Jump Crypto Sets Out to Build New Validator Client for the Solana Blockchain to Increase the Throughput and Reliability of the Network

Jump Crypto applying its research and development prowess to increase the efficiency of one of the world’s fastest blockchains

AUGUST 16, 2022 – Jump Crypto, an organization that develops critical infrastructure needed to catalyze the growth of the crypto ecosystem, and the Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the decentralization, advancement, and security of the Solana network, a high performance blockchain, today announced an ambitious undertaking to boost the throughput and reliability of the Solana network by developing a new open source validator client for the network using the C programming language.

Validators are the heart of any decentralized proof of stake blockchain, and this initiative to develop a second independent client for the Solana blockchain represents an important step in the network’s continued decentralization. Jump Crypto will propose significant upgrades to Solana’s open-source core software along with building a second and new validator client, separate from the one originally built by Solana Labs.

“After a close evaluation of potential contributors that could build the kind of technological infrastructure needed to undertake this complex of a project, I believe Jump Crypto is an excellent choice to lead this effort,” said Dan Albert, Executive Director of the Solana Foundation. “Jump has unparalleled experience with over 20 years of scaling networks and building highly performant software systems. Their contributions to the Solana network will improve mission-critical systems, helping the network scale to billions of users.”

“While this is a wildly ambitious project, Jump has always been focused on building the guardrails and infrastructure of blockchain technology,” said Kanav Kariya, President of Jump Crypto. “There is nothing more important right now than solving the world's most complex networking issues, and we are thrilled that Solana Foundation has entrusted us to help revolutionize this technology to make the fastest blockchain even faster and more reliable.”

“The Solana network has seen exponential growth over the last two years, which shows no signs of slowing down,” added Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder of Solana. “By adding more core contributors like Jump Crypto, the network can maintain its status as the best place to build in web3, while scaling to billions of users. I’m excited for Jump’s engineers to bring a new perspective to the network and help improve network resiliency and efficiency.”

The process of building a new validator client will be overseen by Kevin Bowers, Jump Trading’s Chief Science Officer, who leads an established team of scientists and engineers that has developed complex algorithms, software, hardware, and networks for one of the largest low latency trading systems in the world. Dr. Bowers joined Jump Trading in 2010 as a systems architect after six years as a scientist at D.E. Shaw Research, where he helped create multiple award-winning numerical methods, software, hardware, and networks for some of the world’s fastest and longest biochemical molecular dynamics simulations. His research at Los Alamos and, separately, UC-Berkeley on massively parallel plasma simulation received similar recognition and he has also researched opto-micro-electro-mechanical systems and semiconductor manufacturing at Bell Labs. Codes he architected have been described and used in hundreds of highly cited scientific papers, featured in the general media and museums, successfully open-sourced and commercialized and remain anchor applications for the world's largest supercomputers.

“Through Jump’s decades of work in solving some of the most complex networking challenges across traditional financial markets, we have seen first-hand the impact that improving a network’s speed and efficiency can have on an entire financial system,” said Kevin Bowers.  “Now, given the relatively slow speeds and unreliability of blockchain networks, an incredible opportunity exists to transform the functionality and efficacy of these networks. We are excited to apply our proven technologies to encourage widespread adoption, creating endless possibilities and driving real change in the world.”

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About Jump Crypto

Jump Crypto is committed to building and standing up critical infrastructure needed to catalyze the growth of the crypto ecosystem. They are builders, partners, and traders who take a long-term view of crypto's prospects and operate to unlock the full potential of open, community-driven networks. Since its inception as a skunkworks intern project in late 2015, Jump Crypto has grown into a dynamic and seasoned team of high performing players across a range of functions. Today, Jump Crypto plays an important role in the development of some of the largest and most innovative crypto communities. Jump Crypto is the crypto division of Jump Trading Group, a research-driven quantitative trading firm that's one of the largest traders by volume across traditional asset classes. To learn more, please visit https://jumpcrypto.com

About Solana Foundation

The Solana Foundation supports the decentralization, adoption and security of the Solana ecosystem, as a non-profit foundation based in Zug, Switzerland. For more information, please visit https://solana.org/.

About Solana

Solana is a blockchain built for mass adoption. It’s a high performance network that is utilized for a range of use cases, including finance, NFTs, payments, and gaming. Solana operates as a single global state machine, and is open, interoperable and decentralized. For more information, please visit https://solana.com.