Product & Partnerships.Ecosystem Growth.Technical Strategy.

Head of Ecosystem and Business Growth at Rakurai, one of Solana's fastest-growing validator clients. I grew its share of Solana's network stake from ~1% to nearly 10%, and onboarded 30+ validators, including institutional operators such as Figment, P2P, and Blockdaemon.

  • Onchain finance
  • Institutional onchain finance
  • Islamic finance
  • Tokenization
  • Stablecoins & payments
  • DeFi
  • Blockchain infrastructure
  • Privacy & zero-knowledge
Kashan Siddiqui (aka Cash Sid)

Experience

Building the bridge between engineering and business.

From early Ethereum startups to scaling institutional infrastructure on Solana, I've spent my career connecting engineering/users with business. Whether launching products, closing strategic partnerships, or shaping technical narratives, my focus has always been the same: helping great technology reach the people who need it.

Case Studies

Case studies from the work

Select a company to see the role, context, work, and results. Key outcomes stay visible in the list.

Rakurai

Rakurai

Validator network expansion on Solana

Head of Ecosystem and Business Growth·Nov 2025 to Present

A high performance Solana validator client focused on improving transaction scheduling, validator rewards, and network efficiency.

What I worked on

  • Designed the go-to-market strategy for validator adoption, including tokenomics for the validator referral program, external growth initiatives, and internal tooling to improve onboarding, support, and engagement.
  • Expanded the validator network by onboarding institutional operators including Figment, P2P, Blockdaemon, Anagram, Mavan, Everstake, and others.
  • Led partnerships for the LST token raiSOL, negotiating integrations including ApeBond, YoSOL, and others.

Results

  • Grew share of Solana network stake from ~1% to nearly 10%, a key growth KPI that made Rakurai one of the fastest growing, metrics driven validator clients in the ecosystem.
  • Expanded the validator network to 30+ nodes, including institutional operators such as Figment, P2P, Blockdaemon, and Everstake.
Solana
Validator Infrastructure
LST (raiSOL)
GTM Strategy
Solana
Solana

Case study 1 of 4

“Still learning. Still building. Still curious.”

Writing

Thoughts on infrastructure, partnerships & product

Deep dives on the business and technical dynamics shaping blockchain adoption, written for founders, builders, and institutions.

The Missing Piece in Solana Staking And Why Auto-Compounding Can Change Everything
web3
staking
validator

The Missing Piece in Solana Staking And Why Auto-Compounding Can Change Everything

There are over 421 million SOL staked on the Solana network right now. That is 68% of the entire circulating supply, the highest staking participation rate among all major proof-of-stake networks. Billions of dollars wor...

11 min readJul 2026
Read article
The Era of everything Onchain
solana-network
finance

The Era of everything Onchain

Over the past few months, almost every week seemed to bring another announcement from a major financial institution. Mastercard turned on always-on stablecoin settlement across multiple blockchains . Visa’s stablecoin se...

22 min readAug 2026
The Institutional Era of Blockchain. The customer blockchain was always built for.
bitcoin
solana-network

The Institutional Era of Blockchain. The customer blockchain was always built for.

Every blockchain cycle since 2017 has been read the same way. Price goes up, retail piles in, timelines fill with charts and new wallets, then price comes down and everyone calls it a bear market like the tech failed. 20...

10 min readJul 2026
The Builder Onboarding Funnel 101
software-development
blockchain

The Builder Onboarding Funnel 101

Every blockchain wants builders. Very few know how to attract them. Most ecosystems don’t have a builder problem. They have a builder funnel problem. I’ve spent the last eight years seeing that funnel from both sides. I ...

8 min readJul 2026
Inside Rakurai’s Validator Performance Edge
web3
blockchain

Inside Rakurai’s Validator Performance Edge

A look at Rakurai’s validator performance across public dashboards, independent research, and real operator data. Rakurai is a high performance validator client built to optimize speed, execution efficiency, and validato...

5 min readJul 2026
View all on Medium

About

What keeps me curious.

Why I do what I do.

I'm someone who enjoys making complex things easier to understand. Professionally, that means working at the intersection of engineering, business, and user needs through product strategy, partnerships, and technical storytelling. Personally, it means diving into subjects like astrophysics, relativity, AI, and distributed systems simply because they fascinate me. When I'm not reading or building side projects, you'll probably find me planning my next trek or exploring somewhere new.

Kashan · Cash Sid

Along the way

Threads that run through the work and life.

Product Builder
Partnership Driven
Technical Writer
Ethereum & Solana
Public Speaker
Physics Geek
Trekker
Coffee Powered
Lifelong Learner
Always Reading

Trekking

Away from the screen, I recharge in the mountains. Long hikes, alpine lakes, and quiet trails remind me to slow down, think clearly, and enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

Trekking

Space & Astrophysics

I've always been fascinated by how the universe works, from relativity and black holes to the mathematics behind spacetime. That curiosity often spills into side projects where I try to make complex ideas more visual, interactive, and easier to understand.

Space & Astrophysics

In the Ecosystem

Some of the best conversations don't happen on Zoom. They happen at conferences, hacker houses, and community events where founders, developers, researchers, and builders come together to share ideas, challenge assumptions, and build what's next.

In the Ecosystem

Community

One of my favorite parts of Web3 is the people. Whether it's mentoring, collaborating, introducing builders, or simply sharing ideas over coffee, I've learned that the strongest ecosystems are built on genuine relationships, not just technology.

Community

Featured

Starknet shared my work on LinkedIn

A proud moment from building in the Starknet ecosystem.

Right now

Currently exploring

AIGeneral RelativityPhysicsSpace ExplorationTrekkingEthereumSolanaDistributed SystemsDeveloper ExperienceTechnical Writing

Contact

Let's build what's next.

I'm always open to conversations about product, partnerships, blockchain infrastructure, AI, developer ecosystems, and opportunities where technology, business, and users intersect.