Solana proposal promises to provide support to billions of users

Solana developers have submitted a proposal that could transform the way the blockchain handles billions of user accounts, addressing one of the biggest hurdles facing mainstream adoption.

The proposal introduces a ‘grid-based’ hashing system that fundamentally changes the way the blockchain tracks and verifies user account statuses.

If approved, the proposal could set a new standard for blockchain scalability, potentially influencing how other networks approach similar scaling challenges.

“The main goal is to scale Solana to billions [of] accounts and calculates a ‘hash of all accounts’ in practical time and space’, the proposal reads, which outlines a solution to a challenge that has long plagued high-performance blockchains.

Currently, Solana and other blockchains must regularly recalculate the full status of all user accounts. However, this process becomes increasingly demanding as the network grows.

The issue becomes the ‘problem of state growth” among blockchain developers. Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs discussed the challenge in May last year.

“The problem comes down to this simple thing: creating new accounts must actually create new accounts. Which means a new account must prove that it is new in some way,” Yakovenko said.

The Accounts Lattice Hash upgrade eliminates this requirement by enabling instant verification without having to recalculate everything.

The approach is based on an advanced cryptographic technique called “homomorphic hashing”, which allows the network to update its status verification by processing only changed accounts.

This new system maintains the same 128-bit level of security while also dramatically reducing computation overhead.

Early implementations of the new system have shown promising results, with two validator customers, Agave and Firedancer, demonstrating its practical feasibility, the proposal authors said. Declutter has contacted the authors and Yakovenko for more information.

The upgrade will be introduced through Solana’s formal improvement process, which requires network-wide activation via validator voting.

Developers recommend a gradual rollout, allowing nodes to pre-compute the new hashing system before it is fully activated.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair