The King of Blockchain Performance: Analyzing the Speed Secrets of Solana

A recent blockchain performance report shows that Solana has the fastest speed among large blockchains, with a maximum daily real TPS of 1,054. Following closely is Sui, with a maximum daily real TPS of 854. It is worth noting that the best-performing Solana and Sui are both non-EVM compatible blockchains. The data indicates that the average performance of non-EVM compatible blockchains is about 4 times that of EVM compatible blockchains.

Performance Bottlenecks of EVM-Compatible Blockchains

Common methods to improve TPS in Blockchain include: enhancing node performance, improving underlying protocols, expanding blocks, optimizing consensus protocols, and improving transaction execution methods.

For EVM Blockchain, the biggest challenge in transaction execution is due to the limitations of the virtual machine environment. EVM mainly has two performance issues:

1. 256-bit architecture: Although it facilitates the processing of the Ethereum hash algorithm, it requires mapping to the local architecture during actual operation, resulting in inefficiency.

2. Lack of Standard Library: There is no built-in standard library in Solidity, requiring implementation or use of third-party libraries, resulting in execution efficiency that is far lower than that of pre-compiled standard libraries.

From the perspective of execution optimization, the EVM has two major shortcomings:

1. Difficult to perform static analysis: The dynamic jump mechanism of the EVM makes it difficult to perform static analysis, affecting the implementation of parallel execution.

2. The JIT compiler is immature: Although there are EVM JIT projects, they are still in the experimental stage and have not fully realized their optimization potential.

Therefore, many high-performance public blockchains choose to adopt virtual machines based on WASM, eBPF, or Move bytecode, rather than EVM.

The Performance Path of Solana

Solana is known for its unique PoH (Proof of History) mechanism and low latency high throughput. The core of PoH is a hash algorithm similar to a verifiable delay function, which creates verifiable and ordered event records, providing a reliable time source for the network.

Solana consensus process

The PoH-based timing mechanism allows the Solana network to rotate leaders in a predetermined manner. Each slot lasts 400 milliseconds, and leadership rotates every 4 slots. The leader is responsible for proposing new blocks, while other validators vote on the validity of the blocks. Once a block receives votes from the majority of staked weight, it is considered confirmed.

Solana performance optimization strategy

1. Gulf Stream: Cancel the public memory pool and directly forward user transactions to the leader, achieving fast leader switching and transaction pre-execution.

2. Pipeline technology: Divides data processing into multiple processes across different hardware components to maximize hardware utilization.

3. Sealevel: Utilizing a read-write lock mechanism to achieve parallel execution of transactions.

4. Turbine: Optimize the block propagation process and reduce the leader’s bandwidth usage.

5. TowerBFT: Real-time merging of fork votes to improve consensus efficiency.

6. Cloudbreak: Optimize database structure to improve SSD efficiency.

7. Archiver: Transfers data storage tasks to a dedicated node network, reducing the burden on validators.

Summary

The design philosophy of Solana is to enable blockchain software to scale with improvements in hardware performance. By fully utilizing the CPU, GPU, and bandwidth resources of modern computers, Solana can theoretically achieve a processing speed of 65,000 TPS.

This high performance and scalability make Solana an ideal platform for handling high-frequency trading and complex smart contracts. Whether in the DePIN/AI track or the Meme track, Solana shows great potential. Although the current regulatory environment still has uncertainties, Solana’s position and consensus in the crypto market are gradually consolidating, and it is expected to become the next mainstream crypto asset after Bitcoin and Ethereum.