Solana rolls out crucial update to tackle network slowdowns, enhancing validator performance

Solana Labs has launched version 1.17.31, a software update specifically developed to resolve congestion problems resulting from spam transactions.

The update implements a stake-weighted quality of service (SWQOS) mechanism that gives priority to transactions from validators who have staked their tokens.

It allocates 80% of network connections to these validators. Anza strongly encouraged MainnetBeta validators to execute the update whenever their overdue stake falls below 5% and to closely monitor their nodes following the upgrade.

Solana Status has officially supported the upgrade for all MainnetBeta validators. Nevertheless, in order to fully reap the advantages of SWQOS, it is crucial for it to be widely adopted.

It should be noted that SWQOS cannot be relied upon to enhance traffic from TPUs that have not been staked. The current update marks the initial installment of a sequence of improvements, with additional ones anticipated in version 1.18.

The update is essential for Solana, as it has challenges in effectively handling large transaction volumes without a conventional mempool.