> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sphx.io/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sphx.io/overview/mission.md). # Mission Sphinx is dedicated to advancing financial exchange technologies that underpin the heart of the trading industry. Our mission is to democratize access to institutional-grade exchange systems that support the trading of commodities, securities and their derivatives. We accomplish this by engineering blockchain infrastructure for trading applications that require institutional-grade performance within a decentralized computing framework. Our architecture addresses existing centralized trading systems by resolving existing bottlenecks in order book matching, transaction execution, clearing, settlement, trade netting, cross-asset margining and client on-boarding. Sphinx's goal is toestablish infrastructure with the following features: * Global decentralized network to facilitate the creation and operation of our target applications * Deterministic order matching and execution with speeds that rival traditional centralized venues using a coprocessor order book model * Smart contract execution environments for applications such as high frequency trading, lending pools and liquidity aggregation * EVM compatibility * Regulatory and compliance tooling built in ***In addition to supporting exchange builders, Sphinx is also opening an energy derivatives exchange as a feature application that will leverage our infrastructure.*** ## Our Network The Sphinx network architecture addresses critical design tradeoffs that both decentralized and centralized exchanges face. Read more about this in [Challenges & Tradeoffs](/overview/challenges-and-tradeoffs.md). Key network elements include:
* **Validators** - Nodes that power our high performance L1 blockchain, powered by an optimistic version of the CometBFT consensus mechanism. * **Coprocessors** - Discrete off-chain compute that features deterministic sub-state synchronization and provides its own transaction execution environment. Highly customizable, users can build and deploy their own modules to the kernel. * **Relayer**s - Full nodes that provide RPC access for clients and coprocessors, network routing and load balancing to provide ubiquitous communication for our critical infrastructure.
## What's next While the network design and documentation are under active development, we encourage you to read more and reach out if you have questions.