Key Points

• The founder of Solana suggests a method to decrease the high cost of running a node.
• Solana aims to tackle the high cost primarily due to voting fees.

Anatoly Yakovenko, the creator of Solana, proposed a strategy to diminish the expensive nature of maintaining a node on the network.

This initiative follows the Solana Foundation's choice to cease financial backing for some validators engaged in MEV (Maximum Extractable Value) sandwich attacks.

Evaluating Node Operating Costs

Operating a Solana validator node comes at around $65,000 annually, a notably higher expense compared to an Ethereum validator's operation.

Yakovenko linked the cost disparity to Ethereum's investment in its consensus mechanism, specifically the Boneh-Lynn-Shacham (BLS) signature system.

The BLS scheme allows validators to aggregate multiple independently verified messages, thereby diminishing the overall expenses.

Proposing Solutions by Solana

Although Solana's current model doesn't align with Ethereum's, Yakovenko mentioned the possibility of Solana integrating a similar framework in the future.

He suggested that the introduction of voting subcommittees could lower the vote fees and decrease the voting burden, ultimately reducing expenses.

The recent statistics reveal that 80% of all Solana transactions in the past week were related to votes, highlighting the substantial impact of voting fees on node operation costs.

The implementation of Yakovenko's proposal by Solana remains uncertain.

Simultaneously, amidst increased caution among crypto investors ahead of the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting, Solana's value experienced a 6% decrease.

The cryptocurrency's price declined to $145 on June 11th, a level reminiscent of mid-May, driven by market liquidations.