A set of validators working together to maintain a single Solana ledger. Solana operates three main clusters: mainnet-beta (production), devnet (development), and testnet (stress testing). Each cluster has its own genesis block, token supply, and independent validator set. Validators in a cluster discover each other via the gossip protocol.
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A set of validators working together to maintain a single Solana ledger. Solana operates three main clusters: mainnet-beta (production), devnet (development), and testnet (stress testing). Each cluster has its own genesis block, token supply, and independent validator set. Validators in a cluster discover each other via the gossip protocol.
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Think of it as part of the chain machinery that keeps ordering, execution, or consensus moving.
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Consensus, leader rotation, slots, epochs, and the runtime.
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Cluster (cluster) Category: Core Protocol Definition: A set of validators working together to maintain a single Solana ledger. Solana operates three main clusters: mainnet-beta (production), devnet (development), and testnet (stress testing). Each cluster has its own genesis block, token supply, and independent validator set. Validators in a cluster discover each other via the gossip protocol. Related: Validator, Gossip Protocol, Genesis Block
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A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.
A protocol used by validators to exchange metadata and discover peers without relying on a central server. Gossip propagates contact info, vote status, shred versions, epoch slots, and other protocol messages via CRDS. It does not carry transaction or block data—those use TPU and Turbine respectively.
The first block (slot 0) of a Solana cluster that defines initial configuration: the mint account, initial token supply, built-in program deployments, and cluster parameters. The genesis config is generated by the `solana-genesis` tool and shared among all validators to bootstrap a new cluster.
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A vote by a validator on a block, weighted by the validator's stake. The more stake-weighted confirmations a slot receives, the higher the confidence it will be finalized. RPC methods accept commitment levels (processed, confirmed, finalized) to specify the required confirmation threshold.
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A node that participates in the Solana network by validating transactions, voting on blocks, and (when selected as leader) producing new blocks. Validators run the Agave, Firedancer, or Jito client software, require significant hardware (128+ GB RAM, high-core CPU, NVMe SSD), and earn rewards from inflation and transaction fees.
A protocol used by validators to exchange metadata and discover peers without relying on a central server. Gossip propagates contact info, vote status, shred versions, epoch slots, and other protocol messages via CRDS. It does not carry transaction or block data—those use TPU and Turbine respectively.
The first block (slot 0) of a Solana cluster that defines initial configuration: the mint account, initial token supply, built-in program deployments, and cluster parameters. The genesis config is generated by the `solana-genesis` tool and shared among all validators to bootstrap a new cluster.
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A clock mechanism that cryptographically proves the passage of time between events. PoH uses a sequential SHA-256 hash chain where each output becomes the next input, creating a verifiable ordering of events without requiring consensus. The leader produces ~400,000 hashes per slot (~400ms), and any validator can verify the sequence in parallel, enabling Solana's high throughput by removing the need for validators to agree on time.
Solana's custom BFT consensus algorithm built on top of Proof of History. Tower BFT uses PoH as a clock to reduce communication overhead in traditional PBFT from O(n²) to O(n). Validators vote on forks with exponentially increasing lockout periods—each consecutive vote doubles the lockout, making rollbacks progressively more expensive. A fork is finalized when it reaches supermajority (66.7%+ of stake).
A time window during which a designated leader validator can produce a block. Each slot lasts approximately 400 milliseconds. Slots are numbered sequentially from genesis and grouped into epochs of 432,000 slots (~2-3 days). Not every slot produces a block—a skipped slot means the leader was offline or too slow.
A set of entries produced by a leader during a single slot. A block contains transactions bundled into entries, each with a PoH hash proving ordering. Blocks are broken into shreds for network propagation via Turbine. Maximum block size is limited by compute units (48M CU cap per block) rather than byte size.