Jump’s ‘Frankendancer’ Validator Client Is Live on Solana Mainnet

At the Solana Breakpoint conference, Bowers revealed a widely known fact within Solana’s validator community. He explained that some of the computational power supporting Solana is utilizing “Frankendancer” software – a fusion of established validator technology with innovative additions from Jump, blending old and new components.

In simpler terms, blockchain validators process transactions and create blocks, which is the fundamental operation of any blockchain. Most systems typically use one validator client. However, Solana’s strategy involves having two completely independent validators – one from the Solana offshoot team, Anza, and one from Jump Crypto. This setup could provide Solana with increased reliability (redundancy) and possibly better performance as well.

Although technical advancements happening backstage may appear dull to some, they were the main event at Breakpoint, even drawing a full house to their biggest stage. As the spotlight hit Bowers, the conference hall erupted with excitement reminiscent of a rock concert.

In regards to constructing the second validator client, Bowers described it as a project similar in significance to consumer science and civil engineering. Furthermore, he likened the potential influence of Firedancer to upgrading a local road from a rural route to a major interstate highway.

Bowers didn’t provide a specific timeline for when Firedancer, our freshly developed client software (as opposed to Frankendancer), will become active. However, he mentioned that Firedancer is currently being tested on the test network, suggesting it has reached a minimally viable state and is almost ready.