# What is Bancor? Bancor is an ecosystem of decentralized protocols that promote onchain trading and liquidity. Bancor has always been at the forefront of DeFi innovation, beginning in 2017 with the invention of bonding curves, pool tokens, and the first fully decentralized exchange powered by AMMs - which still remain extensively used across the industry. Its flagship protocol, [Carbon](https://www.carbondefi.xyz/)[ DeFi](https://carbondefi.xyz/), is a decentralized trading protocol allowing users to perform automated trading strategies using custom onchain limit orders and range orders, with an innovative offering of recurring orders - a novel trading strategy consisting of two linked orders, one to buy and one to sell. When one order is filled, newly acquired tokens automatically rotate and fund the opposite order, continuously compounding profits with each rotation. By design, Carbon DeFi's novel limit, range, and recurring orders are irreversible on execution and easily adjustable directly onchain. These capabilities give users an unprecedented level of control and automation to perform trading strategies onchain. The [Arb Fast Lane](https://blog.bancor.network/revolutionizing-arbitrage-in-defi-with-the-arb-fast-lane-protocol-12c9de61c543), a separate open-source arbitrage protocol, allows any user to perform arbitrage between Bancor ecosystem protocols and external onchain exchanges and redirect arbitrage profits back to the Bancor ecosystem. All Bancor ecosystem protocols are governed by the BancorDAO via staked BNT and vBNT. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://support.bancor.network/bancor-basics/what-is-bancor.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.