Lightspeed Do Buybacks Make Sense? | Lucas Bruder
Jan 8, 2026
In this engaging discussion, Lucas Bruder, the founder of Jito, sheds light on the innovative IBRL dashboard for Solana validators. He explores the delicate balance between token buybacks and growth strategies, emphasizing the nuanced trade-offs involved. Lucas critiques the incentives driving validator behavior and the impact of social pressure on performance. The pair also dive into futurist governance models and innovative proposals to align equity and tokens, making predictions for the future landscape of on-chain trading.
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Blocks Are Streamed, Not Blobs
- Solana leaders stream transactions across a 400ms slot rather than emitting a full block at once.
- Lucas built an IBRL dashboard to visualize per-tick transaction packing and reveal validators that back-weight blocks.
End-Of-Slot Packing Harms Latency
- Some validators pack most user transactions at the end of the slot, creating a tall single-tick burst.
- That late packing harms latency and can cause other validators to briefly fall behind when replaying.
Use Data To Change Validator Behavior
- Publish clear metrics so the community can spot and correct validator games like slot lagging and late packing.
- Use transparency and scoring to pressure validators to tune behavior before protocol fixes arrive.