The Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to the Solana network’s decentralization, adoption, and security, released its Validator Health Report today.
The report underscores how the network is becoming increasingly decentralized and durable, showing the increased engagement of the validator community, as well as the continued development of multiple secondary validator clients.
The latest Validator Health report highlights how the Solana network continues to be one of the largest proof-of-stake networks, citing metrics such as total global node count, node distribution, and geographic and data center diversity. It also highlights Solana’s resilience, which is increasingly reinforced by the ongoing transition into becoming a multi-client network.
“Solana has become one of the most, if not the most, decentralized proof-of-stake blockchains in existence, and this recent report reinforces this,” said Dan Albert, Executive Director of the Solana Foundation. “The network is becoming more resilient as a result of validators operating in more and more geographic jurisdictions around the world, and the network’s resilience will be enhanced by the development and launch of multiple light clients and second validator clients, including Firedancer.”
In recent months, the Solana Foundation doubled down on efforts to foster network health at the software level. This includes enhanced support for the development of new software clients and the growing network of core-contributing developers. Currently, there are four independent validator clients that are in active development, including Jito Labs, Firedancer, and Sig, as well as one built by Solana Labs. Serving as the operating system of the network, validator clients also enhance network resiliency and decentralization.
“Solana is the only blockchain, apart from Ethereum, to feature more than one validator client, and this is a testament to the vision and drive of the many developers working tirelessly to make this network as performant and reliable as possible,” Albert said.
The strength of Solana’s network can also be seen using additional metrics to analyze network health: The number of block-producing nodes is 1,961 globally, and the Nakamoto Coefficient – which measures the minimum number of validators necessary to corrupt the network – stands at 31 as of September 6, 2023. Improvements in these and other metrics mean that it will become increasingly difficult for the network to be influenced by any one government, corporation, or individual.
To further bolster the network’s health, the Solana Foundation also provides tools and educational support for the network’s community of validators. The Foundation strives to produce rigorous, intellectually honest assessments of network health, and it encourages participants in the Solana community to share thoughts on this subject here.