Raiku Raises $13.5 Million to Bring Guaranteed Transaction Inclusion to Solana

The Solana ecosystem is witnessing a fundamental shift in how transactions are processed and confirmed on the network. Raiku, an infrastructure project focused on predictable and guaranteed transaction inclusion, has secured a $13.5 million funding round led by Pantera Capital. In this episode of Lightspeed, host Jack speaks with Raiku founder Robin A. Nordnes about the project's vision, technical architecture, and how it could reshape everything from retail trading to institutional finance on Solana.

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From Ethereum to Solana: A Journey Toward Better Infrastructure

Robin Nordnes brings nearly a decade of cryptocurrency experience to the Solana ecosystem, having spent most of his career building in the Ethereum space since late 2015. His transition to Solana in 2023 was not impulsive but rather the result of a methodical evaluation of multiple Layer 1 blockchains, including Aptos and Sui. The fundamental thesis driving this exploration was straightforward: any system built on a network will always be constrained by that network's inherent limitations.

"The motivation was honestly quite simple," Nordnes explains. "I saw a lot of infrastructure projects across different ecosystems that weren't really bringing anything new. By new, I mean establishing great primitives and products that enable new use cases and new industries to operate on chain without it feeling like you're downgrading."

The evaluation process led Nordnes to several conclusions about Solana's advantages. First, the network had survived multiple "nuclear events" that had forged a resilient and aligned community. Second, the leadership demonstrated effective focus on priorities that matter while maintaining a clear vision. Third, and perhaps most importantly from a technical perspective, Solana's technology stack had reached a level of maturity where optimization and novel primitives could be built without worrying about fundamental changes breaking everything.

Nordnes worked closely with Superteam UK and received support from the Solana Foundation during this exploratory phase. The experience of building on Ethereum had taught him that fragmentation, misaligned incentives, and load distribution problems emerge when computation moves off-chain in poorly designed ways. Solana's architecture offered an opportunity to address these challenges more elegantly.

The Problem with Transaction Landing Today

Understanding Raiku requires first understanding the current state of transaction processing on Solana. When users send transactions today, they are essentially hoping for the best. A transaction goes to a provider who forwards it to the current leader of the network—the validator responsible for producing the next block. The probability that this provider is close to the current leader is relatively small, introducing latency and uncertainty into the process.

The statistics paint a stark picture of the current situation. According to Nordnes, approximately 75 to 90 percent of transactions in edge cases are being aborted or rejected, particularly those classified as high-frequency trading such as trading bots. This creates what Nordnes describes as a "vicious cycle" where high-value, high-frequency transactions spam the network, hurting average users and exacerbating congestion problems.

"When you send a transaction today, you're hoping for the best," Nordnes states. "We make that predictable so you know that a certain event will basically happen in the future. So predictable, guaranteed, and fast."

The implications of this uncertainty extend far beyond mere inconvenience. For institutional players running algorithmic trading strategies, the inability to guarantee transaction inclusion represents a fundamental barrier to adoption. A hedge fund running a 24/7 strategy might identify an opportunity 30 minutes in advance, monitor the chain, and attempt to execute at the precise moment—only to find their transaction fails to land despite paying premium fees for priority inclusion.

Raiku's Four First Principles

Raiku's architecture is built around four fundamental principles that Nordnes believes must inform any serious attempt to solve transaction landing problems. These principles reflect both the physical realities of distributed systems and the practical requirements of modern financial applications.

The first principle acknowledges that information cannot travel instantaneously across the world. Network latency is a physical constraint that cannot be engineered away but can be optimized for through intelligent system design. Raiku addresses this by maintaining a distributed network of nodes across different regions, bringing the processing closer to where users are located.

The second principle recognizes that not all applications need access to shared state at all times. This insight opens the door to optionality in how transactions are processed and confirmed. Some applications benefit from immediate global state access, while others can operate perfectly well with eventual consistency.

The third principle emphasizes that locality matters—where you are in the world relative to where computation happens significantly impacts performance. Raiku's distributed node architecture specifically targets this concern, positioning infrastructure strategically to minimize latency for users in high-activity regions.

The fourth and perhaps most important principle states that outcomes cannot be guessed but must be guaranteed and predictable. This is the core value proposition of pre-confirmations: transforming transaction submission from a probabilistic exercise into a deterministic one.

Understanding Pre-Confirmations and Block Space Reservation

At its core, Raiku enables users to reserve block space ahead of time through what it calls pre-confirmations. Think of it like purchasing a train ticket—you're securing your spot in a future block before you actually need to use it. However, unlike a train ticket, this reservation happens programmatically and can be managed automatically by applications.

The technical implementation involves several components working together. Raiku operates a sidecar that is compatible with two major Solana clients: Agave (the core client from Anza) and Firedancer. The Firedancer version is still in development but will be available at mainnet launch. This sidecar allows validators to communicate with the Raiku node network.

The Raiku node network itself consists of separate nodes organized into clusters spread across different regions of the world. This distributed architecture serves as the "main brain" behind the system, enabling the marketplace, different block space products, and various transaction types. The magic of guaranteed inclusion happens through this network's coordination.

The process works as follows: The sidecar communicates with the validator to determine how much block space can potentially be reserved—say 25 percent or 50 percent of their production. Since validator schedules are known two days in advance, Raiku can take this block space and divide it into many different tickets available for purchase on the marketplace.

"Tickets that the applications can buy from the marketplace," Nordnes explains. "That can be six hours in advance, it can be an hour in advance, it can be a minute in advance. Now, once you buy that ticket based on the market dynamics of the marketplace, with the fees, et cetera, then you get that ticket, that pre-confirmation, that is held in your name."

Sub-50 Millisecond Pre-Confirmations: How Speed Is Achieved

Raiku aims to achieve pre-confirmations in under 50 milliseconds—roughly one-eighth of Solana's 400-millisecond block time. This represents a significant improvement over current transaction confirmation times and opens new possibilities for time-sensitive applications. Nordnes indicates that the team believes they can push this down to 30 milliseconds with current infrastructure.

The speed achievable depends on several factors. Most importantly, it relates to how many validators have adopted Raiku on the network. Higher stake-weight coverage means more consistent block production opportunities. If 10 to 20 percent of validators or stake weight has adopted Raiku, this translates directly into a predictable number of blocks per epoch where guaranteed inclusion is available.

"The pre-confirmation and how fast we can send that out depends on where you as a buyer are located and where the Raiku node and the validator is also located," Nordnes explains. "Which is why it's very important to have the Raiku nodes distributed across different regions of the world."

The upcoming Multiple Concurrent Leaders (MCL) feature on Solana will further enhance these capabilities. Currently, Solana has one leader sequentially processing blocks, but MCL will enable multiple builders in different regions. Raiku is positioned to optimize even further with this architecture change, potentially pushing pre-confirmation times even lower.

Nordnes emphasizes that location optimization is a priority: "So let's say we know that there's a lot of buyers in New York, definitely place some nodes there." This geographic awareness ensures that the infrastructure meets users where they are, minimizing latency at every opportunity.

Validator Economics and the Incentive Structure

The success of Raiku depends critically on validator adoption, which raises the question: why would validators choose to run Raiku? The answer comes down to economics. Validators need to provide competitive returns for their stakers, and this requires capturing demand from order flow across the network.

Currently, validators sell one product: uniform block space that is equal for everyone. However, blockchain applications span many different verticals with varying requirements. A high-performance trading application has fundamentally different needs than a payment application. Raiku enables validators to segment this uniform block space into different products with different revenue streams.

"And now you can start to specialize," Nordnes notes. "And those products come at a premium because some are more sought after because of various reasons, use case specific."

The data supports this approach. According to Nordnes, the block space that validators sell through Jito today is roughly three times more valuable than standard block space sold to normal users. This premium exists because of the JIT (Just-In-Time) market that Jito facilitates. Raiku extends this concept by enabling many more markets and products—not just JIT but AOT (Ahead-Of-Time) and various products in between.

Current validator revenue on Solana breaks down approximately as follows: about 65 percent comes from transaction fees (base fees and priority fees), around 30 percent from issuance (network inflation rewards), and under 5 percent from Jito tips. The issuance component is designed to decline over time due to Solana's decay curve, making it increasingly important for validators to capture other revenue sources.

Positioning Validators for Long-Term Success

Several Solana Improvement Documents (SIMDs) are in development that will fundamentally change validator incentives. These changes will make block production more competitive, putting pressure on validators to differentiate themselves. Raiku positions validators to meet these challenges by diversifying their revenue streams and enabling them to capture more stake.

"If they can increase their stake, they get a bigger say on what happens on the network," Nordnes explains. "That means they get more transactions that they can handle. That means also more revenue. So it kind of goes full circle."

The combination of Raiku with other emerging technologies—such as QUIC improvements from Double Zero and upcoming features like album load—strengthens the validator position across multiple dimensions. Running a validator is operationally challenging because revenue depends on unpredictable market demand. Recent SIMD proposals suggesting deflationary mechanisms add further stress to validator economics.

Raiku addresses this uncertainty through its futures market for block space. Pre-purchasing block space ahead of time creates financial primitives similar to those found in mature commodity markets like energy and oil. Validators can build their businesses with greater visibility into future revenue streams.

"There is a reason why futures markets exist in all mature commodity markets," Nordnes points out. "Because you can build a lot of primitives on that, financial primitives, which enable you to run your node operator, validate your business in a completely different way. Because you have more control, you know a bit more on what will happen in the future. And that's desperately needed."

Institutional Use Cases: Beyond Retail Trading

While Raiku's improvements benefit all users by reducing network congestion, the project specifically unlocks institutional use cases that have previously been impractical on Solana. Traditional finance firms running algorithmic strategies require guarantees that current infrastructure cannot provide.

Consider a hedge fund scenario that Nordnes describes: "You run your strategy, you get the same signal, let's say 30 minutes ahead, now you can reserve that, you can reserve that spot in the block, a ticket, some block space. And what that gives you is a credible commitment, it gives you a pre-confirmation to say, okay, cool, run your strategy. If you think that this opportunity is a great one 30 minutes from now, send me whatever you have. But you know that this will happen."

The predictability Raiku offers transforms blockchain from a probabilistic system into something resembling the deterministic infrastructure that traditional finance depends upon. This doesn't mean dumbing down or limiting what blockchain can do—instead, it means expanding the universe of actors who can participate confidently.

The programmatic nature of Raiku's system is crucial here. Users don't log into a dashboard to manually reserve block space like buying a train ticket. Instead, reservation happens consistently and automatically throughout one block, multiple blocks, or particular sequences of blocks. This automation enables strategies that would be impossible with manual intervention.

Raiku's Place in the Transaction Landing Landscape

Raiku enters a Solana ecosystem increasingly focused on transaction landing infrastructure. Multiple projects are building in this space, including Jito's Block Assembly Marketplace (BAM), Temporal, Paladin, and Sanctum's router service. Nordnes acknowledges this trend and positions Raiku within the competitive landscape.

"The reason for that is really simple," Nordnes explains. "Those first principles that I mentioned early on—it makes sense. It's kind of what you have to do if you want to scale."

Among competitors, Nordnes identifies Jito BAM as the most notable and comparable player, primarily because of their market share. Both projects share similar goals around predictability, precision, and speed, whether for pure L1 applications or those utilizing off-chain components. However, their architectures differ significantly in how they achieve these goals.

An important technical distinction: validators cannot run both Jito BAM and the Raiku sidecar simultaneously. Jito BAM produces 100 percent of block content in the BAM node, leaving no room for collaboration. However, Nordnes notes that when network slashing becomes live, validators may choose to split their stake across multiple nodes to diversify risk exposure and revenue streams.

"You diversify also the various different revenue streams according to the market demand at any given time," Nordnes explains. This could lead to a world where validators run some nodes with Jito BAM and others with Raiku, optimizing across different market conditions.

Raiku is also exploring a routing service concept that would be proposed to the Solana Foundation. This service would help node operators automatically route transactions to build the most rewarding blocks at any given time, reducing the need for manual selection between different infrastructure providers.

Compatibility and Developer Experience

One of Raiku's explicit design goals is maintaining compatibility with existing Solana development patterns. The system is fully compatible with the current Solana SDK, meaning developers don't need to learn new tools or rewrite existing applications.

"We don't really introduce any new changes to the way developers have built applications or send the transactions directly, because that's important," Nordnes emphasizes. "We don't want to introduce more complexity, it's already complex enough."

Applications integrate with Raiku directly, and users interact with applications as they always have—through wallets like Phantom or programmatically through standard interfaces. Users won't consciously know whether they're using Raiku or not; the infrastructure operates transparently beneath the application layer.

Applications retain optionality throughout this process. They can use Raiku alongside normal transaction methods, choosing the most appropriate approach for each situation. This flexibility means adoption can happen gradually without requiring wholesale infrastructure changes.

The Token Question

Nordnes confirmed that Raiku will launch a token, though specific details remain under development. The token will be fundamental to network operations rather than simply serving governance functions.

"You can look at a Raiku token in a very similar way that you would look at an L1 token," Nordnes explains. The token will involve staking mechanics at minimum, though the exact ratios and mechanisms are still being finalized.

The utility extends across all products sold via the marketplace. "When you reserve some block space... this we're still hashing out," Nordnes admits. "But what we do know is a token is fundamental to the network. It is fundamental as well because it will have many different sources or areas of utility."

The token launch is planned to follow shortly after mainnet deployment, though the exact timing—whether a week, two weeks, or three weeks—has not been determined. The team plans to publish a market mechanism paper approximately six weeks out that will detail how mechanisms work across Raiku's various products.

Local Fee Markets and Complementary Technologies

A question naturally arises about how Raiku interacts with Solana's local fee markets. Local fee markets are designed to isolate congestion so that high activity in one area of the network doesn't affect users transacting elsewhere. If someone launches a popular memecoin, users trading different tokens shouldn't experience increased fees or congestion.

Nordnes clarifies that local fee markets complement rather than compete with Raiku: "It helps us inform state contention. So they work together pretty much. It allows you to prioritize what should happen at a given sequence and when essentially."

This leads to a broader question about whether Solana's continued improvement might eventually make Raiku obsolete. Nordnes argues convincingly that this won't happen because Raiku solves a fundamentally different problem.

"What is the fundamental problem or nee

d that we're resolving?" Nordnes asks. "We know that it's the ability to predict ahead of time with the guarantee, but also to beat the market. Now beat the market doesn't matter if it's 400 milliseconds or 10 milliseconds. You just want to beat the market."

No matter how fast Solana becomes, the desire to act predictably and with guarantees ahead of competitors remains. The faster the network, the more valuable these capabilities become. Raiku and Solana improvements are synergistic, not substitutional.

The Road to Mainnet

Raiku is approaching mainnet launch with its $13.5 million funding providing runway for development and deployment. The team is actively seeking builder feedback to ensure the product meets market demands.

"If you're a builder, I would love to hear what your requirements are," Nordnes invites. "What pains you hard today or what frustrates you the most. Simply because then we can ensure that we meet the current demand of the market."

The team hosts weekly sessions on Discord with developers to gather this feedback, and Nordnes personally enjoys jumping on calls with founders to explore potential collaborations. This community-oriented approach reflects the broader Solana ethos that attracted Nordnes in the first place.

The market mechanism paper expected in roughly six weeks will provide detailed technical specifications for how Raiku's various products and marketplace dynamics will operate. This documentation will be essential for validators considering adoption and developers planning integrations.

Implications for Solana's Future

Raiku represents part of a larger trend toward sophisticated transaction infrastructure on Solana. The fact that multiple well-funded teams are building in this space signals recognition that transaction landing is both a significant problem and a significant opportunity.

The improvements Raiku promises could have cascading effects throughout the ecosystem. Reduced transaction failure rates would improve user experience across all applications. Guaranteed inclusion would enable new categories of applications that require deterministic execution. Institutional adoption could bring significant capital and legitimacy to the network.

Validator economics would also shift meaningfully. Instead of selling homogeneous block space, validators would offer differentiated products tailored to specific use cases. This specialization could lead to validator differentiation beyond simple performance metrics, with some validators optimizing for high-frequency trading while others focus on payment applications or other verticals.

The Competitive Dynamics of Block Space

The emergence of multiple competing solutions for transaction landing creates interesting market dynamics. Validators may eventually face choices about which infrastructure to run, and applications may need to evaluate which solution best meets their needs.

Sanctum's routing service concept, which would aggregate across multiple transaction landing providers, suggests the market may evolve toward aggregation layers that shield applications from needing to make these choices directly. Similar to how DEX aggregators optimize across multiple liquidity sources, transaction routing services could optimize across multiple block space providers.

Nordnes views this development positively: "It's a fantastic initiative that FP and the wider Sanctum team is working on. And I think there is some good room to do some good stuff together."

The competition benefits the ecosystem by driving innovation and keeping pricing competitive. If any single provider becomes complacent, others can capture market share. This dynamic pressure ensures continued improvement in transaction landing infrastructure.

Technical Architecture Deep Dive

For those seeking deeper technical understanding, Raiku's architecture consists of several interconnected components. The sidecar runs alongside validator clients (Agave or Firedancer) and handles communication between validators and the Raiku network. This component is lightweight enough to not significantly impact validator performance while enabling the coordination necessary for pre-confirmations.

The Raiku node network operates independently from the Solana network itself, forming a separate coordination layer. These nodes are strategically distributed to minimize latency for users in high-activity regions. The network handles the marketplace mechanics, matching block space supply from validators with demand from applications.

Block space is divided into tickets with varying time horizons. Applications can purchase tickets for block space minutes, hours, or even longer in advance. The pricing mechanism is dynamic, responding to market conditions and demand at any given time. This market-based approach ensures efficient allocation while allowing validators to capture maximum value from their block production.

When an application holds a pre-confirmation ticket, it can wait until relatively close to block production—about 1.2 seconds before, or "n minus two or n minus three" in Solana slot terminology—to actually submit the transaction content. This flexibility allows applications to maintain the advantage of early commitment while still responding to recent market conditions.

Why This Matters for Everyday Users

While much of the discussion around Raiku focuses on institutional and high-frequency trading use cases, the improvements benefit all network participants. The vicious cycle Nordnes describes—where failed high-frequency transactions create congestion that hurts regular users—would be broken by guaranteed inclusion.

Regular users transacting through wallets like Phantom might not notice they're using Raiku-enabled infrastructure, but they would notice improved reliability and potentially lower fees during previously congested periods. Applications that integrate Raiku can provide better user experiences without users needing to understand the underlying mechanics.

The reduction in failed transactions also has environmental implications. Failed transactions still consume network resources even though they don't achieve their intended outcomes. More efficient transaction processing means less wasted computation across the network.

The Broader Vision for On-Chain Finance

Nordnes articulates a vision where blockchain infrastructure enables entirely new markets to operate on-chain. Currently, many sophisticated financial strategies simply cannot execute reliably on any blockchain because of transaction uncertainty. A trading firm accustomed to deterministic execution on traditional exchanges cannot accept probabilistic transaction inclusion.

"You're a trad-fi firm and you operate trading strategies and it works well because it's fast, it's scalable, fantastic. You can't really do that on chain," Nordnes observes. "And if you can't do that, how can we show the big world how beautiful on-chain is?"

Raiku aims to bridge this gap, making on-chain execution competitive with traditional infrastructure for sophisticated applications. This isn't about making blockchain more like traditional finance—it's about removing barriers that prevent blockchain from realizing its full potential.

The futures market for block space that Raiku enables parallels mature commodity markets precisely because those markets discovered through experience that predictability creates value. Energy companies hedge future production and consumption because knowing what will happen is more valuable than hoping.

Looking Ahead

The Solana ecosystem continues to evolve rapidly, with improvements across multiple dimensions. Raiku represents one piece of this evolution, focused specifically on transaction landing and pre-confirmation infrastructure. As the network matures and other improvements land—Multiple Concurrent Leaders, enhanced local fee markets, improved validator infrastructure—Raiku's capabilities will compound with these advances.

For builders considering integration, Nordnes encourages direct engagement. Understanding application-specific requirements helps Raiku prioritize development and ensure the product meets real market needs. The team's willingness to iterate based on builder feedback suggests the product will continue evolving post-launch.

For validators evaluating adoption, the economic case is straightforward: new revenue streams with differentiated products. As competitive pressure on validators increases with proposed SIMD changes, tools that enable differentiation and increased returns will become essential rather than optional.

The $13.5 million raise led by Pantera provides substantial resources for continued development. This backing from a major crypto-native investor signals confidence in both the team and the technical approach. As Raiku moves toward mainnet, the Solana ecosystem gains another powerful primitive for building the next generation of on-chain applications.

Facts + Figures

• Raiku raised $13.5 million in a funding round led by Pantera Capital, positioning the project for mainnet launch in the near future.

• Robin Nordnes has been active in cryptocurrency since late 2015, spending most of that time in the Ethereum ecosystem before transitioning to Solana in 2023.

• Approximately 75 to 90 percent of high-frequency trading transactions on Solana are currently aborted or rejected, creating network congestion that affects all users.

• Raiku aims to achieve pre-confirmations in under 50 milliseconds, roughly one-eighth of Solana's 400-millisecond block time, with potential to reach 30 milliseconds.

• Block space sold through Jito today is approximately three times more valuable than standard block space sold to normal users.

• Current validator revenue on Solana breaks down to roughly 65 percent from transaction fees, around 30 percent from issuance, and under 5 percent from Jito tips.

• Validators can know their block production schedule two days in advance, enabling Raiku to facilitate block space reservations across extended time horizons.

• Raiku increases the probability of being close to the current leader by approximately 33 percent compared to standard transaction submission.

• The Raiku sidecar is compatible with both Agave and Firedancer validator clients, with the Firedancer version still in development.

• Applications can reserve block space minutes, hours, or longer in advance through Raiku's marketplace, with dynamic pricing based on market conditions.

• Users holding pre-confirmation tickets can submit transaction content up to approximately 1.2 seconds before block production.

• Raiku plans to launch a token shortly after mainnet deployment, with a market mechanism paper expected approximately six weeks from the podcast recording.

• The system is fully compatible with the current Solana SDK, requiring no changes to how developers build applications or send transactions.

• Validators cannot run both Jito BAM and the Raiku sidecar simultaneously due to Jito BAM's complete control over block production.

• When network slashing becomes available, validators may split their stake across multiple nodes to diversify risk and revenue streams across different infrastructure providers.

Questions Answered

What is Raiku and what problem does it solve?

Raiku is an infrastructure project that solves the fundamental problem of transaction unpredictability on Solana. When users send transactions today, they are essentially hoping for the best with no guarantee their transaction will be included in a block. Raiku makes this predictable by enabling pre-confirmations—essentially tickets that reserve block space ahead of time. This transforms transaction submission from a probabilistic exercise into a deterministic one, enabling new use cases that require guaranteed execution while reducing network congestion caused by failed high-frequency transactions.

How do pre-confirmations work on Raiku?

Pre-confirmations function like advance tickets for block space. Raiku's sidecar communicates with validators to determine how much block space can be reserved, then divides this into tickets available on a marketplace. Applications can purchase these tickets anywhere from minutes to hours in advance. The ticket holder then has until approximately 1.2 seconds before block production to submit their actual transaction content. The marketplace operates on free market dynamics with dynamic pricing based on demand, ensuring efficient allocation while maximizing validator revenue.

Why would validators choose to run Raiku?

Validators would adopt Raiku because it enables them to sell multiple differentiated products instead of uniform block space. Current data shows that block space sold through Jito is approximately three times more valuable than standard block space. Raiku extends this concept by enabling many more markets and products—not just JIT but AOT and various products in between. As validator economics become more competitive due to proposed SIMD changes, tools that increase revenue and enable differentiation become essential for attracting stake and remaining competitive.

Can validators run both Raiku and Jito BAM simultaneously?

No, validators cannot run both Raiku and Jito BAM at the same time. Jito BAM produces 100 percent of block content in the BAM node, leaving no room for collaboration with other systems. However, when network slashing becomes available, validators may choose to split their stake across multiple nodes, running some with Raiku and others with Jito BAM. This diversifies risk exposure and revenue streams according to market demand. Raiku is also exploring a routing service concept that could help validators optimize across different infrastructure options.

How fast can Raiku achieve pre-confirmations?

Raiku aims to achieve pre-confirmations in under 50 milliseconds, with potential to reach 30 milliseconds currently. This speed depends on the geographic distribution of Raiku nodes and the location of users relative to those nodes. The team strategically positions nodes in high-activity regions like New York to minimize latency. The upcoming Multiple Concurrent Leaders feature on Solana will enable further optimization, potentially pushing pre-confirmation times even lower as multiple builders can operate in different regions simultaneously.

Will Raiku launch a token?

Yes, Raiku will launch a token following mainnet deployment. The token will be fundamental to network operations rather than simply serving governance functions—Nordnes compares it to how an L1 token functions. The token will have multiple sources of utility across the various products sold via the marketplace. Specific mechanisms, including staking ratios and reservation costs, are still being finalized. A detailed market mechanism paper is expected approximately six weeks from the podcast recording.

How does Raiku interact with Solana's local fee markets?

Local fee markets complement Raiku rather than competing with it. Local fee markets help inform state contention, allowing prioritization of what should happen at given sequences. They work together to improve overall transaction processing. Nordnes argues that even as Solana improves in speed and efficiency, Raiku remains valuable because the fundamental problem it solves—predictable, guaranteed execution ahead of competitors—remains relevant regardless of block time. Faster networks make these capabilities more valuable, not less.

Will users know they're using Raiku?

No, users will not consciously know whether they're using Raiku. Applications integrate with Raiku directly, and users interact with applications as they always have—through wallets or programmatic interfaces. The system is fully compatible with the current Solana SDK, requiring no changes to how developers build applications or send transactions. Applications can use Raiku alongside normal transaction methods, choosing the most appropriate approach for each situation, all transparent to end users.

What makes Raiku different from other transaction landing solutions?

Raiku differentiates through its architecture and approach to block space markets. While Jito BAM is identified as the most comparable competitor due to market share and similar goals, the two projects achieve these goals through different architectures. Raiku's distributed node network across regions, compatibility with multiple validator clients, and futures-like marketplace for block space provide unique capabilities. The system enables reservation of block space from minutes to hours in advance, creating financial primitives similar to mature commodity markets that enable validators and applications to plan with greater certainty.