Solana co-founder responds to Ethereum critics as full node runs on tablet
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has revisited a three-year debate about blockchain hardware requirements after a Firedancer demonstration showed a Solana mainnet node running on a tablet using less than one CPU core.
Summary
- Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko responded to a 2023 debate over blockchain hardware requirements.
- Firedancer developers demonstrated a Solana mainnet node running on a tablet with less than one CPU core.
- The reported setup used 20GB of RAM and a 5G connection, reaching the latest block in approximately 10 seconds.
- Bankless co-founder David Hoffman previously argued that minimizing node hardware requirements was essential for blockchain networks.
- Anza’s production validator recommendations continue to specify considerably more processing power, memory and bandwidth.
In a November 15 post on X, Yakovenko responded to Bankless co-founder David Hoffman by writing, “We did it,” and adding, “sol is money.” His message followed claims from developers that a tablet-based node had caught up with the Solana blockchain and begun voting in roughly 10 seconds.
The dispute dates to January 2023, when Hoffman argued that blockchain software needed to run on modest hardware to remain accessible over the long term.
Solana Firedancer Node Runs on a Tablet at Breakpoint 2026
Firedancer developer Ritchie Patel reported that a Solana mainnet full node operated using less than one CPU core on a tablet connected through a 5G network. He said the setup went from startup to the latest block and voting within 10 seconds, including parallel compilation using the “make -j” command and initial snapshot synchronization.
Another account posting from the Block Zero event ahead of Solana Breakpoint 2026 described a live Firedancer validator running on a single core with 20GB of RAM. The post credited engineer Michael McGee for the presentation at the conference venue.
Although the demonstration used less than one CPU core, the reported configuration still included 20GB of memory. The processor measurement therefore described only part of the hardware involved.
Snapshots allow validators to restart from recent network state without replaying every historical transaction, as Solana’s developer updates explain. Patel’s 10-second figure concerned reaching the latest block and voting after initial snapshot synchronization.
Running a full node involves following and checking network state, while a validator uses that state to participate in consensus. The demonstration covered both functions, with developers reporting that the tablet had caught up with the network and entered the voting process.
Jump Crypto developed Firedancer as an independent validator client. As crypto.news previously reported, Firedancer entered mainnet production, with Patel saying in May that it had processed tens of millions of transactions. The team favored a gradual rollout while security reviews continued.
Yakovenko Revisits David Hoffman’s 2023 Criticism
In January 2023, Yakovenko argued that maintaining multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine networks required substantial combined memory and processing resources. He cited roughly 7,000 synchronized Ethereum full nodes and around 400,000 validators, numbers that counted different types of network participation.
Hoffman replied that Ethereum full nodes and validators had broadly similar hardware demands. Other developers cited Ethereum software running on Raspberry Pi computers and questioned whether Solana could support comparable setups.
At the time, Yakovenko acknowledged a gap in the network’s engineering priorities.
“It’s just no one has tried to minimize the requirements on solana,” he wrote.
He suggested that fetching blocks and checking them with ledger tools could work on a machine with 16GB of memory and a fast solid-state drive.
Hoffman replied that reducing hardware demands was “a pretty important cultural requirement for these systems to work.”
He followed with a stronger warning: “Minimized blockchains are unstoppable blockchains,” arguing that networks failing to prioritize low hardware requirements could struggle over the long term.
Yakovenko’s latest response referred directly to that argument, presenting the tablet demonstration as an answer to criticism he received nearly four years ago.
Production Solana Validators Still Require Stronger Machines
Anza, developer of the Agave validator client, still recommends at least 12 CPU cores, 256GB of RAM and high-performance solid-state storage for production validators.
Its guidance calls for a stable public internet connection and at least 2 Gbit/s of symmetric bandwidth for staked validators. A tablet connected through 5G during a live demonstration operates under different conditions from a machine designed for continuous network participation.
Catching up to the latest block and voting during a brief demonstration does not measure continuous uptime, sustained block production or performance under heavy transaction traffic.
A September report on ARK Invest’s decentralization study estimated $21,478 for Solana RPC or validator-class hardware, compared with $289 for a Bitcoin full node. The configurations serve different workloads.
Firedancer Development Continues After Solana Network Upgrades
Solana activated Alpenglow consensus in October, replacing on-chain voting transactions with direct validator communication and aggregated confirmations.
During the transition, operators were instructed to use compatible Agave-based software because Firedancer and Frankendancer did not support the initial migration. The rollout introduced a validator admission charge of 0.8 SOL per epoch, paid from each operator’s vote account.
Before a November network-rule change, Anza instructed Solana node operators to install Agave 4.4.1 or Firedancer 26.10.6. The warning covered voting validators and nodes serving wallets and exchanges.
Solana’s October 29 engineering update described further Firedancer work on memory allocation, including where the software keeps its frequently accessed Sysvar cache. Developers were preparing support for VLAN network connections.
Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) price traded at around $72 at the time of writing, indicating more than 3% increase in the past 24 hours, per crypto.news market data.