Solana and Fogo Chain: A New Blockchain Venture

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As Solana awaits promised upgrades to its performance stemming from the release of Jump’s Firedancer client, one group is already plotting to move Firedancer to its own blockchain.

What is Fogo Chain?

Fogo Chain is a new layer-1 blockchain running on Solana’s software that will exclusively utilize the Firedancer client. It aims to implement multi-local consensus and will utilize a curated validator set.

Fogo’s creators believe these features will enable the chain to push Solana’s software to its performance limits. The project is expected to launch both its mainnet and testnet in the first half of this year.

Challenges Ahead

However, the project faces criticism. Solana Labs originally developed the Solana client, which was then forked by Jito to add modifications aimed at making transaction processing more rewarding. Over 90% of Solana’s stake operates on the Jito-Solana client.

Chicago-based Jump, a high-frequency trading firm, was tasked by the Solana Foundation to develop a high-performance client known as Firedancer, currently still under development. A basic version called Frankendancer is active but has limited use due to its lack of MEV opportunities.

Fogo’s team warns that Solana may still experience performance issues even after Firedancer launches, as validators might continue using older Solana clients. Doug Colkitt, co-founder of Fogo, likened this situation to driving a Ferrari in congested traffic.

Innovative Features

Fogo Chain intends to employ multi-local consensus, allowing validators to collaborate based on their physical locations, thereby achieving reduced latency compared to Solana’s random validator distribution. Moreover, Fogo’s validator set aims to exclude “under-provisioned” or “abusive” nodes, as outlined in their white paper.

Community Reaction and Funding

Fogo’s decision to leverage Firedancer’s open-source code for a separate blockchain has sparked controversy. After raising $8 million at a $100 million valuation through community fundraising, criticisms emerged online regarding their understanding of the software.

Colkitt acknowledged some of the backlash as “fair” but asserted that Fogo’s experiments will provide valuable insights for the future development of Solana. Fogo will initially base its operations on Frankendancer before shifting to Firedancer.

Other Attempts

Fogo isn’t alone in using Solana’s software to create a new blockchain. Several contributors to Fogo are associated with Douro Labs, the developers of the Solana oracle network, Pyth, which previously launched Pythnet, an application-specific blockchain forked from Solana’s validator software.