Solana Changelog: Faster Transactions, Stake-Weighted QoS, and Compute Optimization

In the latest Solana Changelog, Nick from the Solana Foundation DevRel team and Jacob dive into the recent updates and improvements in the Solana ecosystem. This week's episode covers a range of topics, from upcoming hackathons to significant protocol changes and developer tools. Let's explore the key highlights and what they mean for the Solana community.

Colosseum Renaissance Hackathon

The Solana Global Hackathon, dubbed the Renaissance Hackathon, is currently underway and set to conclude on April 8, 2024. Organized by Colosseum, this event presents an exciting opportunity for developers to showcase their skills and potentially join the Colosseum accelerator.

Nick emphasizes the unique aspect of this hackathon:

"Everyone who submits and is a track winner for any of the hackathon tracks, they're eligible to join the Colosseum accelerator, which is this really cool, like, Y-Combinator style accelerator for the Solana ecosystem."

The accelerator offers numerous benefits, including:

1. Extensive mentorship
2. Project review assistance
3. Potential for additional funding
4. Direct funding opportunities through Colosseum

Jacob adds a valuable tip for participants:

"If you are building in Colosseum, talk about your project on social and building projects early, because that's what gets the judges' attention of your project, and we'll make it to where they're looking for your project whenever they look at the results."

This advice underscores the importance of visibility and early engagement in the hackathon process, potentially increasing the chances of success for participants.

SIMD-0129: Alt_BN128 Syscalls - Simplified Error Code

A new Solana Improvement Document (SIMD) proposal has been put forward by the Jump or Firedancer team. SIMD-0129 focuses on updating the Alt-Bn-128 syscalls, specifically addressing error codes to enhance the developer experience.

Jacob explains the significance of this proposal:

"It's adding some error codes or simplifying the error codes so that we'll have a better developer experience on the other end of understanding what went wrong whenever using this Alt-Bn-128 call."

While this syscall is not currently activated on Mainnet, its implementation will provide developers with more detailed error information, allowing for better debugging and understanding of program behavior.

The proposal's importance lies in its governance by consensus, as Jacob clarifies:

"Syscall error codes are governed by consensus, not other error codes, like if you're running your own program, but syscalls specifically are. So, that's why it has some SIMDs."

This distinction highlights the collaborative nature of Solana's development process and the careful consideration given to changes that affect the entire ecosystem.

Faster Transaction Processing

One of the most exciting updates this week comes from a commit by John Chancway, which addresses issues related to sending transactions via the CLI client, particularly when deploying programs.

Nick describes the improvement:

"This is one of the many changes that are in the works or have already been implemented to help ease that pain a little bit. And specifically, it's for sending and confirming transactions in parallel."

This enhancement allows for significantly faster transaction processing by better parallelizing the transactions sent by the CLI client. The change is expected to have a positive impact on developers and users alike, streamlining the process of interacting with the Solana blockchain.

Jacob expresses optimism about this update:

"This is awesome change. And I hope this is one of many that will make sending transactions via the CLI, whether or not you're deploying programs or just sending for one person the other easier overall."

Wen-Restart: Finding the Heaviest Fork

Another notable commit this week relates to the "wen-restart" SIMD, which focuses on determining the heaviest fork for automatic restarts. While still in discussion and not yet fully implemented, this work by the Anza team aims to improve cluster debugging and management.

Jacob explains:

"The Anza team is doing a lot of work to one, do some of the work that is not required or it's required for when restart, but it's not like going to change everything. Like, this can be part of the CLI. So, you can very quickly find the heaviest fork, understand what's going on and better basically debug the cluster."

This development showcases Solana's ongoing efforts to enhance network stability and provide better tools for validators and node operators to manage and troubleshoot the network effectively.

Stake-Weighted Quality of Service (QoS)

A significant improvement in the works is the implementation of stake-weighted QoS for peering connections between RPCs and validators. This update aims to optimize network communication and prioritization based on stake weight.

Jacob outlines the current challenges and the upcoming solution:

"Currently, the way is a little bit difficult. There is going to be a guide out at the time of this video release on how to do that. But the way you do it today is a little bit difficult where you're having to basically choose what stake weight to apply to different IPs or different RPCs via, I think it's like the stake override flags, as well as there is another flag that you have to run on your RPC, but it only sends it to your validator."

The new implementation simplifies this process and extends the stake-weighted QoS to include the leader as well as the chosen validator:

"This one makes a little bit easier to where it also will send also to the leader, not just the value that you choose. So, you have a better chance of getting included in the block."

This improvement is expected to enhance the overall performance and fairness of the Solana network, ensuring that transactions are processed more efficiently based on their associated stake weight.

Web3.js Tech Preview 2

The Solana ecosystem continues to evolve with the release of Web3.js Tech Preview 2. This update builds upon the first tech preview introduced at the Breakpoint conference and introduces several new features and improvements.

Nick highlights a key integration in this release:

"One of the really cool things about this is we talked about CreateSolana program, the amazing tool that Loris from ANZA put together. And the tech preview number two here actually starts using CreateSolana program within it."

This integration provides developers with a comprehensive solution for Web3.js development, including the ability to generate JavaScript-based clients for on-chain programs automatically. The preview includes auto-generated clients for core programs such as System, Memo, and Account Lookup Tables.

Jacob emphasizes the importance of community feedback during this preview phase:

"If you're interested in trying it out and improving the developer experience for the new Web3.js, please report anything that you find that is kind of confusing as an issue on the Solana Web3.js repo. That way, we can make sure the developer experience is the best as possible when it's not a preview."

This call for feedback underscores the collaborative nature of Solana's development process and the commitment to creating tools that meet the needs of the developer community.

Optimizing Compute Usage on Solana

A new set of guides has been released to help developers optimize compute usage on Solana. These resources are particularly valuable given the implementation of priority fees, where users pay for compute resources used by their programs.

Jacob explains the importance of these guides:

"Since you're using priority fees, you're paying for every compute to run that program and get the best user experience possible on Solana. Well, if the compute is lower, you pay less or your users pay less. So let's figure out how to optimize it."

The guides offer practical tips for reducing compute usage, such as optimizing base58 encoding in logs:

"If you're doing some like base 58 encoding in your logs for logging public keys, don't do that and use like concatenation or the key.log function, that will use like an order of magnitude less CU overall."

These optimizations can lead to significant cost savings and improved performance for Solana programs, benefiting both developers and end-users.

Solana StackExchange Weekly Rankings

The Solana StackExchange continues to be a valuable resource for the community, with active contributors helping to answer questions and provide support. This week's top contributors include:

1. John Chancway
2. Yan (a newcomer to the leaderboard)
3. Jonas
4. BurgerBob

Jacob emphasizes the importance of contributing to the StackExchange:

"Shout out to all of them for making the top and helping out with developer support on the Solana stack exchange. Because you know, a lot of people are asking questions in discord. If you want them to be able to just Google the results and throw on stack exchange."

This recognition highlights the collaborative spirit of the Solana community and the ongoing efforts to build a comprehensive knowledge base for developers and users alike.

Conclusion

The latest Solana Changelog brings exciting updates across various aspects of the ecosystem. From improvements in transaction processing and network management to new developer tools and resources, these changes demonstrate Solana's commitment to enhancing performance, usability, and developer experience.

Key takeaways from this update include:

1. The ongoing Colosseum Renaissance Hackathon, offering opportunities for developers to showcase their skills and potentially join an accelerator program.
2. Improvements in transaction processing speed through better parallelization in the CLI client.
3. Ongoing work on stake-weighted Quality of Service for optimizing network communication.
4. The release of Web3.js Tech Preview 2, integrating CreateSolana program for improved developer workflows.
5. New guides for optimizing compute usage on Solana, helping developers reduce costs and improve performance.

As Solana continues to evolve, these updates pave the way for more efficient, user-friendly, and developer-centric blockchain experiences. The ecosystem's focus on community feedback and continuous improvement positions Solana as a leading platform for decentralized application development and blockchain innovation.

Facts + Figures

• The Colosseum Renaissance Hackathon ends on April 8, 2024.
• Track winners of the hackathon are eligible to join the Colosseum accelerator program.
• SIMD-0129 proposes simplified error codes for Alt_BN128 syscalls, improving developer experience.
• A new commit by John Chancway improves transaction sending and confirmation in parallel for the CLI client.
• The "wen-restart" SIMD is in development to help find the heaviest fork for automatic restarts.
• Stake-weighted Quality of Service improvements are being implemented for RPC-validator connections.
• Web3.js Tech Preview 2 has been released, integrating CreateSolana program for auto-generated clients.
• New guides for optimizing compute usage on Solana have been published.
• The Solana StackExchange weekly rankings feature top contributors John Chancway, Yan, Jonas, and BurgerBob.
• Optimizing base58 encoding in logs can significantly reduce compute usage on Solana.

Questions Answered

What is the Colosseum Renaissance Hackathon?

The Colosseum Renaissance Hackathon is a global Solana hackathon set to conclude on April 8, 2024. It offers developers the opportunity to showcase their skills and potentially join the Colosseum accelerator program. The accelerator provides mentorship, project review assistance, and funding opportunities for successful participants.

How is Solana improving transaction processing speed?

Solana is improving transaction processing speed through a new commit that enhances the CLI client's ability to send and confirm transactions in parallel. This change, implemented by John Chancway, addresses issues with deploying programs and general transaction sending, making the process significantly faster and more efficient for developers and users.

What is stake-weighted Quality of Service (QoS) in Solana?

Stake-weighted Quality of Service is an improvement being implemented for peering connections between RPCs and validators in the Solana network. It optimizes network communication by prioritizing connections based on stake weight. The new implementation simplifies the process and extends the stake-weighted QoS to include both the chosen validator and the leader, improving the chances of transactions being included in blocks.

What's new in Web3.js Tech Preview 2?

Web3.js Tech Preview 2 introduces several new features, including integration with the CreateSolana program. This allows for automatic generation of JavaScript-based clients for on-chain programs. The preview includes auto-generated clients for core programs like System, Memo, and Account Lookup Tables, providing a more comprehensive solution for Web3.js development on Solana.

How can developers optimize compute usage on Solana?

Developers can optimize compute usage on Solana by following newly released guides. These guides offer practical tips such as optimizing base58 encoding in logs, using concatenation or the key.log function instead of encoding public keys in logs. By reducing compute usage, developers can lower costs associated with priority fees and improve overall program performance.

What is SIMD-0129 and why is it important?

SIMD-0129 is a Solana Improvement Document proposal that focuses on updating Alt-Bn-128 syscalls with simplified error codes. This improvement is important because it enhances the developer experience by providing more detailed error information, allowing for better debugging and understanding of program behavior. The proposal is governed by consensus, highlighting its significance for the entire Solana ecosystem.

How does the Solana StackExchange contribute to the ecosystem?

The Solana StackExchange serves as a valuable knowledge base for the community. It allows developers to ask questions, share knowledge, and find solutions that can be easily searched and referenced. The weekly rankings highlight top contributors, encouraging active participation and fostering a collaborative environment for Solana developers.

What is the "wen-restart" SIMD and what problem does it address?

The "wen-restart" SIMD is a proposal focused on determining the heaviest fork for automatic restarts in the Solana network. While still in development, this feature aims to improve cluster debugging and management by providing tools to quickly identify the heaviest fork and understand network conditions. This will enhance network stability and provide better tools for validators and node operators to manage and troubleshoot the network effectively.