Solana Founder Anatoly Yakovenko Advocates Hardware Scaling for Blockchain Efficiency
In a recent tweet, Anatoly Yakovenko, the founder of Solana, made a compelling case for “hardware scaling” as the ultimate solution for the network’s efficiency. The tweet sparked a heated debate among blockchain enthusiasts and engineers, as Yakovenko argued that scaling with hardware offers a simpler and more cost-effective alternative to building complex protocols.
At the heart of the discussion lies Solana’s consensus efficiency, which Yakovenko openly acknowledges as one of the least efficient in the market. He revealed that every node in the network currently votes on each block without any aggregation, resulting in a mere 4,000 transactions per second (tps) out of the network’s 20,000 tps capacity.
This led Yakovenko to pose a crucial question to the engineering community: should they aim to optimize and potentially increase transactions to 1,000 or 400 tps, or would it be more prudent to pursue hardware scaling to achieve a staggering 40,000 tps by doubling the cores on each validator?
“Solana scales with hardware” should really be “hardware is all you need”. The point of scaling with hardware is that it’s simpler and cheaper then to build complex protocols.
Solana consensus is one of the least efficient out there. literally every node votes on every block…
— toly 🇺🇸 (@aeyakovenko) August 4, 2023
Yakovenko’s stance strongly favors the latter, citing the significant impact of adding 20,000 tps through hardware scaling, rendering any optimization efforts virtually insignificant. In his view, investing in hardware upgrades trumps engineering costs, making other approaches a waste of valuable time.
To support his argument, Yakovenko pointed out the remarkable advancements in hardware technology. For instance, the ability to handle two times more zip codes than just two years ago and SSD-backed account index running on less than 128GB with 10 billion accounts showcase the potential for handling one block at a time with minimal RAM.
Another noteworthy aspect of his proposition is the potential for asynchronous execution and voting on fork choice, significantly reducing latency. Yakovenko emphasized that the only limiting factor for latency is the speed of light around the world, which applies to all information transfers.
One of the most intriguing parts of his tweet is his belief that a network doesn’t need all eight billion participants to run full nodes. According to Yakovenko, the presence of just one honest node in the network is sufficient to prove the integrity of the entire system, making it unnecessary to design the network to accommodate such a massive number of nodes.
Anatoly Yakovenko’s tweet has certainly ignited a fervent discussion among developers and blockchain enthusiasts, shedding light on the potential of hardware scaling as a game-changer for Solana’s scalability and efficiency. As the debate unfolds, the broader blockchain community eagerly awaits to see how this idea will shape the future of the Solana network.
Read more:
- Anatoly Yakovenko Presents Surprising Proposal: Ethereum As A Layer 2 Solution For Solana Blockchain
- Solana Founder Anatoly Yakovenko Calls Out Ethereum Community For Spreading Falsehoods