The Solana ecosystem has scored a major coup. As recently announced, developers within the ecosystem have successfully increased the block limit from 50 million to 60 million compute units (CUs). This means that the network can handle faster transactions and is generally more secure.
Even the biggest blockchain networks are always trying to improve their capabilities to remain competitive and retain users. This is especially true as they continue to grow and see more use. Solana is certainly in this boat, as many more projects are being built on top of it. An example of this is Solaverse, which has been receiving much high within the industry. As more people are looking to buy into the project, there will be more pressure on the Solana ecosystem. As crypto expert Jose Aquino explains in his how to buy Solaverse guide, the metaverse ecosystem is considered one of the more impressive offerings in the industry.
And this is not the first time that the block limit has been increased recently. As Helius Labs CEO Mert Mumtaz explains, the compute units essentially function as fuel, which is used to facilitate various transactions. But during periods of high network activity, there have been slowdowns in transaction speed, and this will not serve the ecosystem in the long term. Back in June, the block limit was raised to 50 million, and now, we are at 60 million. With this, Solana is able to process up to 1,700 transactions per second.
It is worth noting that Solana is one of the blockchain networks that is considered in the class of ‘Ethereum killers’. These are essentially blockchains that seek to improve on the perceived flaws in the Ethereum network and thus, threaten its dominance. Doing this will mean always pushing the limits of how fast transactions can be completed, and so far, it seems to be succeeding.
And this is far from the end of the Solana community’s speed ambitions. As Mumtaz has explained, the next goal is to double the current block limits and get to 120 million in the near future. This would represent a 66% increase in the block limit and would take it to even new Heights. Recently, Solana core developers published the Solana Improvement Document (SIMD-0286), which would outline this increase.
The most recent increase to 60 million was initiated through SIMD 0256, and this incoming one would especially help decentralized finance users as well as those who create applications within that sector. But beyond this, other blockchain applications that leverage Solana will benefit. It is worth noting that NFTs, smart contracts, metaverses, and others are created using Solana, and these demands will only increase with time. If Solana and other blockchains fail to innovate and increase block speed, users and developers will simply move to their competition.
Developers and stakeholders are very much aware of this, and thus, we’ve seen a wave of upgrades taking place on various networks. Ethereum, which Solana is a direct competitor to, completed its Pectra upgrade some weeks ago, which helps to increase its network efficiency.
Then there is Cardano, another Ethereum killer network. It is currently prepping for its Leios upgrade, which will increase its transaction speed and keep it in the running as one of the most sought-after blockchains in the industry. Specifically, this upgrade will leverage parallel validation and a modular architecture to put its transaction speed on the same level as other major blockchains like Solana and Ethereum. As much as Cardano has been lauded as an efficient blockchain in the past, its lack of scalability has been criticized by users.
But many believe that once this upgrade is complete, Cardano will be further used for things such as NFTs and DeFi. This means that even as Solana is about to score its own major upgrade, it is not out of the woods yet.
This speaks to the nature of the blockchain sector, as there is competition on every level. As such, no hard fork or upgrade is the last form of improvement the network should pursue. Instead, there should always be something else in the works, else they get left behind.