Solana Firedancer client now live on testnet

Solana’s second unique validator client, Firedancer, is widely said to be more performant than the Agave client

article-image

Akif CUBUK/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share


Today, enjoy the Lightspeed newsletter on Blockworks.co. Tomorrow, get the news delivered directly to your inbox. Subscribe to the Lightspeed newsletter


At long last, the much-hyped Solana Firedancer client appears to be boogieing its way into the light. 

Jump Trading chief scientist Kevin Bowers announced it in about the nerdiest way possible at Solana Breakpoint, pointing out to a crowd of onlookers that a string of numbers indicating a software version on Solana mainnet looked suspiciously unlike Solana’s current clients. This led to some applause. 

Firedancer is an independent validator client, or software that validators can run to build the blockchain, being developed by Jump. The client is being written independently of the original Solana Labs validator client, now called Agave (in the programming language C) as opposed to Agave, written in Rust. 

There are two versions of the client out there right now: Frankendancer, which is a slightly more performant version of the Agave client, and Firedancer, which is the whole hog. Frankendancer is coming out first and is built through replacing the Agave client piece by piece, like Frankenstein’s monster.

The high-level updates to the Firedancer project are that Frankendancer is live on mainnet, and Firedancer is live on testnet. Someone related to the project told me that another Firedancer update is coming tomorrow, but they wouldn’t say anything further. 

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has said that once Firedancer goes to mainnet, he would favor removing the “beta” qualifier from Solana’s “mainnet-beta” status. 

Having multiple validator clients is important for a blockchain’s decentralization (Jito technically runs a separate validator client, but it’s very similar to the Agave client). With just one client, a bug in the code could threaten Solana’s live-ness. With multiple clients, the second client can step in and keep the blockchain running if the first is having issues. I’ve also heard it argued that with just one client, validators don’t have much of an option to opt out of Agave design choices unless they fork the blockchain, which would be a pretty extreme move. Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz and I spoke about this at greater length on the Lightspeed podcast here

Besides decentralization, Firedancer is widely said to be much more performant than the Agave client. The client’s developers have spoken about hitting 1 million transactions per second (TPS) in a test environment. Solana usually handles around 3,000 TPS, and fewer if you only count non-vote transactions that involve users transacting, according to Solana Compass. 

Solana Foundation executive director Dan Albert said there were “audible gasps” when a room of validators were shown Firedancer’s validator monitor GUI. If I was a betting man, I’d put a few bucks down that tomorrow’s update will have to do with Firedancer’s performance. 

The client still has some time to go before reaching mainnet, and even then, users may not actually notice a difference in the blockchain, Lulo co-founder Jesse Brauner told me in a text.

Transactions “always happen fast and [users] won’t notice a millisecond level improvement,” Brauner wrote. 

But either way, Firedancer is moving from idea to reality, and that’s always fun to see.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (19).png

Research

Suilend has grown into the top money market and liquid staking provider on Sui. STEAMM, Suilend’s Superfluid AMM, presents a compelling avenue for growing market share within Sui’s DEX landscape and revenue generation for the protocol. Suilend’s multi-product suite position it well for owning market share across key verticals. While current metrics across the Sui ecosystem are likely inflated due to Sui Foundation incentive programs, SEND trades at amongst the lowest multiples in the lend/borrow sector, suggesting that a bull case for continued growth in the ecosystem may be mispriced.

article-image

Decentralized money was a “very unpopular goal” when concepts were proposed in the ’90s, said Nick Szabo

article-image

Cove aims to deliver “risk-adjusted yield” through curated DeFi vaults

article-image

The best capital markets are open to the most people — and crypto capital markets are open to everyone

article-image

Post-conference musings on Firedancer, Kraken, Solana Mobile and Trump

article-image

Executives expect others to follow SharpLink Gaming’s lead in purchasing an asset that has surged this past month

article-image

After a weekend of tariff policy shifts, investors appear confident that trade deals are underway