Solar November 2025 - Update #3

Consensus Layer Stability

We resolved multiple coordination issues between proposer rotation, block timing, and state persistence. The network now continues producing blocks even when a scheduled block producer falls outside its expected timing window.

Key improvements:

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  Extended proposer window tolerance
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  Deterministic fallback when a producer misses its slot
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  Coordinated startup sequence ensuring all producers initialize correctly
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  Stable block generation from the first genesis slot onward

Consensus is now resilient under normal and edge-case operating conditions.

Node Architecture & Deployment

The architecture separating consensus duties from transaction submission is now established. This separation is essential for production-level throughput.

Major improvements:

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  Dedicated RPC/API nodes decoupled from block-producing nodes
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  Unified network-runner configuration with proper bootstrapping
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  Future-relative genesis timestamps for deterministic chain initialization
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  Improved logging across every producer for accurate state inspection

This finalizes the deployment model for both development and mainnet environments.

Transaction Flow & Propagation

We refined how transactions move through the system, especially under load or when a block producer is not the current proposer.

Progress includes:

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  Eliminated blocking behavior when non-proposers received RPC submissions
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  Stable mempool synchronization across all block producers
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  RPC responses remain reliable during active consensus rounds
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  Network progress is fully independent of RPC node delays

The transaction pipeline now behaves predictably across all nodes.

Block Producer Set & Identity Management

The 5–block producer architecture is nearly finalized and functioning the way a production chain requires.

Key achievements:

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  Full BLS proof-of-possession and identity verification
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  Deterministic proposer rotation ensuring fair block distribution
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  Correct integration between execution-level storage and consensus state
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  Stable storage mapping for genesis and runtime producer votes

This gives us a fully deterministic and secure producer set.

Key Discoveries

Several important architectural patterns were uncovered this week:

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  Lookahead boundaries were the cause of previous stalling; now resolved
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  State persistence needs tight alignment with finality timing
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  Mempool synchronization is critical across distributed producers
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  Network-runner’s gRPC gateway is the ideal access point for dev/test environments
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  Genesis order directly affects proposer readiness and must be handled precisely

Each discovery contributed to stabilizing Core 5.0.