Pyth vs Chronicle: Price Latency

Pull-based, on-demand updates: Pyth's price updates are published to Pythnet and pulled by applications via Wormhole, achieving sub-second finality. This matters for perps on Solana (e.g., Drift, Jupiter) and high-frequency arbitrage bots where speed is the primary competitive edge.

Optimized for speed over cost: Pyth supports frequent updates (e.g., multiple times per second) for major assets, enabling real-time price discovery. This matters for synthetic assets, options protocols (e.g., Zeta Markets), and any application where stale data directly translates to arbitrage losses.

Push-based, scheduled updates: Chronicle oracles push signed price data directly to contract storage on a deterministic schedule (e.g., every heartbeat or block). This matters for MakerDAO's stability module, Liquity, and other battle-tested money protocols where predictable, verifiable update timing is more critical than raw speed.

Lower update frequency reduces gas costs: By updating prices less frequently but with high reliability, Chronicle minimizes operational costs for protocols. This matters for lending platforms (like Spark) and stablecoin issuers where extreme latency is unnecessary, but budget predictability and security are paramount.

Sub-second on-chain updates: Pyth's Pull Oracle model allows protocols to fetch the latest price on-demand, bypassing scheduled update cycles. This results in median on-chain latencies of ~400ms. This matters for perpetual DEXs (e.g., Hyperliquid) and options protocols where stale prices directly translate to arbitrage losses.

Direct integration with major exchanges: Pyth aggregates price data directly from 90+ first-party publishers like Jane Street, CBOE, and Binance. This reduces the latency and trust layers inherent in third-party aggregation. This matters for institutional-grade DeFi where data provenance and minimal manipulation vectors are critical.

Gas-optimized push model: Chronicle's Scribe oracle uses a deterministic, scheduled update mechanism optimized for EVM L2s. This provides predictable, low-latency updates (often sub-2 seconds) with significantly lower gas costs for protocols. This matters for high-volume, cost-sensitive applications on Arbitrum or Optimism where gas efficiency is a primary concern.

EVM-native and proven reliability: As the rebranded MakerDAO Oracle, Chronicle's core infrastructure has secured billions in TVL for years with zero critical failures. Its architecture is simpler to integrate for EVM developers. This matters for protocols prioritizing security and stability over absolute minimum latency, such as lending markets (like Spark Protocol) and stablecoin systems.

Pull-based, on-demand updates: Pyth's primary feed updates are triggered by user requests, delivering fresh prices in under 400ms. This is ideal for high-frequency trading (HFT) on DEXs and perpetuals protocols where stale data means immediate arbitrage loss.

Pay-per-update model: While fast, each price pull incurs a gas fee for the requester. For protocols with low user interaction or infrequent price checks, this can be less cost-efficient than a constant stream. This matters for lending markets that only need price checks on borrow/liquidate events.

Push-based, scheduled heartbeats: Chronicle provides a constant stream of signed price messages at a 1-3 second heartbeat. This offers predictable, low-latency data without request overhead, optimal for automated strategies, keeper networks, and protocols requiring constant price awareness like stablecoin minters.

Native L2 integration: Chronicle's architecture is optimized for the chains it serves (e.g., Arbitrum, Base, Optimism), with price feeds often updated directly in L2 state. This reduces finality delay compared to cross-chain oracle bridges, a key advantage for native L2 DeFi apps prioritizing consistency.