Validators are important participants in a blockchain network, as they run software to confirm transactions and maintain security. Solana priority fees are additional fees that users can pay to increase the likelihood that the network will process their transactions more quickly.
They provide an accurate account of events by adding hashing data as a way to prove that time has passed and that the event occurred after and before certain points (hashes) in time. Observer validators pay a voting fee to confirm this accounting. Everyone gets a turn to submit a block and be rewarded.
Proof-of-Stake
On the Solana network, many different people andentities run a program on specialized computers known asa validator. Validators play a key role in maintainingand securing the Solana blockchain. Validators areresponsible for processing new incoming transactions onthe network, as well as for voting on and appending newblocks to the blockchain.
As different validators around the world may receivedifferent pieces of information at different times, itis essential that the network is able to come toagreement about which transactions and data arecontinually added to the blockchain. The strategy bywhich the validators and the entire network come to thisagreement is known as the consensus mechanism, and is acore challenge to building a successful decentralizedblockchain network. Many different projects haveattempted various solutions on how to reach consensus ina fast and cost-efficient manner.
The Solana network uses a Proof-of-Stake consensusmechanism (often abbreviated to PoS). Every validator onthe network has an opportunity to participate inconsensus by casting votes for which blocks they believeshould be added to the blockchain, thereby confirmingany valid transactions contained in those particularblocks. However, not all validator’s votes are weightedequally.
Validator’s consensus votes are stake-weighted, meaningthe more stake an individual validator has, the moreinfluence that one validator has in determining theoutcome of the consensus voting. Similarly, validatorswith less stake have less weight in determining the voteoutcome, and validators with no stake cannot influencethe outcome of a consensus vote.
Proof of History
Means of implementing time for a trustless network to synchronize nodes. It uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm to create a rhythmic clock in which blocks are created as a relative measure of time. Since the output of the algorithm cannot be efficiently predicted and requires a time step to produce, the network can safely assume that time has passed with each block.
On the Solana blockchain, any individual node can validate the entire chain with just a small piece of information — even if they’re not connected to the rest of the network. In fact, even if every computer runs at a slightly different speed, the ASIC will stay within 30% of what is bound in the network. “Everybody has this local synchronized atomic clock and these clocks never need to be resynchronized,” Yakovenko says. “So even if we get cut off and communication links go down, our clocks never drift because they are logical based on this SHA256.”
How do Validators work?
Validators do not produce blocks in the traditional way, as the primary function of block production is to provide a global accounting of the passage of time. Using Proof-of-Stake rules, a primary validator has to organize the transactions sent to it and add them to one of the hashes, while observer validators vote and confirm this accounting of events. Solana requires >66% consensus from validators to confirm a block.
While proof of history is a revolutionary way to organize a blockchain, it is not a consensus mechanism in and of itself. Solana is still a Proof of Stake network at its core, but with the slight difference of not having an official minimum stake. While validators need a sufficient number of SOL staked to process the voting fees are roughly 1 SOL per day. The real initial investment is in the hardware, as it requires a machine and network connection capable of handling the transactions it will be bombarded with. This investment should decrease over time as Moore's Law makes hardware faster and cheaper.
As with any blockchain, validators are designed to carry a fork for a short period of time until a consensus is reached among validators on the true, honest blockchain to operate on. Despite all this, there is not enough RAM in the world to effortlessly satisfy a bot's greed, so validators crash, or service providers cut validators off from their infrastructure. Until consensus falls below 66% of validators and block production stops. The network does not function and that is a travesty.
Resources
solana.com/validators
Search Engines
solanabeach.io/validators
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