Pirates Parley
Pirates Parley
August 13, 2026·1:09:33

Sunsetting the mempool: Lucas Bruder on Jito, BAM, and betting long-term on Solana

Lucas Bruder, co-founder and CEO of Jito Labs, joins Pirates Parley to break down why they shut off the public mempool, how BAM works, and what confidential block building on Solana looks like inside a secure enclave.Lucas got here via Tesla body controls on the Model X, an Xbox controller for surgical robots, a 50,000 pound bulldozer at Built Robotics, and lidar firmware at Ouster, before falling down the MEV rabbit hole and starting Jito in 2021.They cover:- Lucas's path from Tesla and Built Robotics to lidar and then Jito- how the Jito block engine works, and why the best analogy is Cloudflare- the peak day the Trump token launched, when Jito generated the network $20m and made up more than 50% of Solana REV- why they sunset the public mempool, and why Steve thinks it's the biggest pivot any blockchain company has made- BAM: transparent, verifiable, confidential block building inside a secure enclave- the maker priority plugin, and BAM running on just under 33% of stake- Jump running Bison as the number one prop amm on Solana- what has to happen for tokenised securities to work: Clarity, an SEC exemption, and users- why Jito Labs built JTX and how they think about execution- restaking, the honest reflection, and where Jito is focusing now- 100m CU blocks activated last week and the road to 200ms slots and Alpenglow- advice for new builders coming into Solana--------------------------------------------------------------00:00 - Welcome and cold open01:14 - Lucas's path: Tesla, hardware consultancy, cadavers05:13 - Built Robotics and the bulldozer06:46 - Ouster, MEV, and falling down the rabbit hole11:12 - What Jito does today: the market layer16:40 - The Jito block engine explained21:11 - The mempool: what it was, where it went wrong24:49 - Sunsetting the mempool: the biggest pivot in blockchain28:05 - BAM: block assembly marketplace31:10 - Maker priority, 33% stake, and consistent execution36:41 - Tokenised securities, Clarity, and what has to happen46:34 - Why Jito built JTX48:52 - Team size, focus, and letting restaking run54:11 - 100m CU blocks, Alpenglow, and shipping at Anza speed1:04:47 - Advice for new builders

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Steve (Happy Pirate)

Sunsetting the mempool: Lucas Bruder on Jito, BAM, and betting long-term on Solana

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