NLYRA is running its own full node of Robinhood Chain — the future home of The Desk's data, the scanner and a public RPC. This page shows, live, how far it is from the tip of the chain.
The node started from a pruned snapshot and has to re-execute every block the chain produced since, while the chain keeps producing ~10 new blocks every second. "Closing the gap" is how much faster we run than the chain — that number, not the raw speed, decides the arrival time.
Once it reaches the tip it only needs to keep pace, which is far lighter. Then it becomes the primary data source for The Desk and, later, a public RPC.