Solana users have agreed to activate the Timely Vote Credits (TVC) mechanism on the network to boost the speed of processing transactions and enhance overall efficiency.

The TVC system offers a new way to reward validators for processing transactions faster, granting higher vote credits for quicker actions.

After thorough testing and discussions within the community, as detailed in the Solana Improvement Document 33 (SIMD-0033) released on March 14, the decision was made to implement the mechanism.

Encouraging Speedy Votes

Previously, Solana validators used different methods to earn more vote credits, such as being cautious when voting on fork outcomes to prevent committing to a dead fork. This practice, referred to as "vote lag," often caused delays in confirming blocks, negatively affecting the network's performance.

By adjusting the rewards system to favor fast votes, the TVC feature aims to reduce these delays, motivating validators to speed up their voting processes and improve transaction confirmation times.

Two crucial updates were made to activate TVC. The first change involved replacing the existing vote account structure with "LandedVote," which includes vote latency data to prepare for the new rewards system. The second update enables the vote program to factor in this latency when awarding vote credits, with the objective of incentivizing promptness.

Successful Testing

Before being implemented on the mainnet, the TVC feature underwent rigorous testing on the Solana testnet, including unit tests and a specialized test cluster. The community confirmed the feature's effectiveness and reliability to ensure it functions as intended and aligns with the network's objectives without compromising security or integrity.

The process leading to TVC's activation on the mainnet included an initial test phase on the testnet spanning eight epochs, followed by discussions and verification of stake weights among validators.

The community engaged in a meticulous decision-making process, using a voting system that distributed tokens based on stake weights to enable a fair and democratic evaluation of the proposal.

The overwhelming support for the vote, with 98% in favor, showcases the Solana community's commitment to driving innovation and improving the blockchain's capabilities.

The Solana Developer Forums and the Solana Tech Discord channel played vital roles in facilitating discussions, collaboration, and information sharing about the TVC feature.

As the Solana network gets ready to implement the TVC feature, users are optimistic about significant enhancements in transaction speed and overall network performance.