Jump Crypto Pushes for SIMD-0370
Jump Crypto, the Web3 infrastructure firm behind Solana’s Firedancer validator client, has put forward a bold proposal: remove Solana’s fixed compute block limit. The plan, known as SIMD-0370, could be rolled out after the highly anticipated Alpenglow upgrade, set to hit testnet in December.
Anza, the Solana-focused research company spun out of Solana Labs, explained the idea behind the change:
1/ SIMD-0370, by Jump’s Firedancer team, proposes removing Solana’s fixed compute unit block limit after Alpenglow. This would eliminate static caps on block limits and have validators skip blocks they can’t process in time. Here’s what changes 🧵 pic.twitter.com/xge1IViKnH
— Anza (@anza_xyz) September 27, 2025
1/ SIMD-0370, by Jump’s Firedancer team, proposes removing Solana’s fixed compute unit block limit after Alpenglow. This would eliminate static caps on block limits and have validators skip blocks they can’t process in time. Here’s what changes 🧵 pic.twitter.com/xge1IViKnH
— Anza (@anza_xyz) September 27, 2025
The shift would allow high-performance validators to process complex blocks, while weaker validators would simply skip them, pushing them to upgrade or risk being left behind.
Tackling Solana’s Past Weaknesses
Solana has earned a reputation as a high-speed, low-fee blockchain, with its decentralized exchange volumes occasionally surpassing Ethereum’s this year. Its popularity in DeFi and NFTs has attracted millions of users.
But this growth has also exposed flaws. The network has been plagued by outages during traffic surges, raising questions about stability. Removing block limits is seen as a way to ensure scalability and smoother user experience as demand spikes.
The Firedancer client, already running in limited mainnet capacity since September 2024, is part of this broader push to diversify validator infrastructure and strengthen Solana’s resilience.
From Raising Limits to Removing Them
Currently, Solana operates under a fixed compute block limit of 60 million compute units (CU). Earlier this year, Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder suggested raising that limit to 100 million CU under the SIMD-0286 proposal.
SIMD-0370, however, takes things further—removing the cap entirely. Instead, block size would scale dynamically, based on how many transactions a validator’s hardware could handle.
This creates new incentives: validators with stronger machines earn more fees, while weaker ones face penalties for skipping blocks.
Centralization Concerns Surface
Not everyone is convinced this is the right direction. Engineer Akhilesh Singhania raised concerns on GitHub, warning that such changes could accelerate centralization:
The criticism highlights Solana’s ongoing balancing act between performance and decentralization—a challenge faced by nearly all high-throughput blockchains.
Alpenglow: Solana’s Biggest Upgrade Yet
Beyond block limits, Solana is gearing up for its most transformative upgrade yet. Alpenglow, first proposed in May, is described by Anza as “the biggest change to Solana’s core protocol.”
If successful, Alpenglow would slash transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds—a leap that could make Solana competitive with existing internet infrastructure. Combined with other resilience-focused improvements, it could redefine how blockchains scale at the protocol level.
