Solana’s validator count has declined sharply over the past three years, raising concerns about the decentralization of the blockchain network as the economics of running nodes squeeze smaller operators.
According to Solana Compass data, the number of Solana verifiers has dropped 68 percent from a peak of 2,560 Videater nodes in March 2023 to 795 as of Wednesday.
Validators are responsible for adding new blocks and validating transactions in proposed blocks, playing an important role in the operations of the decentralized ledger.
While some of the decline reflects the elimination of inactive or “zombie” nodes, industry participants say rising operating costs and fee competition are increasingly forcing smaller reviews offline.
An independent Solana verification operator who posts under the name Mo says in a post on X that many smaller legits are considering closing because the economics no longer make sense.
“Many smaller legitimates are actively considering shutting down (including us). Not for lack of belief in Solana, but because the economics no longer work.”
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The MoO said that charging 0% fees is forcing large legitimators into small reviews out of profit, making it economically unviable to continue running the node.
“We started making endorsements to support decentralization. But without economic stability, decentralization becomes charity,” Mo said.
The trend indicates that retail authenticators cannot consistently contribute to securing the network. It also implies that Solana’s nodes will increasingly be run by large operators, pushing out smaller players and raising potential concerns about the network’s degree of decentralization.
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Solana’s Nakamoto coefficient sees a 35% drop
According to Solana Compass, along with the falling endorser count, Solana’s Nakamoto coefficient has also decreased by 35% over the same period.
The Nakamoto coefficient measures the decentralization of a blockchain by determining the minimum number of independent entities, such as validators or miners. The decline indicates that the supply of stack Solana is becoming less distributed and the network is less decentralized.
One of the reasons behind this decline could be the rising costs of running a profitable validating node, which has increased significantly with the Solana (Sol) token over the past three years.
Excluding hardware and server costs, validators require an initial investment of at least $49,000 in Sol tokens for the first year of operation, with a minimum of $401 for each year that the voting fee remains operational.
This is because validators are required to participate in the protocol’s consensus, which requires them to send a vote transaction for each block that the validator agrees to, which can cost up to 1.1 years per day, according to technical documentation from Solana’s validator Egao.
QuintalGraph reached out to the Solana Foundation for comment, but did not receive a response by publication.
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