Solana Cracks 100k TPS - Time to Drop the “Beta” Tag?

Solana’s performance has always been celebrated, but the idea that the network could execute 100k TPS always seemed like a distant goal.

That was until one engineer’s weekend experiment catapulted the network’s throughput to new highs. Onchain data confirms that 100k TPS is now a reality.

How did Solana achieve 100k TPS, and when can we expect these levels of throughput to become standard?

Solana Hits 100k TPS

On August 17, a Temporal engineer commonly referred to as Cavey conducted a remarkable experiment and successfully executed a new all-time high of 107,540 transactions per second on the Solana mainnet. 

With his own validator (Cavey Cool) leading a series of blocks, the engineer spiked a flurry of ‘no-op’ transactions through the network. While ‘no-operation’ transactions only consume 1 CU (compute unit) and are essentially spam, they still require signature verification and illustrate a powerful proof-of-concept. 

Additionally, the blocks making up the second that witnessed 100k TPS also included vote transactions and “ordinary transactions”, such as token transfers and swaps.

Naturally, the Solana ecosystem has celebrated this landmark milestone. Across the crypto industry, 100k TPS is loosely thrown around as a marketing term after ‘high-performance’ chains reach the figure in closed testing environments. As of August 17, Solana has proven that such a feat is possible on Mainnet, with subsequent leaders producing blocks without disruption or delay.

Network Updates Will Scale Solana Further

Recording 100k TPS using empty ‘no-op’ transactions during an isolated experiment is a fun proof-of-concept. However, Cavey is adamant that Solana is not far away from maintaining 100k ordinary, more complicated transactions per second in the future.

Between a wealth of critical network updates, including Alpenglow, p-token, and Firedancer, Solana is expected to scale significantly higher in the next year alone.

According to Cavey, the implementation of p-token alone would enable the Solana network to process up to 100k token transfers or 20k token swaps per second. These calculations do not include the scalability improvements promised by Alpenglow or Jump Crypto’s Firedancer validator client.

Cavey has also indicated that he believes Solana is currently capable of executing 1M TPS “if the setup is right”.

The first of these network improvements, p-token, is currently being audited and is expected to be put to a governance vote under SIMD-0266 in the coming months.

Time to Drop the ‘Beta’ Tag?

Since Solana recorded 100k TPS, social media commentators are calling for the network to remove the ‘beta’ tag from its official messaging. Having first launched in 2021, the Solana mainnet has technically been running in its ‘Beta’ phase for over 4 years now.

At the time, much of Solana’s marketing material was centered around a theoretical max TPS of 65k, a ceiling the network has now shattered.

Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has previously indicated that Solana will remain in beta until the network is no longer vulnerable to singular points of failure. 

Expanding Solana’s validator client list through protocols like Firedancer has been highlighted as a key milestone in the network’s path to leave the ‘beta’ tag behind. Meanwhile, fellow co-founder Raj Gokal argues it’s time to remove the tag and move forward.

Read More on SolanaFloor

$SSK celebrates record-breaking day’s trading

REX-Osprey Solana Staking ETF Enjoys Record Inflows as Institutional Demand Builds

Does Solana Have a Perception Problem?