Routing a payment well is a decision under constraints: which path is cheapest, fastest, most reliable and most appropriate for the jurisdiction and the rules. As more paths exist — hub participants, card networks, local instant payments, SWIFT, stablecoins and agent protocols — the decision becomes too complex to make by hand or by habit. An execution auction offers a structured way to make it: participants submit machine-readable bids, and routing selects on merit. The design principle is that paying for flow should never influence where flow goes.

Why an auction

An auction is a way to discover the best available path at the moment of execution rather than to negotiate it in advance. Bids are machine-readable, so they can be evaluated consistently and at speed. The result is a transparent allocation: the same criteria applied to every operation, with the reasoning open to review.

What the router evaluates

Routing is not a single-axis choice. Each available path is assessed on cost, settlement time, reliability and regulatory fit. A path may be cheapest and unusable if it does not fit the jurisdiction; it may be fastest and unsuitable for the amount or counterparty. The router weighs these together, which is why the decision cannot be reduced to price alone.

Keeping money out of routing

If fee payments could buy priority, the router would be optimising for the wrong party. The design commitment is that compensation for providing capacity is separate from the allocation of flow. Participants earn by supplying execution, not by paying to be chosen — which protects the integrity of the routing decision itself.

What it does not claim

An auction is only as good as the bids it receives, and the network's coverage depends on which participants and rails are available. Patent applications covering routing of financial operations and financial-institution selection exist, though these are applications, not granted rights.

In short

  • Increasing path diversity makes routing too complex for habit.
  • An auction discovers the best path at the moment of execution.
  • Bids are machine-readable and evaluated on consistent criteria.
  • Cost, time, reliability and regulatory fit are weighed together.
  • Paying for flow must never influence routing.

See how routing works in the protocol at /protocol/.