Why Solana keeps getting faster — and what's next (ft. Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder)
Why Solana keeps getting faster — and what's next (ft. Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder)  
Podcast: a16z crypto show
Published On: Fri Apr 03 2026
Description: What if opening a trading account was as easy as downloading an app?  Lucas Bruder, CEO of Jito — a Solana-based liquid staking protocol — breaks down why he thinks all of finance is moving onchain, and what his small team is doing to make that happen.  During the 2022-2023 bear market, Jito was getting pitched constantly to jump ship to other chains. Lucas explains why they turned everything down, doubled down on Solana, and chewed a lot of glass.  We also cover how Jito acts like a Cloudflare for Solana, why cheap transactions create surprising problems, what convinced Lucas that the Solana engineers were in it for the right reasons, and his vision for a financial system anyone can access with just a phone.  Follow Jito: https://www.jito.network/  Follow Lucas: https://x.com/buffalu__  Highlights  0:00 — Intro  0:49 — What is Jito and why does it exist  1:11 — Why Solana transactions are less than a penny  2:00 — What attracted Lucas to Solana from Ethereum  2:39 — How Jito is like Cloudflare for blockchains  5:02 — The $1,500 Ethereum transaction fee problem  7:21 — The vision: all of finance onchain  7:46 — Onchain vs. opening a Robinhood account  8:37 — Lucas's journey from robotics to crypto  9:55 — Solana's rate of improvement and Anatoly's Law  10:44 — The pitch for people new to crypto  15:00 — Staying lean at 21 people  15:17 — Nicotine as a productivity hack  15:58 — Sleep, alcohol, and the Oura ring  16:40 — Smallest hill you'll die on: littering and shopping carts  Follow a16z crypto for more...  X: https://x.com/a16zcrypto  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/a16zcrypto/posts/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@a16zcrypto  Substack: https://a16zcrypto.substack.com/subscribe/    As always, none of the following should be taken as investment, business, legal, or tax advice. Please see a16z.com/disclosures for more important information, including a link to a list of our investments. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.