Production Infra: RPCs, Mempools, Private Order Flow

What you'll learn

• Infrastructure Is the Strategy
• EVM RPC Providers: Alchemy, Infura, QuickNode
• Solana RPC: Helius, Triton, Jito
• Private Mempools: Flashbots Protect, MEV-Blocker, MEV-Share
• Bundles and Builders: Flashbots, BloXroute, Titan, Beaverbuild
• Latency, Redundancy, Observability: The Operational Layer

Key terms

Alchemy

Largest EVM RPC infrastructure provider as of 2025. Strong enhanced APIs, debug/trace methods, WebSocket support, and broad chain coverage including Solana.

Helius

Leading Solana RPC infrastructure provider with standard JSON-RPC plus enhanced APIs, indexed transactions, NFT helpers, and webhooks. Standard for Solana trading and dApp operations.

Jito

Modified Solana validator client and block engine that enables searcher bundles on Solana with explicit tip payments. Functional analog to Flashbots/MEV-Boost on Ethereum.

Flashbots Protect

Original and most widely used private RPC. Routes transactions directly to participating block builders without public-mempool broadcast, eliminating most sandwich risk.

MEV-Blocker

Community-operated private RPC operated by Cow Protocol and partners. Distinguished by explicit backrun-value rebates returned to the originating user.

MEV-Share

An order flow auction model where transaction existence is broadcast to searchers who bid for the right to interact, with surplus shared back to the originator.

Bundle

An ordered set of transactions that a builder agrees to include atomically — either all of them in the specified order in one block, or none. Primitive for atomic arbitrage, liquidation execution, and conditional flows.

Flashbots Builder

Original and major Ethereum block builder. Open-source builder software with canonical Flashbots Bundle API. One of several major builders alongside BloXroute, Titan, and Beaverbuild.

Beaverbuild

Significant Ethereum block builder with substantial market share. Direct bundle submission and consistent inclusion track record.

Colocation

Placing trading servers in the same data center region as RPC providers and exchange matching engines to minimize latency. AWS US-East-1 is a common default for EVM operations.