Solana Client Developer Jito Announces End of ‘Mempool’ Function

The
developer
of
popular
alternative
Solana
client
Jito
on
Friday
abruptly
pulled
the
plug
on
its
mempool
functionality,
a
key
part
of
its
tech
stack
that
had
nonetheless
enabled
a
spate
of
costly
sandwich
attacks
on
traders.

Jito
Labs
said
in
a
tweet
Friday
that
the
mempool
function
would
go
offline
tonight.
Mempools
are
the
place
where
on-chain
transactions
sit
before
they’re
added
to
the
blockchain.
Solana
doesn’t
have
a
mempool
but
Jito’s
method
for
transaction
ordering
did.

The
decision
marks
a
turnabout
for
Jito,
which
just
two
weeks
ago
un-banned
the
practice
of
“front-running”
after
deeming
the
restriction
unenforceable,
according
to
messages
in
its
Discord
server.

Front-running
is
a
layman’s
way
of
describing
the
practice
of
“sandwich
attacks”
in
which
trading
bots
take
advantage
of
transactions
which
have
been
added
to
the
mempool
but
not
yet
executed.
Before
they
get
a
chance
to,
the
bot
“sandwiches”
the
trade
to
extract
value
from
the
trader.

Jito
builds
and
manages
an
alternative
client
for
processing
transactions
on
the
Solana
blockchain.
Over
half
of
validators
used
it
at
last
check.

Representatives
for
Jito
did
not
return
a
request
for
comment.