If you’ve dipped even a toe into crypto, you’ve definitely heard of Solana, the fastest blockchain there is. Digging deeper, you've likely stumbled upon Solana's less-than-stellar moments of downtime, with the network going offline for hours on end. But, suppose you’re a kind of crypto pro, you’ve probably caught the buzz around Firedancer — the game-changer that is set to fix all of Solana’s issues, crank its performance by 10x hitting 1M TPS (transactions per second), and make Solana The Blockchain.
Sounds awesome, right? You’re pumped, but still scratching your head about how this whole thing actually works.
So here you are — whether a Solana rookie or an on-chain degen, you’re in the perfect spot to learn all about Firedancer and get a glimpse of what's next for Solana. And as we go, I’ll make sure to link you to all the essential resources.
Do we need an even faster Solana?
Yes, Solana is fast, but it can be made even faster, and more importantly, more reliable and more efficient. Making Solana faster is essential for transitioning the current financial system onto the blockchain, meeting the needs of modern enterprise applications, and fostering real-world utility.
How? By developing a new validator client entirely from scratch, in the C++ programming language, to optimize everything possible, eliminating the bottlenecks found in the current Rust-based Solana Validator developed by Solana Labs. As Anatoly Yakovenko, the CEO of Solana Labs, has stated, Solana lacked the resources to develop a fully fleshed-out product, implying that Firedancer is, indeed, the validator client that would have been built from the start with the right resources.
“If we had all the resources in the world in those early days, this is how we would have built this thing.” - 𝕏/jump_firedancer
Thus, Firedancer essentially represents a fine-tuned rewrite of the Solana validator codebase, bringing two major improvements to Solana:
Performance Gains - achieving higher TPS, reducing latency, and eliminating chain halts.
How? By removing the inefficiencies present in today's software, thus allowing the chain to operate at its maximum capacity, limited only by the hardware.
Client Diversity - having several validator clients different from each other.
Why is this critical? In a proof-of-stake blockchain like Solana, validators are essential for validating transactions. With enough $SOL and the right hardware, nearly anyone can become one of Solana's current 1651 validators. However, the issue is that these validators either run the Rust-based client by Solana Labs or (about 30% of them) the Jito Labs' version, which is a fork optimized for MEV prevention.
Having diverse clients enhances fault tolerance — if one version encounters a bug or crashes, the network continues to run and remains stable.
Who's building Firedancer?
Jump Crypto, part of the big Chicago-based company Jump Trading, is the brains behind it.
Jump stands as an important player in the crypto scene, having large investments throughout the industry, particularly in Solana and various Solana-centric projects. With its roots in traditional financial markets, Jump has extensive expertise in crafting high-capacity, highly reliable, and low-latency networks to support its high-frequency trading activities.
"Leveraging our experience over the last two decades in building this global network, we believe we are well-positioned to significantly enhance the power, reliability, and security of the Solana ecosystem." - Github/firedancer
Jump Crypto is known for its innovative edge — essentially a tech company with deep pockets doing trading part-time. They have what it takes to create high-tech stuff like Firedancer. The project is led by Kevin Bowers, a Jump Crypto executive and former UC-Berkeley researcher — you can find a video of him presenting Firedancer here.
Why are they building it? They argue that a slow blockchain is a failed technology, incapable of satisfying the needs of today’s applications and businesses.
What is Firedancer and how fast is it?
Alright, let's dive into it. Firedancer is set to boost transaction throughput, network resilience, and overall efficiency. But what's the secret sauce?
It's a complete rewrite of the Solana Labs client, breaking down and rebuilding every part:
Networking — involving the blockchain's block and transaction handling.
Runtime — covering the Solana Virtual Machine, which executes smart contracts and processes transactions.
Consensus — including Proof of History and Proof of Stake.
Each piece is fine-tuned for efficiency and top performance, meaning the system will only be held back by the physical limits of the validators' hardware and bandwidth. This new approach will make a huge shift from the old setup, which was slowed down by software issues and led to the well-known Solana outages.
With Firedancer, as hardware gets better and cheaper each year, Solana can scale infinitely.
Plus, being more efficient also means getting the same current results with less expensive hardware. There's been a lot of talk about how the high-end hardware needed to run Solana keeps regular folks from becoming validators. Firedancer is looking to change that, lowering the entry barrier to becoming a validator.
So, just how fast are we talking? With only a 4 CPU core setup, Firedancer can process 1 million transactions per second per tile. For context, most currently operate machines with 16 to 32 cores, while Solana's current capacity is up to 65,000 transactions per second.
Dan Albert, the executive director of the Solana Foundation, spilled all these details and more during the Firedancer Update at Breakpoint 2023.
How? Firedancer introduces the modular architecture, dividing its operations into several independent Linux C processes, or "tiles." Another standout feature is Firedancer's use of advanced data parallelism for computing signature verifications. By processing arrays or vectors of data elements simultaneously, it will significantly increase throughput and reduce latency.
Wen Firedancer?
On Oct. 31 at Solana's Breakpoint conference, Dan Albert announced the Testnet Launch of Firedancer. The early version of Firedancer running on testnet, dubbed Frankendancer, incorporates the high-performance C networking component into the existing validator client created by Solana Labs, including the runtime and consensus code. While this integration will significantly speed up the networking component, Frankendancer's overall performance might still be limited by the Rust-built runtime and consensus. Performance is expected to increase as more components get integrated into the current infrastructure.
For the time being, the Firedancer team is focusing on security audits and gathering feedback from validators. According to Albert, Frankendancer is set to go live on mainnet in Q2 2024. While the runtime and consensus components of Firedancer are anticipated to be ready for testing by the end of 2024.
Conclusion
Firedancer represents a pivotal moment for Solana and the broader crypto landscape. It addresses Solana's past challenges and propels it to the next level, preparing it for the future of finance and meeting the demands of modern applications and businesses.
Or as Mert Mumtaz, the CEO of Helius Labs, tweeted today:
"Firedancer is the biggest and most important project in crypto right now (and probably in the history of crypto, along with ETH 2.0)." - 𝕏/0xMert_
Moreover, according to Anatoly Yakovenko, Firedancer is what will, once it achieves stability and runs smoothly on the mainnet, bring Solana out of the much-discussed beta mode.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this article helpful.
See you on-chain,
the SoC team 👾
