Jito says it has “decentralized block building.” I took a look, and in reality Jito personally selected three firms: Triton One, Bitwise, and SOL Strategies.
Jito picked the participants, Jito set the entry requirements, and Jito is still running all the BAM nodes on mainnet itself (in The Defiant’s own words). The three firms are only entering the testnet for now, with a limited mainnet launch before year-end. Opening it to all validators won’t happen until Q1 2027.
So the accurate headline for this news should be: Jito sent out three whitelist invitations.
BAM decides which transactions get onto Solana and in what order. That’s the most valuable position on the entire chain: control over ordering = MEV. Before, one firm called all the shots. Now, one firm still calls all the shots, but has invited three friends along for the ride. The power structure hasn’t changed; there are just three more chairs at the table. One more thing: transactions are ordered inside “sealed hardware,” shifting trust from Jito to the chip manufacturer and the TEE implementation. Almost nobody is discussing this part.
The most absurd part is the parroting on X: a bunch of “JUST IN 🚨 Jito decentralizes block building” posts, with the JTO contract address tacked on right after. An asset management firm’s official account posts “proud,” someone from the third firm posts “good company,” and people in the same circle like each other’s posts—and suddenly it’s “Solana is more decentralized.”
I’m not saying the direction is wrong. It only counts when any validator can genuinely join and the ordering rules can be externally verified. Until then, don’t treat the three testnet names as a bullish signal. Keep an eye on whether that Q1 2027 date gets pushed back again.
#Solana #JTO
Jito picked the participants, Jito set the entry requirements, and Jito is still running all the BAM nodes on mainnet itself (in The Defiant’s own words). The three firms are only entering the testnet for now, with a limited mainnet launch before year-end. Opening it to all validators won’t happen until Q1 2027.
So the accurate headline for this news should be: Jito sent out three whitelist invitations.
BAM decides which transactions get onto Solana and in what order. That’s the most valuable position on the entire chain: control over ordering = MEV. Before, one firm called all the shots. Now, one firm still calls all the shots, but has invited three friends along for the ride. The power structure hasn’t changed; there are just three more chairs at the table. One more thing: transactions are ordered inside “sealed hardware,” shifting trust from Jito to the chip manufacturer and the TEE implementation. Almost nobody is discussing this part.
The most absurd part is the parroting on X: a bunch of “JUST IN 🚨 Jito decentralizes block building” posts, with the JTO contract address tacked on right after. An asset management firm’s official account posts “proud,” someone from the third firm posts “good company,” and people in the same circle like each other’s posts—and suddenly it’s “Solana is more decentralized.”
I’m not saying the direction is wrong. It only counts when any validator can genuinely join and the ordering rules can be externally verified. Until then, don’t treat the three testnet names as a bullish signal. Keep an eye on whether that Q1 2027 date gets pushed back again.
#Solana #JTO