Building for Ink: Custom Infrastructure for High-Performance DeFi

Overview

Ink is a high-performance Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain built on the OP Stack and governed by the Ink Foundation. With sub-second block times, enhanced modularity, and ecosystem-wide compatibility, Ink is designed to support performant, onchain applications at scale.

The Kraken team collaborated with Gelato to support the Ink Foundation’s goals of reducing latency, enabling gas abstraction, and meeting technical requirements for regulated entities and developers alike.

Optimizing Performance for DeFi Applications

To meet the demands of advanced trading protocols and liquidity providers, the Ink Foundation prioritized low-latency block production. In support of this goal, Gelato implemented a custom sequencer architecture that enables sub-second blocks while maintaining full OP Stack compatibility.

Shorter block intervals reduce arbitrage windows and improve execution for DeFi users, supporting more efficient and fair market conditions. These upgrades demonstrate the flexibility of the OP Stack and its ability to support real-world performance requirements.

Enabling a Streamlined User Experience

To support the broader goal of lowering barriers to onchain participation, Ink uses Gelato’s Paymaster and Bundler APIs to abstract gas fees and network complexities. Gelato’s co-location of sequencer and bundler services allows for low-latency transaction bundling, enabling gasless usage and simplified onboarding.

These features contribute to a user experience that mirrors Web2 performance, while remaining fully transparent and verifiable onchain.

Toward Decentralized Sequencing

The Ink Foundation and its contributors are exploring a path toward based rollup architecture, where Ethereum itself provides sequencing. The Ink Foundation, Kraken, and Gelato are working to evaluate this next stage, which would reduce centralized dependencies while maintaining performance.

The goal is to deliver a Layer-2 design that pairs institutional-grade reliability with the decentralization that permissionless infrastructure demands.

Geographically Distributed RPC Access

To improve access across global markets, Gelato’s Global RPC Node Upgrade enables read/write access to Ink through distributed servers in North America, Europe, and Asia. This reduces latency and supports consistent performance for applications and users worldwide.

Why It Matters

Ink shows what’s possible when modular OP Stack infrastructure is tailored to meet enterprise performance and application needs. Kraken’s contributions as a service provider reflect a broader industry effort to bring scalable, secure, and usable onchain infrastructure to production-grade environments.

Gelato’s infrastructure work demonstrates the value of flexible, open developer tooling in enabling robust applications across the growing Layer-2 ecosystem.

Learn more about Gelato Rollups → gelato.cloud/rollups