Research & Insights
From the Lab
Deep dives into protocols, blockchains, and the systems we build. Written by the Exo team.
All Articles
23 articles
How MCP Servers Work: Architecture Deep Dive
Transport Layers, Capability Negotiation, and Lifecycle Management for Production Deployments
What Is Model Context Protocol (MCP) and Why Does It Matter for Engineering Teams?
A Technical Guide to the Open Standard Connecting AI Models to External Tools
Predicting Solana's Compute Units with Machine Learning
A Proof-of-Concept System for Predicting Solana Compute Usage Before Execution
Solana Needs Something Like ERC4626 Vaults
A vault standard is the missing primitive for tokenized funds, RWAs, and institutional composability on Solana
Building Decentralized Governance for Solana: Giving 1.2M Stakers a Voice
SIMD-228 showed the gap: stakers couldn't vote independently. This Snapshot NCN closes it with verifiable stake snapshots and Merkle proofs.
Are sRFC 37 Permissioned Tokens replacing Transfer Hooks?
Implementing Solana's new permissioned token standard without transfer hooks
Optimizing Compute Units - Part 2
Real-World Solana Optimization: Cutting Pool Creation Cost from 48K to 34K CUs by Making Logic Conditional
Part 3: Payments & Fiat Connectivity
A practical overview of how fiat, stablecoins, and global payment rails converge on Solana
Breaking Down Solana & Ethereum Fees (4/4)
A deep dive into how Solana and Ethereum price blockspace and why their fee markets behave so differently
Optimizing Compute Units - Part 1
A practical walkthrough on shrinking Solana transaction costs by cutting Compute Units with simple, real-world code optimizations
Measuring Solana Validator Rewards — A Time-Dependent Approach
A data-driven method for measuring Solana validator rewards through time-based performance benchmarking
Part 2: Custody, Key Management & Policy Enforcement
How enterprises on Solana secure keys, gate transactions, and enforce policy with MPC custodians, multisig treasuries, and programmable controls
A Developer’s Guide to Audit Readiness
Making an Auditor-Friendly Architecture Doc, Featuring Insights from Accretion
Breaking down Solana & Ethereum: MEV (3/4)
How differences in virtual machine design shape performance, programmability, and user experience
Part 1: Compliance Frameworks & On-Chain Regulatory Controls
Establishing Regulatory Confidence in a Decentralized World
Breaking Down Solana & Ethereum: EVM & SVM (2/4)
How differences in Ethereum and Solana's virtual machines explain everything from performance to programmability
Breaking down Solana & Ethereum: Intro (1/4)
Compacting Instruction Data with Codama
How to compact instruction data with Codama
Insights from Improving an RPC Server
Hard-earned lessons in CPU isolation, memory safety, and callback benchmarking in Rust
RWA Compliance Challenges
RWA Compliance Challenges: Navigating Tokenized Asset Regulation on Solana
Testing Solana Programs
What is SIMD-0123
How SIMD-0123 enables validators to distribute block rewards and MEV to stakers on Solana