Solana validators face a trade-off between efficiency and yield

Recently, there has been a notable trend on the Solana network: the median block time has significantly increased, leading to a decrease in the network's transaction processing speed. The root of this phenomenon lies in some validators adopting new strategies to increase their profits by delaying block generation.

Although Solana has been continuously optimizing its code over the past few years, reducing block generation time to below 400 milliseconds, data from the past month shows that this metric is on the rise. This change has raised concerns about network performance and has also exposed the contradiction between validators' efficiency and profitability.

In the Solana network, each block is created and broadcasted by a validator. In return, validators can earn transaction fees from it. Some validators have found that extending the wait time to collect more transactions can significantly increase their profits. Although this practice is profitable, it contradicts Solana's goal of pursuing high-speed transaction processing.

Solana has designed a "grace period tick" mechanism originally to accommodate remote validators, but it is now being exploited by some validators to delay block submissions. Additionally, the newly released Frankendancer client provides a scheduler for maximizing income, further fueling this trend.

Some large validators, such as Galaxy and Kiln, have been observed to have median block times exceeding 570 milliseconds. Kiln's co-founder, Ernest Oppetit, admitted to having used delay strategies in the past but stated that they have since ceased this practice. He emphasized that ultimately, this incentive issue needs to be addressed at the protocol level.

In response to this trend, the Solana community is taking action. Some major staking pool providers are considering blacklisting "slow" validators. At the same time, there are suggestions to shorten the grace period to curb this behavior.

In the long run, Solana plans to address this issue through reforms in the consensus mechanism. An update called Alpenglow is expected to be implemented before the end of the year, which includes a skip voting feature that may effectively alleviate the current predicament.

This event highlights the complexity of balancing the interests of validators while pursuing high performance in blockchain networks. As discussions deepen and solutions progress, the future development of the Solana network is worth looking forward to.