Quick Takeaways:
- Solana’s New Proposal would ditch fixed block limits, letting faster validators process more transactions.
- This could make the network way more efficient if your hardware can handle it.
- Some devs worry this could push out smaller validators and lead to centralization.
What Solana’s New Proposal Is Really About
Solana’s no stranger to speed, it’s one of the fastest blockchains out there. But now, the team behind Firedancer, a new independent validator client built by Jump Crypto, wants to take things to the next level.
Their plan? Solana’s New Proposal, officially called SIMD-0370. Currently, all Solana validators are limited in the amount they can include in a block, regardless of the power of their machines.
That cap is between 60 to 100 million compute units (CU), set by a previous upgrade called SIMD-0286.
But Firedancer says that limit is holding the network back.
Instead of giving every validator the same limit, they believe validators should be able to use the full potential of their hardware.
If your setup can handle more transactions, why shouldn’t you be allowed to process more?
That’s what Solana’s New Proposal is all about.
So What Would Actually Change?
If this proposal goes through, validators wouldn’t have a fixed block size limit anymore. Instead, blocks could be as big as a validator’s machine can handle.
Stronger machines? Bigger blocks.
Weaker machines? They can skip the block if it’s too much to handle. Looks simple, don’t you think? But the implications are large: it will be more dynamic, more scalable, and more with real-time demand.
During the time of high-proclamation, powerful verification can step on more load, helping to reduce the crowd without waiting for network-wide updates.
Even better, validators who process more transactions would earn more rewards, giving people a real incentive to improve performance.
But Not Everyone’s Excited About It
Like any bold idea, Solana’s New Proposal has stirred up some debate in the dev community.
Roger Wattenhoffer, a lead researcher at Anza, raised a valid concern: what happens if block speeds increase too fast during a network epoch?
Some validators might not keep up, leading to skipped blocks and maybe even bigger issues.
And Akhilesh Singhania, a systems engineer, added another layer to the conversation, what if this move favors big validators with deep pockets?
After all, better hardware isn’t cheap. If the network starts rewarding those who can afford to scale up, smaller players might get squeezed out.
Over time, that could lead to centralization, the exact thing blockchains are supposed to avoid.
So yes, the performance boost sounds great… but it might come at a cost.
The Role of Alpenglow: Why Now?
This proposal isn’t happening in a vacuum.
It builds directly on Alpenglow, a major upcoming upgrade that will reduce block finality from 12.8 seconds to just 100–150 milliseconds.
That’s a massive leap forward in speed. With faster block finality, Solana’s network will be more responsive and less congested.
It also clears the way for a more flexible block size approach, exactly what Solana’s New Proposal is pushing for.
In other words, the timing makes sense. Firedancer is trying to ride the momentum from Alpenglow and rethink how the network should operate under these new conditions.
The Big Picture: Speed vs. Decentralization
Here’s where it gets tricky.
Yes, Solana’s New Proposal could make the network much faster and more efficient. Yes, it would reward those who invest in performance. And yes, it aligns the network more closely with real-world usage.
But at what cost? If smaller validators fall behind, the network could become more centralized over time.
The balance between performance and decentralization is delicate, and any changes to it need to be made with care.
So while the Firedancer team sees this as a path toward scaling Solana more smartly, it’s clear the broader community wants to make sure no one gets left behind.
