Programmable Staking: Our Partnership with Pye
Stake on Solana is evolving.
Staking has long been a core part of securing Solana, but the way stake is managed and accessed has remained largely static. For validators and stakers alike, this has meant limited flexibility around staking terms, liquidity, and access to DeFi.
That’s why Kairos Research is working with Pye as part of the early formation of programmable staking markets on Solana, bringing our validator perspective into how these markets are designed before they scale.
What drew us to Pye is the framework they’re building that allows stake accounts to become programmable and, over time, tradable. Instead of forcing stakers to choose between security and flexibility, programmable staking introduces new ways to manage duration and differentiate staking economics, without breaking the validator relationship.
As part of this collaboration, we’re participating in Pye’s early beta to help shape how stake trading and reward markets should work before they scale.
How Programmable Staking Works:
Traditional staking treats stake as a single, illiquid position. Pye introduces a model where staking lockups can be expressed more flexibly.
Under this framework, a staking position can be separated into two components:
Principal Token (PT), representing the underlying staked SOL and its lockup
Reward Token (RT), representing future staking rewards generated over time
This separation creates the foundation for new use cases, including the ability to manage future rewards more intentionally and layer additional economic components without breaking the validator relationship.Importantly, these mechanics are designed to operate within the validator ecosystem, not outside of it.
Why We’re Participating Early
Our participation at this stage is not about short-term volume or liquidity. It’s about helping shape how staking markets should function responsibly.
We’re interested in:
Helping define the future of Solana protocol economics
Running pilots and playing an active role in the design of stake trading microstructure
Exploring new, aligned revenue models for validators
As staking matures, we believe markets built deliberately will outperform those rushed into existence.
What Comes Next
Pye is still in beta, with markets forming deliberately before trading functionality is introduced. Trading functionality will come later, once foundations are in place.
We’re excited to contribute feedback, participate in early markets, and help define what the next phase of staking on Solana looks like.
About Pye
Pye is building a Solana-native platform centered on programmable stake accounts (PSAs), a new staking primitive designed to support stake trading and more flexible staking structures over time. This approach allows stake accounts to move beyond static delegation and become composable across the Solana ecosystem as markets form.