Solana Blockchain Enhancement by Jump Crypto
Jump Crypto seeks to redesign a crucial component of Solana’s architecture to improve the throughput and reliability of a network that has been plagued by many outages and slowdowns.
Jump Trading Group, a major TradFi player headquartered in Chicago, is developing a new validation client, a piece of software that helps with blockchain security. In addition, according to s statement announced on Tuesday, Jump Crypto will “propose significant enhancements to Solana’s open source core software.”
Solana, unlike Ethereum and other blockchains used in decentralized finance (DeFi), was seen as being able to keep up with the extremely fast pace of trading in legacy markets such as stocks and derivatives, so it became a key focus for Wall Street and other conventional financial firms such as Jump last year. But the expectation was not always met, with the SOL blockchain faltering in a number of high-profile cases. Newer blockchains, meanwhile, pose a challenge to Solana’s market share.
Dan Albert, CEO of the SOL Foundation, stated,
“Jump has unparalleled experience with over 20 years of scaling networks and building high-performance software systems. Their contribution to the Solana Network will improve mission-critical systems, helping the network scale to billions of users.”
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Jump Trading’s Chief Science Officer, Kevin Bowers, will be responsible for the initiative. Jump Crypto will develop the validator client using the C++ programming language, which has a long history in the quantitative trading communities where Jump roams, through an initiative called Firedancer.
Jump Crypto has first-hand knowledge of the risks associated with relying too heavily on the capabilities of a single organization. Wormhole, a cross-blockchain bridge that was compromised earlier this year, is a result of that. To compensate for damages resulting from the $320 million exploit, Jump Crypto coughed up money.
The company has grown beyond its trading roots over the past year, moving into creating key components of infrastructure for Solana and other well-known tier 1 blockchains. Founded in the Chicago trading pits, the organization has led the way in computerized trading for more than 20 years. It is one of the companies that laid the foundation for markets such as shares and derivatives so that they can run at the speed of light.
The SOL blockchain upgrade, of which Jump Crypto is a part, comes during a turbulent period for the once-hot blockchain. In addition to a $5 million attack in early August that affected thousands of user wallets, it experienced a significant outage in June that kept it unavailable for more than four hours. Despite Jump being a key supporter of the hottest new “Solana-killer” blockchain Aptos, the company appears to be digging into SOL.
