Solana validators face efficiency and yield trade-offs: latency block strategy sparks controversy

Recently, an interesting trend has emerged in the Solana network: the median block time has significantly increased, resulting in a slower speed of new transactions being added to the blockchain. The root of this phenomenon lies in some validators adopting new strategies, specifically intentionally prolonging block generation time to gain more rewards.

In the Solana network, each block is managed by a validator acting as the leader. The leader collects transaction fees by creating blocks. Some validators have found that by extending the latency from 300 milliseconds to 500 milliseconds, they can package more transactions into a block, thereby increasing their earnings. This behavior has led to an increase in the overall cycle length of Solana.

For a network dedicated to high-speed trading, this is clearly not an ideal state. Additionally, a reduction in cycles also means a decrease in the compounding opportunities for staking rewards. Solana offers a "graceful tick" mechanism that allows leaders to successfully submit blocks within a certain latency period. Although this mechanism is designed to protect remote validators, it also creates the possibility for intentional delays in block submission.

Some validators running specific clients seem to be packaging blocks at a slightly slower than normal speed. Analysis indicates that validators with more noticeable latency in blocks usually run modified versions of certain clients. For example, in mid-June, the median block time of some large validators exceeded 570 milliseconds, while the median time for some other validators was around 475 milliseconds.

In this regard, some major validators have admitted to having adopted latency strategies, but they stated that they have now ceased this practice. They believe that the incentive issues ultimately need to be addressed at the protocol level, as the rapid generation of blocks can lead to a reduction in rewards.

However, the Solana validators community generally believes that slowing down the network speed is not appropriate. Some large staking pools are considering blacklisting slow validators or discussing how to address this issue through governance proposals.

On the technical level, there are also some solutions being promoted. Proposals suggest shortening the latency period of Solana by half. In addition, the reform of the consensus mechanism proposed by Solana is also expected to address this issue. Some development teams hope to launch a new consensus mechanism by the end of this year to tackle this challenge by enabling the skip voting feature.

This controversy highlights the trade-off between efficiency and profitability in blockchain networks. As various parties strive for balance, the future development of the Solana network is worth paying attention to.