We chewed a lot of glass" — Building on Solana in the bear market (ft. Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder)

Jetto is described as the largest liquid staking protocol on Solana, viewing itself as the economic growth engine for the Solana network. The long-term vision for Solana is a future where all finance happens on-chain, on a single state machine, at high speed. This vision contrasts with traditional financial systems, highlighting the ease of access on Solana where users can download a wallet, press a few buttons, and access a full financial system, unlike the multi-step KYC processes and limitations of platforms like Robinhood. Jetto's work involves a liquid staking protocol and building a validator client designed to optimize transaction ordering on the network. The company's origins in 2021 were based on the thesis that Solana would experience significant transaction spam due to its low transaction costs, which are less than a hundredth of a penny. The technology has improved, but earlier on, Solana experienced some outages. The speaker's background includes working on MEV (Maximal Extractable Value) on Ethereum before discovering Solana in early 2021 and being drawn to its low-level technical approach. While others focused on L2s for scaling, Solana aimed to synchronize an entire state machine on one network. Jetto's validator client and system help filter spam on Solana, similar to how Cloudflare acts as an intermediary and DDoS shield for websites, now transitioning to filtering AI bots. Jetto measures its success not just by its own metrics, but by its deep integration with the Solana network, with 80-90% of the network running its validator client, and by the overall growth in Solana usage and trading volume. Solana is noted for having the most DEX volume and being the cheapest place to buy Solana itself, a contrast to Ethereum where it's often cheaper to buy ETH on centralized exchanges. Solana is also recognized for its "real economic value" metric, indicating high user engagement and payment for block space, ranking alongside Hyperliquid. It's clarified that while Ethereum sees higher fees during peak activity, Solana maintains consistently high transaction volume at much lower costs. Jetto is currently working on a new product called BAM, primarily for applications on Solana. A challenge faced is ensuring validators understand and "buy into" this vision, as they are crucial for block production and enabling customizations for applications. Some validators are well-informed about other ecosystems like Hyperliquid and L2s, which offer more customizability, but others are less aware, focusing primarily on running their own validators. This indicates a need for education and awareness to ensure validators understand the problems Jetto is solving and the value of its solutions. Jetto aims to connect validators with application developers to foster this understanding, emphasizing that good applications are essential for network activity and that validator-level improvements can enhance apps. The long-term vision for Solana is to host all finance on-chain, including crypto-native assets, stocks, and real-world assets, all on a single, high-speed state machine. The advantages include permissionlessness and reduced friction compared to traditional systems that require extensive KYC and impose trading limits. The speaker transitioned from a background in robotics and autonomous construction vehicles to crypto, drawn by the technical challenge of understanding Solana's "massive system" and its efficiency, akin to reverse engineering in robotics. The move from "moving dirt to moving money" is seen as a similar problem of optimizing movement and activity. There's a notable coincidence of other individuals with robotics backgrounds, like Ali Yahya, also being involved with Solana or Jetto. Solana's rapid capacity increase, which is higher than any other network, is highlighted, with plans to continue doubling capacity, making it cheaper and faster. New developments like Fire Dancer and new clients are also mentioned as reasons for excitement. For newcomers to crypto, Solana is presented as a fast and cheap alternative to Bitcoin (described as "digital gold" or a "pet rock") and Ethereum (expensive and slow). The argument is that technological advancement favors platforms that iterate and advance quickly, which Solana is doing by continually doubling its capacity. Jetto remains committed to Solana, having resisted offers to pivot to other projects during the 2022-2023 bear market. The conviction to stay came from the dedication of the core Solana team, who remained focused on building the fastest blockchain despite market noise. Jetto adopted a similar "heads down" approach, contributing to Solana's success. In a lightning round, the worst advice received as a founder was to grow the team in a certain way, leading to dilution of culture and inefficiency. Jetto maintains a lean team of 21, ensuring everyone is focused. The biggest productivity hack mentioned is nicotine, with a preference for spearmint Zyn pouches. Good sleep and avoiding alcohol are also cited for productivity, especially when monitored with devices like an Oura Ring. Book/film recommendations include "Memento," "Oceans 11," and sci-fi works like "Westworld," "Foundation," and "Silo." The smallest hill the speaker would "die on" is that litterers should be fined, and a second one is that people who don't return shopping carts to the corral should also be fined, seeing it as an indicator of respect for shared spaces.