What Is Solana Firedancer, and Why Is It Important for the Network?

Features Lead

Elena Bozhkova

Features Lead

Elena Bozhkova

About Author

Elena is the Features Lead at Cryptonews.com. With a Master's degree in science journalism from City University, London, she is passionate about exploring complex topics in the world of technology.

Author Profile

Share

Copied

Last updated: 

September 22, 2024

Why Trust Cryptonews

Cryptonews has covered the cryptocurrency industry topics since 2017, aiming to provide informative insights to our readers. Our journalists and analysts have extensive experience in market analysis and blockchain technologies. We strive to maintain high editorial standards, focusing on factual accuracy and balanced reporting across all areas - from cryptocurrencies and blockchain projects to industry events, products, and technological developments. Our ongoing presence in the industry reflects our commitment to delivering relevant information in the evolving world of digital assets. Read more about Cryptonews

What Is Firedancer on Solana?

Firedancer is a new validator client developed by Jump Trading that is designed to improve Solana’s performance radically. Its developers say the client will allow Solana to process more than one million transactions per second compared to the current 3000 TPS and make the network more secure. Firedancer is currently running on testnet and is planned to go live in 2025.

Let’s start by explaining what a validator client is. A validator is a computer that helps manage and secure a Proof of Stake type of blockchain network like Solana. It does this by processing transactions and agreeing on the state of the network, which is called “consensus.” To ensure honesty, validators lock up some of their own tokens as a sort of deposit. They earn rewards for doing their job correctly but face penalties if they act dishonestly or fail.

The special software that validators use is called validator client. Solana Labs created the first validator client on Solana, and it is still the most widely used today. In August 2022, Jito Labs introduced a second validator client based on Solana Labs’ original code. Since it’s a fork, any bugs in the Solana Labs client might also exist in the Jito-Solana client.

Currently, Solana’s ecosystem includes three main validator clients, with another one in development, giving the network a bit more diversity and resilience. However, according to the March 2024 Solana network performance report, over 60% of stake runs through the Jito validator client.

Why Is Firedancer Important for Solana?

Better performance

Firedancer is designed to make the Solana network faster and more secure. Unlike the existing Solana clients, Firedancer uses a modular design with separate processes called “tiles.” Each tile manages a specific task, such as processing network traffic or verifying transactions. This modular approach allows Firedancer to upgrade individual tiles without shutting down the entire system. This reduces downtime and improves flexibility.

Firedancer’s system can process high transaction volumes more efficiently. It uses techniques like QUIC for better network traffic management and FPGAs for high-speed processing, improving overall performance. As Firedancer is independent and different from existing clients, it can enhance the network’s security and reliability.

Clients diversity

Firedancer aims to enhance Solana’s security as it’s a completely independent client from the existing Solana Labs client. This diversification reduced the risk of a single software bug breaking the entire system. Also, the Firedancer client aims to fix some issues that were found in Solana’s original software.

Firedancer is the fourth validator client on Solana. For comparison, here are the Ethereum clients.

Documentation and standardization

Firedancer aims to document and standardize the Solana protocol, making it easier for others to create Solana validators based on the provided documentation rather than relying solely on the existing Rust code.

When Will Solana Firedancer Be Released?

The full version of the Firedancer upgrade is scheduled for 2025. The exact release date for Firedancer has not yet been announced. As of September 2024, the client is running on testnet and scheduled to go live in 2025. However, its early version, called Frankendancer, is up and running.

FAQs

How does Firedancer work?

Firedancer is built in C, unlike Solana’s original validator, which was written in Rust. This difference reduces the risk of a single bug affecting the whole network.

Firedancer’s design is modular, meaning different parts, or “tiles,” handle specific tasks, like verifying transactions. This allows upgrades without shutting down the whole system. It also improves performance by using techniques like QUIC and FPGAs, helping process high volumes of transactions more efficiently.

Firedancer uses strong security methods inspired by those in web browsers and can run on cheaper hardware, which could attract more validators to the network.

How fast is Solana Firedancer?

Firedancer is designed to make Solana much faster. It aims to process over 1 million transactions per second (TPS), a huge improvement from Solana’s current 3,000 TPS. The project is still being developed and tested.

Who is developing Firedancer?

Firedancer is being developed by Jump Trading, a Web3 infrastructure company. They are working to make Solana faster and more secure by building this new validator client.