ZetaChain uses two mechanisms to manage liquidity throughput and ensure secure transactions:

• Liquidity caps for incoming transactions
• Rate limiting for outgoing transactions

These mechanisms maintain network stability and reliability, especially during high transaction volumes. By using liquidity caps for incoming transactions and rate limiting for outgoing transactions, ZetaChain controls the flow of tokens into and out of the network. This prevents abuse, safeguards the network from potential liquidity shocks, and ensures the system can handle high transaction loads without compromising performance or security.

Incoming Transactions: Liquidity Caps

For transactions coming into ZetaChain from a connected chain, ZetaChain uses a mechanism called liquidity caps. Each supported token on ZetaChain has a predefined maximum amount, or cap, that can be sent to ZetaChain. If the cap is reached, any further transactions attempting to send more tokens to ZetaChain will be reverted. Each supported token has its own cap, and transactions exceeding the cap are reverted. The current liquidity caps for supported tokens can be accessed through the chain's API: on testnet (opens in a new tab) and mainnet beta (opens in a new tab).

Outgoing Transactions: Rate Limiter

For transactions from ZetaChain to a connected chain, ZetaChain employs a rate limiter mechanism. This mechanism ensures that the total number of tokens withdrawn within a specified sliding window of ZetaChain blocks does not exceed a predefined global limit. The rate limiter operates within a sliding window defined in ZetaChain blocks, and there is a global limit denominated in ZETA (rate) per block. The total amount of withdrawals for all tokens combined within a single window cannot exceed the rate multiplied by the number of window blocks.

Each ZRC-20 token has a conversion rate to ZETA. For example, if a ZRC-20 token XYZ has a conversion rate of 2, withdrawing 10 XYZ will be counted as 20 ZETA towards the limit. The current rate limiter parameters can be accessed through the rate limiter flags endpoint: on testnet (opens in a new tab) and mainnet beta (opens in a new tab).

These mechanisms ensure ZetaChain efficiently manages liquidity, prevents abuse, and maintains network stability during high transaction volumes.