Building High-Performance Infrastructure for Solana | Robin from Raiku

In this episode of Latest Development, Dirt sits down with Robin (@Degenroot), founder of Raiku, to unpack how Raiku is solving blockchain bottlenecks and advancing Solana. They dive into Raiku’s ahead-of-time (AOT) block auctions, validator-side upgrades, edge compute, and what it takes to bring enterprise-grade reliability to Solana. From coordinating blockspace to enabling new marketplace dynamics, Robin breaks down how Raiku is building the rails for a new generation of performant, scalable Solana-native applications. ⏱ Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: Who is Robin & what is Raiku? 02:16 – What Raikou does in one sentence 03:30 – Robin’s fintech & Ethereum R&D background 06:17 – Why crypto infra needs new primitives 07:37 – Why Solana: leadership, architecture, and alignment 10:37 – Is Raiku the final infra puzzle piece? 14:32 – Unlocking new DeFi market volumes through execution guarantees 17:32 – Custom “highways” for different transaction types 20:15 – AOT block auctions explained 22:51 – Pre-confirmation receipts & programmatic blockspace 26:27 – Validator-side integration & sidecar adoption 34:05 – Guaranteed limit orders in high-volatility trading 37:13 – L1-native vs edge compute architecture 39:22 – Validator revenue streams & decentralization 41:14 – How apps integrate: endpoints, SDKs, or edge compute 44:17 – Raiku’s economic model: specialized blockspace & marketplaces 46:49 – The Raiku token: more than governance 47:19 – What is “proof streaming”? 50:24 – When mainnet? Early 2026 51:08 – Hiring & builder chats: join the Discord 🔗 Links Raiku: https://www.raiku.com/Discord: https://discord.com/invite/raikucomRobin / Founder:https://x.com/degenroot