
Realms team on the governance layer on Solana and the Sowellian prediction market
Dean, Taki and Chris from Realms join Pirates Parley to break down the governance layer of Solana: the Realms DAO platform, their new Sowellian prediction-market system, and IslandDAO V4 in Koh Samui this June.Realms is the DAO platform of Solana. It's the program behind Jito, Metaplex, Pyth, Marinade, Bonk and more. The team are self-described "governance nerds". Dean is the director at Realms. Taki works on on-chain coordination. Chris focuses on syndication and pooled capital, and caught a real governance attack the day before recording.
They cover:
What Realms actually does: DAO-controlled treasuries, program upgrade authority, and on-chain coordination on Solana The Sowellian mechanism, named after economist Thomas Sowell, where good decisions are rewarded and bad ones are penalised via prediction-market bets A live demo on beta.realms.today: a member bets ~$5 to $8 of their own capital, the DAO trades around $200 to $500, and the better takes 30% of the profit in 24 hours if they're right A governance attack Chris vetoed yesterday: a proposal disguised as a trade tried to transfer the whole treasury to a single address, stopped in real time using Realms' veto tooling Delegates: proxy voting on-chain, without the $10,000 to $25,000 lawyer fee you'd pay for proxy voting a stock in the US An audience question on running a Futarchy launchpad (MetaDAO) alongside a Realms DAO with a 4-of-6 multisig for upgrade authority Why all three went Bitcoin first, then Solana, mostly skipping EVM The Kelp DAO attack and Arbitrum freezing funds, and what it says about decentralisation's ethos IslandDAO history: V1 in a villa on Crete, V2 in the Solana villa in Thailand after Breakpoint Singapore, V3 back in Greece IslandDAO V4: Solana villa in Koh Samui, 3 June to 28 June. Early-bird until 1 May. Free VIP pass if you hold all 12 IslandDAO animal NFTs On-chain event tooling: check-ins, media upload via IslandGram, decentralised governance for food and activities, and NFC-based autographs that update NFT metadata on contact
Realms team on the governance layer on Solana and the Sowellian prediction market
Solana streaming explained: how Deshred delivers transactions before execution
The new financial OS from Squads: building FinOps on stablecoin rails
More from Pirates Parley

$4B in Two Months: Raydium on Tokenized Stocks and Solana as the Onchain NASDAQ
Raydium has survived two bear markets with a sub-20-person team running 70–80% margins. Ben Angari, who handles the commercial side at Raydium, says his DMs are a better bull market indicator than any chart, and inbound is up close to 10x. We get into what an AMM actually is, explained for my mom, and why lavish parties and paddock tickets make Ben bearish on a project. We also cover why nobody at Raydium wants to buy a farm and retire. Tokenized stocks are the big one: over a million holders on Solana, and $4B of Raydium’s $6B in tokenized equity volume in the last two months, most of it traded after US market hours. Ben shares his hot take that AI will make building expensive and tokens will fund the builders. Then come robot bodies, claw machines, tokenized tennis players, OPSEC after Drift, and why crypto Twitter is losing its grip. Also: the FTX-week Breakpoint in Lisbon, the first-ever Solana tattoo, and how I climbed through a window into the VIP room. This is the last Pirates Parley until after Breakpoint. Building something on Solana? Ben’s DMs are open. See you in London. 0:00 Welcome — last Parley before the break, Ben from Raydium1:31 "When my DMs are cooked": 10x inbound as a bull market signal3:42 Raydium for my mom: what an AMM actually does4:44 Adapt or die: 70–80% bear margins, <20 people, no plans to retire11:30 Alpenglow explained, and "you come for the king, you best not miss"15:44 Tokenized stocks: 1M holders, $4B in two months, after-hours trading20:36 StonkFi summer, gacha for stocks, and Collector Crypt23:46 Hot take: AI gets expensive, tokens fund the builders26:05 Robot bodies, claw machines, and tokenized tennis players30:55 Lisbon Breakpoint during FTX: "the last violinists on the Titanic"36:22 Steve's story: the first Solana tattoo and climbing into the VIP room41:09 OPSEC after Drift: "I am not clicking on a Vercel link"48:40 What's next for Raydium: acting as an extended arm of the team52:40 Hot take: crypto Twitter fades, traders become athletes58:49 Wrap — see you at Breakpoint London

Solana's Events Sensei Ellie: 24 Hacker Houses, a Bomb Threat, and Breakpoint London
Ellie spent 20 years producing events at weddings, Electronic Arts and Netflix before joining Solana in January 2022 with no roadmap and a mandate to build hacker houses. Her first year: 24 hacker houses in 18 countries in 10 months, plus a bomb threat in Miami. We get into how Breakpoint went from four venues scattered across Lisbon to one roof in London. Why there’s deodorant in the bathrooms and no pay-to-speak slots. What she’s building at Olympia: one main stage, a proper pub, and a Solana Borough Market. Plus the full side-event calendar, how not to waste your Breakpoint, and the first public word on where Breakpoint goes next: early September 2027. Also: Steve’s own origin story (it started with calling out scammers in the Breakpoint channel), a Porsche that should’ve been an Aston Martin, and nobody knowing what a Fuggler is. Breakpoint London: Nov 16–17 at Olympia (Day Zero Nov 15). Hacker House runs Nov 1–12. Ticket prices go up Nov 1. 0:00 Welcome — a Friday special with Solana's events sensei1:15 Steve's origin story: scam-busting the Breakpoint channel, quitting after Berlin3:10 20 years in events: weddings, EA, Simlish, and Netflix8:00 From COVID to crypto: the cold intro that landed her at Solana12:10 24 hacker houses, 18 countries, 10 months, planning from a closet14:39 The F1-style world tour: a bomb threat at 7,000-person Solana Miami16:45 Lisbon → Amsterdam → Singapore → Abu Dhabi: why Breakpoint went under one roof24:11 Breakpoint London: one stage, a proper pub, and Solana Borough Market29:09 What gives Breakpoint a soul: deodorant, water, and no pay-to-speak33:42 Business in the front, party in the back: designing for every persona38:40 No hierarchy: walking up to Solflare's CEO, and first-timer advice42:17 The side-event calendar: Hacker House, Demo Day, AI Day and more45:31 Too many side events, liver credit, a Porsche, merch and tickets51:02 Can you 10x every year? Diamond horses and Breakpoint 2027 in September54:58 Audience Qs: artists, Fugglers, the generator story, and goodbye

Who's Selling Your Swaps? Benjamin Boulin on Order Flow, MEV, and Getting Paid Back
Benjamin Boulin was running Minecraft servers at 11 and paying developers in Bitcoin by 2015. Today he's the founder of Circular, built after his arb team hit 30 million transactions a day and no tool on Solana could keep up. We get into how a simple swap leaks value to whoever controls the order flow, why platforms selling your swaps are earning double on you, and how Circular's monetization layer sends 65% of recovered arb profit straight back to the trader's wallet. Ben breaks down where a landing tip actually goes (Jito, Harmonic, SWQoS, direct to the leader), why every launchpad ends up building its own AMM, and why "we don't do MEV" is not the user protection it sounds like. Also: Counter-Strike skins lost to casinos, Valve's total control over your inventory, and what happens the day GTA 6 puts its cars on-chain. Fast transaction landing: landfast.io Circular: circular.fi 0:00 Welcome — one of my best friends in the ecosystem 1:40 Entrepreneur at 11: Minecraft servers, PayPal bans, and a broken financial system 7:07 A dev demanded Bitcoin in 2015 — and Ben didn't get it until Ethereum 12:00 Nifting: Steam meets Twitter for NFT skins 15:08 Who owns your skins? Valve's power and the GTA 6 on-chain test 21:45 Stablecoin arb on four chains — and the no-approval swap that sold him on Solana 27:30 Selling your swaps: why Triton won't, and the extortion nobody talks about 29:45 30M transactions a day: building Circular to track themselves 33:24 How your swap leaks value: AMMs, order flow, and the arb you never see 36:45 The monetization layer: what you're losing and how much comes back 44:28 Why every launchpad builds its own AMM 46:23 Integrating Fast: 1-cent tips, where they go, and 65% cashback 52:16 Colosseum builders: casino cranks, traders, and where to get RPC 56:33 Hidden fees and ignored priority fees: why validators should be angry 1:00:31 Counter-Strike, Trackmania, Risk — and next up: Ellie on Breakpoint