According to CoinDesk, Solana is accelerating the testing of Firedancer, a highly anticipated software upgrade aimed at significantly enhancing the blockchain's processing speed. By the end of this week, Solana's core developers aim for a "super majority" of processing power on the chain's low-stakes test network to operate through Frankendancer, an early version of Firedancer, as indicated in messages on Solana's technical Discord server.
This initiative represents Firedancer's most extensive test to date. The upgrade has been under development since 2022, a period marked by frequent disruptions in the chain, and is expected to improve Solana's stability and speed. Advocates of Firedancer, developed by the crypto division of trading giant Jump, believe the software will provide Solana with a significant advantage in the competitive race to attract global financial markets to blockchain technology. They highlight its theoretical capability of processing one million transactions per second, which is exponentially faster than any current blockchain-based system.
Firedancer does not yet have a confirmed launch date. Currently, Jump Crypto has only released Frankendancer, a hybrid that combines elements from Firedancer and Solana's main client architecture. Before this week, only a small group of validators had adopted Frankendancer, with many reporting it as buggy and prone to crashes. Kollen House, a veteran member of Solana's validator community, acknowledged the challenges in maintaining the software but views the push for wider Frankendancer adoption as a sign of its "maturity." He noted that the confidence to request 60% of the testnet to run this client indicates progress.
Solana's network is powered by hundreds of individual validators, each running a computer with "client" software that connects them to the network. This decentralization enhances blockchain security but complicates system upgrades. The Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization overseeing the network, has partially addressed this coordination challenge through subsidies. Its "delegation program" supports smaller validators, who earn less revenue due to limited staked SOL, by helping them remain profitable. The foundation often encourages validators to keep their software updated by threatening to withdraw delegated stakes from those who lag in upgrades.
For the first time on Tuesday, the Solana Foundation used this subsidy approach to directly promote Frankendancer's adoption. Validators have only a few days to switch their testnet systems to the new client or risk losing their delegated stake. Jon, a validator operator who has been running Frankendancer for several months, noted that approximately 30% of validators on the testnet are currently using Frankendancer, though they still fall short of the supermajority target.
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