Rakurai

Rakurai is a high-performance Solana validator client that rewrites how blocks are packed and transactions are scheduled, converting network performance directly into higher staking yields for both validators and delegators.

Core Mechanism

Rakurai's central innovation is a custom transaction scheduler that replaces the default scheduling logic in the standard Solana client. Rather than processing transactions in a generic order, the Rakurai scheduler selects and sequences transactions based on value heuristics — prioritizing high-fee, non-conflicting transactions to maximize block revenue per epoch. The result is blocks that are denser, higher-value, and processed faster than those produced by the baseline Agave client.

The technical stack is built around five components:

• Scheduler Library — the core scheduling logic that evaluates and ranks transactions by value
• Agave Client Fork — a modified jito-solana client that integrates the Rakurai scheduler into the validator pipeline
• Activation Program — an on-chain smart contract that governs validator enrollment and participation
• Reward Distribution Program — a trustless, configurable, Merkle-root-based system that distributes block rewards through Reward Collection Accounts (RCA) and Merkle claims each epoch
• Tip Manager Program — distributes tip revenue across eight PDAs into per-validator Tip Collection Accounts (TCA)

Revenue for validators flows through two streams: on-chain tips accumulated in TCAs, and MEV-share revenue held in per-validator MEV-share Collection Accounts (MCAs). The infrastructure is permissionless and multi-sig protected.

In internal benchmark testing, Rakurai nodes demonstrated up to 5x better transactions per second than the standard Solana client. On the live network, Rakurai validators consistently produce blocks that are 50% larger than the cluster average, targeting a maximum 100 million compute unit block size.

Staking Products

Rakurai offers two paths for yield-seekers:

Native staking — delegators stake SOL directly with any Rakurai-powered validator node and earn a share of enhanced block rewards. Rakurai introduced auto-compounding to native Solana staking, a feature previously unavailable without liquid staking tokens, enabling rewards to compound epoch-to-epoch without manual intervention.

raiSOL — Rakurai's liquid staking token, backed by the same high-performance validator infrastructure. Holders of raiSOL receive the protocol's boosted block rewards while retaining liquidity. As of mid-2026, raiSOL carries a promotional "+25% boosted block rewards" incentive for new stakers.

Network Position

Rakurai has grown rapidly since launching. From epoch 732 (late January 2025), the protocol's network stake grew 390% in a matter of weeks, rising from approximately 17,960 SOL to over 88,000 SOL. By mid-2026, Rakurai-powered validators collectively hold more than 8.5% of Solana's total network stake — over 38 million SOL — making it a meaningful presence in the validator ecosystem.

Security and Audits

In April 2026, Hashlock completed a comprehensive security audit of Rakurai's Rust-based scheduler system, examining transaction handling, scheduling logic, and validator execution flow using manual code analysis, automated testing, and formal verification. The audit identified 15 vulnerabilities (1 high, 8 medium, 6 low severity). All issues were resolved or acknowledged prior to the audit's completion. Hashlock rated the Rakurai system "Secure" and deemed the codebase "suitable for deployment within the assessed scope," noting the system demonstrates "complex logic with correct and detailed ordering." The full audit report is publicly available.

Team

Rakurai was founded by Ali Rizvi, a former Apple engineer with over two decades of experience in ASIC and system-on-chip (SoC) development and ultra-low latency systems for algorithmic trading. The team won first place in the infrastructure track at the Colosseum Renaissance Hackathon, which helped establish the project's credibility in the Solana builder community.

Funding and Backers

In March 2025, Rakurai closed a $3 million seed round led by Anagram Ventures. Additional investors include Colosseum, Slow Ventures, Robot Ventures, Crypto.com Capital, P2P.org, GlobalStake, and Cyber Fund. P2P.org's participation reflects a strategic interest in maximizing returns across its validator and delegator network. Anagram Ventures' CIO David Feiock cited Solana's structural challenge of "conflicting transactions and scheduler bottlenecks" as the precise problem Rakurai was built to address.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Rakurai competes in the performance-differentiated validator space alongside Jito, which pioneered MEV-aware block building on Solana. Where Jito's model centers on a block engine and MEV auction, Rakurai focuses on the underlying transaction scheduling layer and direct reward sharing with stakers. Its liquid staking token (raiSOL) places it in competition with existing LSTs such as mSOL, JitoSOL, and bSOL, while its auto-compounding native staking offering targets delegators who prefer on-chain stake accounts over LST liquidity pools.

The combination of a credible infrastructure team, measurable on-chain performance data, meaningful network stake share, and a completed security audit positions Rakurai as a maturing participant in Solana's validator and staking infrastructure.