Dissect the Solana runtime, Sealevel, JITO/MEV, Geyser, compression, and SVM forks — operate at the protocol layer.
This is the advanced Solana course for builders who've shipped Anchor programs and now want to understand the chain from the runtime up. You'll dissect Sealevel's parallel execution model, master priority fees and tx landing, understand JITO bundles defensively, write Geyser plugins, build compressed-state systems, work with Token-2022 confidential transfers, operate validators, navigate CPI at depth, and modify agave directly. Five capstones (pick one) demonstrate mastery by actually altering Solana or building protocol-grade infrastructure on top.
Built by Lakshya Kumar
Paste this into any AI chat. Fill in the bracketed parts with your context — you'll get back a straight answer on whether this belongs on your plate.
I am learning Solana at the protocol layer — runtime architecture, Sealevel parallel execution, priority fees, JITO bundles (defensively), Geyser indexers, account compression, Token-2022 extensions, validator operations, custom programs at scale, and SVM internals. Help me understand the actual mechanics with reference to real agave source, real production protocols, and real SIMDs.
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Sign in to applyComplete all modules, then submit the required number of capstone projects. Each must earn a passing rating from an admin reviewer.
Pick a cryptographic operation expensive in pure sBPF (Poseidon, Verkle primitive, Plonk verifier op). Write a SIMD draft following the SIMD template (motivation, specification, security considerations). Implement as both slow path (Solana program in pure sBPF) and fast path (fork of agave with new syscall registered). Benchmark CU cost. Submit the SIMD draft to solana-foundation/solana-improvement-documents for community feedback.
Write a Rust Geyser plugin (or Yellowstone-gRPC consumer) that watches Raydium, Orca, and Jupiter activity and streams price ticks + LP changes to Kafka/Postgres at <100ms latency. Handle reconnection, backpressure, and reorgs gracefully. Run for 24 hours and produce throughput + latency metrics. Bonus: include a small dashboard that visualizes the stream in real time.
Build a Bubblegum-style compressed merkle distributor with off-chain proof generation. Deploy to devnet with 1M entries. Implement claim flow with DAS-API proof fetching, replay protection (per-recipient bitmap), and a frontend that lets users check eligibility + claim. Benchmark cost-per-recipient and produce a one-page operations report comparing your design to uncompressed airdrops.
Build a Token-2022 program that issues a confidential SPL token, demonstrates encrypted-balance transfers among 10 recipients, includes an auditor-key reveal path (auditor can decrypt all transfers), and ships a working CLI/UI demo. Show on-chain inspection cannot reveal amounts but auditor can. README must explicitly state the trust model and limitations of confidential transfer in production.
Fork agave, modify block production for an ephemeral chain (MagicBlock-style or a session rollup). Demonstrate state settlement back to Solana mainnet via a bridge contract. Show a complete game/auction/trading flow where actions happen on the ephemeral rollup at <50ms latency and final state lands on mainnet at session end. Architecture doc + working code + 1-minute demo video.
Used throughout M6 for cNFT + compressed state design.