In this 69th episode of Colors of Web3 and Entrepreneurship, we sit down with Joel de Jesus & Naomi Honda to uncover the hidden world of Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) on Solana. MEV is generating hundreds of millions in fees monthly—yet remains elusive and inaccessible to most traders and validators. That’s where Catscope comes in.

Naomi and Joel share their unconventional journey into the crypto world—Naomi from fashion and sociology, and Joel from Bitcoin mining—and how they joined forces to build the first decentralized MEV marketplace. You’ll learn about the technical and business challenges of building in the Solana ecosystem, their unique validator-trader model, and how their tooling aims to democratize high-frequency trading.

⌛ Timestamps:

00:00:00 Episode trailer

00:00:27 Intro: Joel De Jesus & Naomi Honda

00:06:15 Naomi’s entry into tech and Solana ecosystem

00:07:10 How Joel and Naomi met and launched Catscope

00:08:27 Pivoting Catscope after Radar hackathon

00:09:33 Hobbies of Joel & Naomi

00:12:05 What is Catscope?

00:12:33 MEV explained and why it matters

00:15:04 Catscope’s unique approach to MEV

00:17:09 Validator costs and Catscope’s accessibility

00:18:18 Marketplace model: linking traders & validators

00:25:55 Why Solana is the best chain for this solution

00:29:56 Geyser plugin and Catscope’s custom setup

00:33:31 Bandwidth allocation via on-chain auctions

00:37:56 Catscope's business model

00:39:20 Catscope’s challenge on Solana

00:45:03 Go-to-market and community engagement

00:51:35 Advice for new Web3 founders

00:53:15 Where to follow Catscope

00:53:55 Episode outro and next episode preview

Follow Catscope, Naomi Honda and Joel de Jesus :

Catscope's Website: https://catscope.io/

Catscope's Twitter/X: https://x.com/catscope_io

Joel de Jesus's Twitter/X: https://x.com/Molo81419714

Naomi Honda's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/naomi-honda-83062522b/

My social media:

Twitter/X: ⁠https://www.twitter.com/LamWeb3⁠

LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/lamweb3/⁠

Website: ⁠https://lamtrinh.xyz⁠

My old article about the 2-3 prevailing narratives of 2024-2025: https://substack.com/home/post/p-143541984

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