Web3 developers are tackling a hidden performance crisis: when blockchain networks get congested, applications slow down, transactions fail, and users get frontrun. A new infrastructure platform called ZAN Node is addressing this by placing servers physically near blockchain validators instead of relying on distant cloud data centers, achieving response times below 30 milliseconds across 47 blockchains including Ethereum and Solana.

What's Actually Slowing Down Web3 Applications?

As decentralized finance (DeFi) expands across multiple blockchain networks, developers face mounting challenges that most users never see. Traditional public blockchain nodes depend on distributed cloud infrastructure spread across the internet, which creates variable delays in communication. During periods of heavy network activity, these delays can cause smart contracts to execute incorrectly, transactions to timeout, or sophisticated traders to frontrun ordinary users by seeing their orders first.

The root problem is geography. When a decentralized application sends a request to a blockchain node located thousands of miles away, the data has to travel through multiple internet hops, each adding milliseconds of latency. For high-frequency trading, cross-chain operations, or any application where speed matters, these delays compound into real financial losses.

How Does Co-Location Infrastructure Solve This Problem?

ZAN Node, a Web3 technology brand under Ant Digital Technologies, takes a different approach by placing server clusters in the same data centers or nearby geographic locations as core blockchain validators themselves. This strategy reduces the physical distance data must travel, keeping network round-trip times below 30 milliseconds. For context, a round-trip time is the time it takes for a request to leave your application, reach the blockchain, and return with a response.

The platform also uses an intelligent routing engine that continuously monitors node health, synchronization status, block height, and computational workloads. When decentralized applications submit Remote Procedure Call (RPC) requests, which are standardized instructions for communicating with blockchains, the routing engine dynamically directs traffic to the most efficient node available at that moment. This predictive load-balancing system automatically reroutes traffic whenever node clusters experience increased demand, helping maintain uninterrupted service.

How to Understand ZAN Node's Multi-Chain Optimization Strategy

• Ethereum-Specific Features: Dedicated full-node clusters running optimized execution clients improve historical state queries and accelerate transaction broadcasting, with support for Ethereum Mainnet, Sepolia Testnet, and Holesky Testnet, plus enterprise features like archive node access and gas price oracles.
• Solana Trading Optimization: The platform integrates Stake-Weighted Quality of Service (SWQoS) and advanced Jito block engine routing to improve transaction delivery, with approximately 95% of transactions reaching confirmation within one second and response times in Asia-Pacific data centers under 30 milliseconds.
• Layer 2 Network Support: Base, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, zkSync Era, and Starknet receive dedicated optimization through direct sequencer connections and multi-path broadcasting, shortening transaction finality times while supporting network-specific technologies.

For Solana specifically, nodes positioned alongside Solana validators can achieve round-trip times as low as two to five milliseconds, a dramatic improvement over standard cloud infrastructure. Layer 2 networks, which are scaling solutions built on top of Ethereum or other blockchains, benefit from direct connections to sequencers, the servers that order transactions on these networks.

What Scale Is ZAN Node Actually Operating At?

The infrastructure currently processes more than two billion requests each day while sustaining millisecond-level response times. To put this in perspective, two billion daily requests represents significant real-world usage across decentralized applications, traders, and developers building on multiple blockchains.

The platform supports 47 blockchain networks and offers a unified API gateway that enables developers to access all supported blockchains through a single standardized endpoint. This approach reduces operational complexity associated with managing multiple API keys, varying data formats, and different infrastructure providers. Startups can access a free service tier offering up to 150 million requests each month, reducing infrastructure costs during application development, while enterprise customers receive 99.9% service availability backed by continuous monitoring and automated failover mechanisms.

Why Does This Matter for Web3's Future?

Infrastructure speed has become a competitive advantage in Web3. Applications that can execute transactions faster gain an edge in decentralized finance, where milliseconds determine whether a trade succeeds or fails. By solving the latency problem at the infrastructure layer, ZAN Node removes a technical barrier that has limited Web3 adoption and reliability.

The broader objective is to provide secure and scalable infrastructure through high-performance node services, zero-knowledge acceleration technologies, and smart contract auditing capabilities, helping decentralized applications achieve reliable performance as the Web3 ecosystem continues to expand. This represents a shift in how Web3 infrastructure is being built: instead of treating all blockchains the same, providers are now tailoring their services to the specific technical requirements of each ecosystem.