The following article is an invited article and an opinion of Mike Cahill, CEO and co-founder of Douro Labs
Decentralization was the founding promise of the blockchain, but in finance, the milliseconds move the markets. Unless web3 can correspond to the subsecond speed of Wall Street, users will continue to choose faster rails of traditional finance. We see it in decentralized networks like Ethereum, which treats approximately 15 transactions per second, against 24,000 visa.
Since the Internet has irrevocably changed finance, the world has never looked back. In fact, speed is an essential component that underpins all the facets of the operation of finance. This is the difference between closing an arbitration opportunity or completely missing it, or seeing funds that change life hitting your account just before missing a significant payment.
At the same time, traditional finance is always incredibly opted, struggling with hidden costs and designed to keep some elites at the top while everyone is completely locked. For the blockchain to really revolutionize the systems in place today – and to offer users transparent, open and fair alternatives – the web 3 ecosystem will have to become much faster.
The chains that we have today do not cut it
Bitcoin is the best known cryptocurrency that exists. This is largely because it was the first, inspiring the idea of a native internet exchange system that is not linked to any government or nation. However, despite its international fame, manufacturers still cannot ignore that Bitcoin has a 10 -minute block time and can only manage 10 transactions per second.
Ethereum marginally improves on this, but its average of 14 transactions per second is always incredibly slow compared to centralized payment processors. Ethereum transactions can also transport high gas fees, which constitute a major obstacle to generalized adoption. Compared to the NASDAQ, which deals on average 20,000 stock market transactions, it is clear how clearly the blockchain systems are clear.
In addition, although the principles of decentralization and confidence of the blockchain are important, apart from crypto-native circles, most people do not care as much about decentralization as performance. Many users prefer centralized systems, such as banks or traditional exchanges, because they are faster, cheaper and much more efficient.
Despite the decentralized confidence of Ethereum, its slow speed and high costs are a serious drawback. In other words, the most used channels are not even close to competition with traditional offers. This means that users will have to look for faster and more centralized offers to help fill the gap.
Speed is the function of killer
Currently, even the most crypto-native circles are starting to sacrifice decentralization for speed. For example, performance -oriented chains like Solana, with blocking hours of 400 milliseconds, support up to 3,000 transactions per second, which brings us closer to traditional offers. The rise of centralized platforms such as the hyperliquid still emouts this trend.
In May 2025 alone, the hyperliquid trading volume jumped 50%, according to Defilma, highlighting the growing number of traders who favor speed on a decentralized ethics.
But even with its incredible momentum, the hyperliquid is still not the end of the game. It rests too much on infrastructure that is not open or composable, and it only meets a small part of the needs of DEFI traders. The platform does not have the extensibility and interoperability necessary to support the transition of modern finance into digital assets worldwide.
To find a balance between performance and decentralization, projects can adopt best practices such as lots transactions to reduce the load on the chain, use off -chain control books for faster execution and optimization of state differences to minimize gas costs and latency.
The real Killer application for Blockchain technology will be a platform that combines decentralization with performance and it is as fast, smooth and inexpensive as centralized alternatives like Revolut. Once this happens, there will be no more conversations on “Defi vs tradfi” or “centralization vs decentralization”.
Instead, we will simply have a new standard for the financial industry that works as quickly and as transparent as the Internet itself.
The history is unequivocal: the fastest networks become the default value. For blockchain, confidence alone is not a ditch – the disease is. Manufacturers who deliver a web quality speed without sacrificing the opening will hold the next decade of funding.
