Solana Logs Two Years Without a Mainnet Tantrum, But Fidelity Spots the Cracks 🍦

Solana has gone two years without a reported mainnet outage, but concentrations in stake, hosting and client software still pose risks to that streak, according to a report from Fidelity's Center for Applied Technology (FCAT). The report, which examined the network's health across resilience, economic security and performance indicators, said Solana has made significant progress on each front while flagging decentralization gaps that warrant continued observation.

FCAT's analysis pointed to substantial staking participation and incentives that reward validator performance as the backbone of Solana's economic security. On the performance side, the report cited low latency, expanded capacity and inexpensive transactions as factors supporting practical use at scale.

Still, the report highlighted several areas of concern, including stake concentration among a small number of validator identities and operators, which could threaten the network's resilience. Hosting and client software centralization were also flagged as areas requiring ongoing attention.

Cointelegraph reported on Aug. 21 that Solana reduced its slot time to 350 milliseconds, the first such reduction since the network's inception, according to Solana Foundation vice president of technology Jacob Creech. In June, the foundation shared plans to reduce slot times to 200ms, arguing the change would improve latency and accelerate confirmations on the blockchain. Three further 50ms reductions are planned.

In a separate personnel move, the Solana Foundation hired former Binance chief marketing officer and payments executive Patrick Hillmann as it expanded its partnerships division. The network's progress and challenges come as France recorded 90 physical attacks on Bitcoiners over seven months, according to a recent tally, making it the world's most dangerous country for holders of $BTC by that measure.