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Firedancer will speed up Solana, but it won’t reach full potential

2025-07-25 14:14:17

Main Idea

Firedancer, Solana's next-generation validator client, promises significant speed improvements but faces limitations due to Solana's network latency and decentralization trade-offs, with hybrid solutions like Frankendancer being tested to balance performance and stability.

Key Points

1. Firedancer, developed by Jump Trading, aims to boost Solana's throughput and reduce latency but is constrained by the network's current block time of around 400 milliseconds.

2. Douglas Colkitt is testing a hybrid validator setup called Frankendancer on Fogo, which combines Agave and Firedancer, accounting for about 10% of validators as of the latest data.

3. Solana's globally distributed validators create inherent latency, prompting projects like Fogo to co-locate validators in key locations (Tokyo, London, New York) to reduce latency and push Firedancer's performance.

4. High-frequency trading demands faster block times than Solana currently offers, with projects like Hyperliquid highlighting the need for ultra-low latency infrastructure.

5. Solana's 2027 roadmap includes efforts to reduce latency and improve performance, while Firedancer's full potential may be realized outside Solana in next-generation networks like Fogo.

Description

Solana’s Firedancer validator client promises huge speed boosts but faces network limits as developer Douglas Colkitt tests its full potential on Fogo.

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