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The speaker emphasizes the importance for application developers to understand the infrastructure of Solana. This knowledge allows developers to build better applications that serve users more effectively.
Solana's infrastructure currently faces challenges in terms of its blockchains not being fully optimized, resulting in potential issues with transaction execution and scheduling. The network layer also experiences throttling, leading to dropped transactions. Additionally, the current fee market lacks clear pricing mechanisms, causing inefficiencies and spamming.
To address these challenges, the speaker suggests implementing dynamic base fees to ensure optimal utilization of block space. They also propose making base fees dependent on the amount of compute units used, providing more granular pricing. Furthermore, introducing a mechanism to price contested state access and improve the scheduler's efficiency is recommended. These measures aim to enhance user experience and reduce the negative impact of MEV (Miner Extracted Value) on the Solana network.
The podcast episode discusses the significance of fee structures in Solana and the challenges associated with setting the right base fee. It emphasizes the need to balance the needs of different types of transactions, such as DeFi, payments, and other industries. The speaker highlights the risk of pricing out certain transactions if the base fee is set too high, potentially impacting the user experience. They argue for a dynamic fee mechanism that accounts for economic incentives and transactions' propensity to pay. Overall, the episode underscores the importance of striking the right balance and improving the fee mechanism for better user experience.
The podcast delves into the concept of Miner Extractable Value (MEV), which refers to the value extracted from organizing blocks. It explores how MEV differs in Solana and Ethereum and how it can be harnessed by searchers to identify profitable trades. The episode highlights the role of active liquidity and professional market makers in extracting MEV and discusses the potential for reducing spam and preventing validator centralization through innovative fee mechanisms. The speaker also touches upon the significance of understanding Solana's technology and collaboration between Solana and Ethereum ecosystems. Additionally, they share insights about their project, Phoenix, which aims to provide better decentralized finance (DeFi) products by leveraging active liquidity.
Eugene Chen joins us to discuss why Solana's local fee markets aren't real. Well, they are real, but they don't yet work as advertised. Eugene is the co-founder of Ellipses Labs, Phoenix Protocol, and Umbra Research and he is one of the sharpest builders in Solana! In this episode, we discuss how Solana transactions work, how to improve Solana's fee markets, MEV on Solana, how apps can accrue their own MEV, Solana's DeFi risk, Phoenix's limit order book and more!
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Timestamps
00:00 Introduction
00:56 How Solana Transactions Work
05:56 Solana’s Local Fee Markets Aren't Real
29:53 Access Promo
30:55 DAS Promo
31:52 MEV on Solana
36:59 App-Specific MEV and Value Accrual
41:46 Solana Bots and Toxic MEV
45:27 The Latency vs “Fair” Distribution of MEV Tradeoff
48:41 Solana DeFi Risk and the mSOL depeg
51:18 Why App Developers Should Understand the Infrastructure
55:19 Ellipses Labs, Phoenix’s LOB and Points
01:01:48 Solana’s Identity and Advice for Solana Builders
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Follow Eugen: https://twitter.com/0xShitTrader
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Resources
Ellipsis Labs
https://twitter.com/ellipsis_labs
Phoenix
https://twitter.com/PhoenixTrade
Umbra Research
https://www.umbraresearch.xyz/writings
https://twitter.com/UmbraResearch
Solana Fees, Part 1 (Solana Local Fee Markets Aren't Real)
https://www.umbraresearch.xyz/writings
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Disclaimers:
Lightspeed was kickstarted by a grant from the Solana Foundation.
Nothing said on Lightspeed is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mert, Garrett and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.
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