- A viral post claimed an 84% drop in Solana validator participation; follow-up checks put the change closer to 20% (original post, revised figure).
- Anatoly Yakovenko said the post mixed two different measures and stressed that “Validators are not full nodes.” (Yakovenko comment).
- Solana now counts about 5,000 full nodes, according to Yakovenko, compared with roughly 8,300 full nodes on Ethereum (node count post).
- The modest drop in nodes follows the end of the Solana Foundation Delegation Program, a one‑year bootstrap that paid voting costs for small validators (context, SFDP details).
- Operating a full Solana validator remains costly; hardware and voting fees can reach tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and some critics say the expense deters small operators (critic tweet, server-cost overview).
Over the weekend, debate erupted about the decentralization of Solana after a viral post claimed an 84% fall in its validator count. The post circulated widely on social media (original post), and Anatoly Yakovenko publicly disputed the claim (Yakovenko reply).
Subsequent checks showed a much smaller drop—closer to 20%—according to a follow-up post cited by observers (revised figure). Yakovenko also argued that the viral thread conflated two different measures, writing, “Validators are not full nodes.” (full-node clarification).
Yakovenko estimated that Solana runs about 5,000 full nodes, a figure he contrasted with roughly 8,300 full nodes operating Ethereum (node-count post). A full node stores and verifies the complete blockchain; a validator is a node that also participates in consensus voting.
Observers said the modest decline was predictable after the end of the Solana Foundation Delegation Program (SFDP), which paid voting costs for small validators for one year (discussion, SFDP details). The program was a temporary bootstrap rather than a permanent subsidy.
Running a self-hosted, fully validating Solana node remains expensive. Hardware can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars, while voting and operational fees can push annual bills into the tens of thousands or more. Critics argued the costs are prohibitive; one social post claimed, “Because it costs $20M to run a scumlana validator. No one can afford to run one.” (critique). A technical overview of server costs is available (server-cost overview).
Some validators stake millions of dollars in SOL and report spending hundreds of thousands on operations. Startups have worked for years to let ordinary users verify Solana mainnet on modest hardware and home internet, and proofs of concept remain in alpha (startup efforts).
Debate about Solana’s architecture and centralization continued on social media, with comparisons to a centralized database resurfacing in multiple threads (comparison, historical critique, long-running debate).
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