A from-scratch Solana validator client written in C by Jump Crypto. Firedancer aims for significant performance improvements through a tiled, zero-copy architecture and hardware-optimized networking. It provides client diversity—critical for network resilience—and targets 1M+ TPS. Frankendancer is the intermediate version running Firedancer's networking stack with the Agave execution engine.
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A from-scratch Solana validator client written in C by Jump Crypto. Firedancer aims for significant performance improvements through a tiled, zero-copy architecture and hardware-optimized networking. It provides client diversity—critical for network resilience—and targets 1M+ TPS. Frankendancer is the intermediate version running Firedancer's networking stack with the Agave execution engine.
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Consensus, leader rotation, slots, epochs, and the runtime.
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Firedancer (firedancer) Category: Core Protocol Definition: A from-scratch Solana validator client written in C by Jump Crypto. Firedancer aims for significant performance improvements through a tiled, zero-copy architecture and hardware-optimized networking. It provides client diversity—critical for network resilience—and targets 1M+ TPS. Frankendancer is the intermediate version running Firedancer's networking stack with the Agave execution engine. Aliases: FD Related: Validator, Frankendancer
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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 hybrid Solana validator client that combines Firedancer's high-performance networking and block production components (written in C by Jump Crypto) with Agave's execution and replay engine. Frankendancer serves as a stepping stone toward full Firedancer, allowing validators to benefit from networking improvements while maintaining execution compatibility.
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The guarantee that a transaction cannot be reversed. Solana offers two levels: optimistic confirmation (~400ms, 66.7%+ stake voted) and full finality (~12-13 seconds, 31+ confirmations rooted). Once a slot is rooted, its transactions are irreversible under the assumption that no more than 1/3 of stake is malicious.
A divergence in the blockchain where two or more blocks are produced for the same slot or different validators build on different parent blocks. Forks are common during normal operation and are resolved by Tower BFT's fork-choice rule. Only one fork ultimately becomes the canonical chain; transactions on abandoned forks are dropped.
A hybrid Solana validator client that combines Firedancer's high-performance networking and block production components (written in C by Jump Crypto) with Agave's execution and replay engine. Frankendancer serves as a stepping stone toward full Firedancer, allowing validators to benefit from networking improvements while maintaining execution compatibility.
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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 hybrid Solana validator client that combines Firedancer's high-performance networking and block production components (written in C by Jump Crypto) with Agave's execution and replay engine. Frankendancer serves as a stepping stone toward full Firedancer, allowing validators to benefit from networking improvements while maintaining execution compatibility.
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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.