Solana Blocksize Wars - Teetering on the Brink!
Runaway success of Solana and Activity is Demanding Change - Fast!
User Activity Surge:
Long story short, I will make this quick, but there is a massive surge in activity on Solana - experiencing a significant increase in user activity, leading to network congestion and operational challenges.
DeFi Growth and Exploits:
It is also no surprise, scammers go where the money is. The rise in DeFi activities on Solana has attracted malicious actors exploiting the network's low fees to conduct attacks on users.
Mempool Shutdown by Jito Labs:
To combat bot attacks during peak times, Jito Labs shut down its mempool service, aimed at managing transaction prioritization for profit (MEV).
Sandwich Attacks:
Mert has spoken of this quite a bit. Sandwich Attacks are where traders have been using bots for sandwich attacks, manipulating asset prices to profit at the expense of other users, exacerbated by Solana's low fees.
Network Congestion Issues:
These activities and a high volume of transactions have caused significant congestion, affecting all network operations. The chain is still up - but it is simply growing far too fast now with over 3x the DAU of Ethereum.
Anatoly Yakovenko's Proposal:
Solana's co-founder suggested increasing block space to alleviate congestion but acknowledged the risk of network outages.
Community Response:
A Twitter poll showed that the majority of Solana users prioritize network stability over solving congestion, rejecting the proposal to increase block space.
What Else is Causing Congestion?
NFT Contribution to Congestion: The minting of large volumes of NFTs, including those by Drip, adds to network traffic, with some mints pending for days. Enter the Meme Coin Explosion! The success of Solana meme coins has led to a surge in the creation of new tokens, setting daily records and further straining the network.
NET CONCLUSION
Toly's Demand: In response to these compounded issues, Toly is advocating for an increase in block size to mitigate congestion, despite community concerns over network stability and the recent history of outages.
Everything in life involves balancing risk and reward, and this blockchain is teetering on the edge of its capacity. However, I much prefer a blockchain that's tested to its limits and actively used, over one that's underutilized and merely harvested by staking pools. That is how you win!