# Visa Crypto – A deep dive on Solana

Source: https://usa.visa.com/solutions/crypto/deep-dive-on-solana.html

## Summary

Visa's deep dive on Solana argues that the network's availability and resilience rest on a large, geographically diverse set of nodes and on multiple validator clients. As of July 2023, Solana had 1,893 active validators and 925 RPC nodes, with nodes in over 40 countries and hundreds of unique hosting arrangements. The article states that Solana originally ran on one validator client from Solana Labs, and that Jito Labs introduced a second client, Jito-Solana, in August 2022. It also describes Jump Crypto's Firedancer, a C++ client still in testing, which achieved 600k TPS in a live demo.

## Article

Availability: Large number of nodes and multiple validator clients

A payments network can only be effective if it is always available to initiate and execute a transaction at the very moment a user needs to make a payment. For blockchain networks, availability is best measured by the number of independent participants or nodes that jointly operate the network to make it available for consumers to initiate transactions. As of July 2023, the Solana network boasts an impressive 1,893 active validators—entities responsible for producing and voting on blocks. Additionally, there are 925 more nodes called RPC nodes, which may not create blocks themselves but maintain a local record of transactions.³ A high number of nodes in a blockchain network enhances its resilience and redundancy. If some nodes encounter issues or go offline, the network can still function without data loss, as long as an adequate number of nodes remain operational. Solana community likewise pays attention to diversity of node geography and infrastructure provider to make the network is more robust against events such as natural disasters or change in access policy by the provider. The Solana network has nodes in over 40 different countries and hundreds of unique hosting arrangements and distinct locations.⁴ This helps ensure a smooth and reliable operation, even in the face of technical challenges.

Validator clients are software tools that enable node operators to act as validators on a proof-of-stake blockchain. The diversity of validator clients boosts a network's resilience. While one client might have bugs or vulnerabilities, another may not. This ultimately reduces the odds of a single software flaw crippling the network. Solana originally operated with one validator client from Solana Labs. In August 2022, Jito Labs introduced a second one for Mainnet, the Jito-Solana. Soon after, Jump Crypto unveiled Firedancer (in testing stage), an independent C++ validator client. Firedancer stands out for its potential to bring substantial performance enhancements, as evidenced by a live demo that achieved 600k TPS.⁵ The aim of having different validator clients is to keep the network stable. Outside Ethereum, Solana is one of the only chains to have multiple, fully independent validator clients.