Solana Block Limit Removal Proposed by Jump Crypto After Alpenglow Upgrade

TLDR

• Jump Crypto proposed removing Solana’s fixed compute block limit after the upcoming Alpenglow upgrade
• The change would let high-performance validators process more complex blocks, creating a performance incentive system
• Current fixed limit of 60 million compute units would be replaced with scaling based on validator capabilities
• Validators with better hardware could earn more fees, encouraging network-wide hardware upgrades
• The Alpenglow upgrade, passing with near-unanimous support, will reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds

Solana, one of the fastest growing blockchain networks, may soon become even faster. Jump Crypto, the Web3 infrastructure company building the Firedancer validator client for Solana, has proposed removing the blockchain’s fixed compute block limit to improve network performance and create stronger incentives for validators to upgrade their hardware.

The proposal, known as SIMD-0370, would be implemented after Solana’s upcoming Alpenglow upgrade. Alpenglow recently passed governance with near-unanimous support and is scheduled for testnet deployment in December.

Currently, Solana operates with a fixed compute unit block limit of 60 million. The new proposal would eliminate this cap, allowing block sizes to scale based on validator capabilities. This change would create what Anza, a research company spun out of Solana Labs, describes as a “performance flywheel.”

“This creates a performance flywheel: block producers pack more transactions to earn more fees. Validators that skip blocks lose rewards, so they upgrade hardware and optimize code. Better performance across the network means producers can safely push limits further,” Anza explained in a recent statement.

The Technical Mechanics

Under the proposed system, validators with suboptimal hardware would automatically skip more complex blocks. These blocks would instead be handled by better-equipped validators who could process them efficiently. The system creates natural market pressure for validators to improve their hardware or risk losing potential rewards.

The SIMD-0370 proposal follows an earlier suggestion from Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder. In May, Bruder proposed increasing the fixed compute block limit to 100 million compute units under SIMD-0286. The newer proposal takes a more dynamic approach by removing fixed limits entirely.

Jump Crypto’s Firedancer team, which launched on Solana mainnet in September 2024 in a limited capacity, argues that removing block limits would allow block size to scale organically with validator performance. This change would be particularly effective after the Alpenglow upgrade, which introduces a skip-vote mechanism for validators.

Potential Concerns

While many view the proposal positively, some voices have raised concerns about potential centralization risks. Engineer Akhilesh Singhania commented on GitHub that the change might favor larger validators who can afford to continuously upgrade their hardware.

Roger Wattenhofer, head of research at Anza, described himself as “a big fan of the idea of removing the compute limit completely” but acknowledged concerns about centralization and the risk of network instability from super-advanced block producers. However, he believes “all these problems are solvable.”

The proposal comes during a period of growth for Solana. The blockchain has gained popularity for its high-speed, low-fee transactions and diverse decentralized applications. Solana’s decentralized exchange trading volume has even surpassed Ethereum’s several times this year.

Solana’s past challenges with network outages during high activity periods have pushed developers to focus on upgrades that improve stability and user experience. The Alpenglow upgrade represents the most substantial change to Solana’s core protocol to date.

The upgrade will reduce transaction finality time from approximately 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds, while also introducing other improvements to network resilience and data optimization.

Jump Crypto, beyond its work on Firedancer, recently joined with Galaxy Digital and Multicoin Capital to launch Forward Industries, Inc., a Solana treasury firm. The three firms led a $1.65 billion private investment in cash and stablecoin commitments, with Jump Crypto CIO Saurabh Sharma joining the board as an observer.

The post Solana Block Limit Removal Proposed by Jump Crypto After Alpenglow Upgrade appeared first on Blockonomi.