helped spark this very initiative — just days later, he not only envisioned but also developed a Solana BDN gateway.

Why OFRs Matter

Solana distributes small packets, called shreds, that need to be received in order to resolve the transactions and blocks that they represent. Faster shred delivery means:

• Optimized transaction propagation → Faster decision-making, improved execution.
• Lower latency → A critical advantage for traders relying on speed-sensitive strategies and for validators voting on blocks that rely on keeping in sync with the leader.
• Seamless integration with bloXroute’s Solana BDN → Plug into the best networking layer in crypto.

By reducing shred delivery time, OFRs ensure market participants can process and react to new information faster than the competition. This isn’t just an upgrade — it’s a paradigm shift for those operating in high-performance trading environments.

OFRs: the Fastest Way to Receive Solana Shreds

Unlike traditional Solana nodes, which receive and distribute shreds at the default p2p network speed, OFRs leverage bloXroute’s BDN to intelligently route and prioritize shred delivery. By utilizing advanced networking techniques, including optimized relay topologies and parallelized data distribution, OFRs ensure that transaction data reaches market participants much faster than traditional methods. This means that nodes can receive shreds more quickly, leading to faster Geyser updates for real-time data processing. Additionally, shreds can be directly consumed from the bloXroute Solana Gateway, offering an even more efficient way to access critical Solana network data.

In our benchmark tests, OFRs outperformed the default Turbine protocol ~98% of the time, delivering shreds more than 50ms faster in ~27% of cases.

How OFRs Compare to Standard Shreds through Turbine

For traders, validators, and firms who rely on fast, reliable data propagation, OFRs represent a significant leap forward. With Solana’s growing ecosystem and the increasing complexity of MEV strategies, having an edge in data speed is more important than ever.

How OFRs Work

bloXroute’s BDN supercharges Solana’s data flow, acting as an optimized, low-latency global relay network. The BDN utilizes features like easy access gateways, global relay clusters, and DNS and load balancers to produce faster shreds, resulting in improved performance for traders and validators.

Start Using OFRs Today

The introduction of OFRs is just the beginning. As we continue refining and expanding our Solana BDN capabilities, we’ll share more insights, benchmarks, and real-world performance data.

If you’re a validator, HFT firm, trader, or market maker looking to optimize your execution on Solana, sign up for a free introductory account today. If you’d like to speak with a bloXroute team member about supercharging your trading strategy with OFRs, book a demo.