Yutaro Mori is a software engineer who has worked on blockchain infrastructure and decentralized finance systems, including contributions to Ethereum-related development and UMA. He later became an early participant in the Solana ecosystem and co-founded Orca, where he focuses on protocol design and technical development. ^[2]

Career

Mori began his career as a software engineer focused on cryptography and economic systems, later transitioning into the blockchain sector during the 2017 cryptocurrency market expansion. He contributed to the development of an Ethereum 2.0 client written in Go and worked as an engineer at UMA, gaining experience in decentralized finance infrastructure. He later became an early participant in the Solana ecosystem and co-founded Orca, where he has been involved in protocol development and technical design. ^[5]

Interviews

Fantastic Chains

On the OrcaPod in November 2022, Mori provided a comprehensive overview of various blockchain layer ones (L1s) and their differences, emphasizing their technical architectures and developer ecosystems. He explained that L1 blockchains have their own consensus protocols and sovereignty, contrasting them with L2 solutions that rely on L1 security, such as optimistic rollups like Optimism, which are designed to scale Ethereum. Mori highlighted Bitcoin's status as the original L1 optimized for simple transactions. At the same time, Ethereum pioneered smart contracts but faced scalability issues, prompting the development of Eth2 (proof-of-stake) and layer-2 solutions. He discussed various chains, including Polygon, Avalanche, Cosmos, and Solana, as well as newer entrants such as Sui and Aptos, analyzing their consensus mechanisms, decentralization levels, and developer experiences. Mori expressed particular enthusiasm for Solana, citing its high throughput and decentralization, despite recent outages. He also addressed misconceptions about Solana's stability and the potential of Sui and Aptos, noting their Libra origins and innovative features. Ultimately, Mori emphasized a chain-agnostic approach, focusing on building valuable primitives for future multi-chain utility, while acknowledging the fluidity and rapid evolution within the blockchain landscape. ^[6]

Solana AMM

In an April 2023 interview on the Frictionless Podcast, hosted by Logan Jastremski, Ori Kwan and Mori discussed their backgrounds and the reasons they chose to build on Solana rather than Ethereum. Mori described his experience working on Ethereum-related projects and in decentralized finance, noting that Solana’s high throughput and low latency enabled different technical trade-offs compared to Ethereum’s scaling approach. Kwan emphasized a design-focused approach, aiming to make decentralized finance tools more accessible through simplified user interfaces. They explained that early experimentation on Ethereum revealed usability and performance limitations, which influenced the development of Orca as a more user-focused automated market maker. The discussion also covered Solana’s network improvements alongside ongoing concerns such as occasional outages and stability challenges. They outlined plans for enhanced trading interfaces and tools, while also referencing broader initiatives related to user education and ecosystem development. ^[1]

Open-source Smart Contract

On the OrcaPod in May 2022, Mori announced that they had open-sourced the smart contract for their whirlpools, which are concentrated liquidity Automated Market Makers (AMMs), to enable developers to build on top of them. He explained that whirlpools create single AMMs for specific price ranges, automatically adjusting liquidity based on supply and demand, and do not require extensive maintenance or admin intervention, making them highly robust—particularly beneficial during network congestion or liquidity crises. The smart contract was built from scratch, inspired by Uniswap V3 but tailored to Solana's unique constraints, including the importance of tick arrays for efficient price range management and the use of Program-Derived Addresses (PDAs) for scalable, deterministic pool addresses. Mori also highlighted their development of a highly optimized 256-bit math library, designed to be more cost-effective than existing options. The open-source release aimed to foster community development, with plans for a builders program to support innovative projects, passive yield strategies, and integrations such as lending protocols. Throughout the talk, Mori emphasized their commitment to transparency, developer support, and ecosystem growth, encouraging community members to explore and build atop Orca's whirlpools to unlock Solana's full potential for DeFi innovation. ^[3]

Presentations

OPOS

At Solana Breakpoint 2023 in November, Mori and Ori Kwan introduced Orca’s new Liquidity Terminal, a comprehensive dashboard designed to enhance the experience of liquidity providers (LPs) on Solana. They explained that many LPs currently rely on inefficient trial-and-error methods and emphasized the importance of data-driven tools to improve decision-making. The Liquidity Terminal was inspired by computer terminals and offers real-time pool analysis, including a price chart, yield finder, and time-to-profit estimator, enabling LPs to quickly and accurately assess historical yields, profitability, and optimal ranges. They highlighted that the platform calculates precise yields by tracking transaction data and reward emissions, allowing users to make smarter, more informed choices. Features like easier repositioning and real-time P&L tracking were announced as future updates. The founders invited users to join the closed beta by scanning a QR code and providing feedback to refine the tool further. Overall, Orca aimed to elevate LP efficiency and experience, reaffirming its commitment to improving decentralized finance on Solana. ^[4]