Solana Embraces a Path to Scalability: Approves Modest Block Limit Increase

Solana developers recently approved the first block increase in the blockchain’s history, signaling a commitment to maintaining network operability and scalability in preparation for the chain’s future demand.

Solana Devs Pass Symbolic Block Limit Increase, Aim for Further Expansion

Solana, one of the top blockchain projects in the cryptocurrency industry, has recently passed the first proposal tackling the issue of the block limit, kicking off what Solana Foundation’s Head of Staking Ben Hawkins called “the scaling wars.”

The measure was proposed in Solana Improvement Document (SIMD) 0207, which suggested an increase of 2 million units, going from 48 million to 50 million units. While this increase is considered a modest and experimental number, it signals the devs’ will to keep improving and increasing the network capacity to support future demand. Hawkins emphasized that this work was preceded by “major stability and performance work by Anza and the Fire Dancer teams.”

Andrew Fitzgerald, software engineer at Anza and the document author, stated that no plans were made to establish an automatic increase system, even when community members called for a systematic procedure for increasing the limit in fixed percentages.

Fitzgerald explained:

We have no plans for some automatic increasing limit at this time; any further changes will go through same SIMD process.

He remarked that further increases would depend on how things go from implementing this upgrade, and how quickly they can upgrade performance.

Hawkins warned about possible issues derived from the assumption that the blocksize would remain static always, stating that this first expansion would serve to tackle these issues for upcoming upgrades. “Stay tuned for future increases and ongoing efforts to scale Solana. Big things ahead!” he stressed, hinting at more increases following this move.

Solana faced congestion issues earlier this year, having to support a majority of the meme coin activity surge. However, devs have been on top of the problems, passing several fixes that mitigated the issue, including an optional central scheduler option to address these congestion hiccups when the network experienced high traffic levels.

Read more: Solana Advances Congestion-Alleviating Central Scheduler Feature to Testnet

Read more: Solana Launches Mainnet Beta v1.18.15 Upgrade to Address Network Stability

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