Anatoly Yakovenko Hints on Solana “Mainnet-Beta” Exit

Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko believes the layer-1 blockchain is firmly on track to exit its “Beta” phase, noting on Twitter that the outcome “feels more in sight now than ever before.” Yakovenko’s comment replied to a query regarding the “Beta” tag attached to Solana’s Mainnet since it went live in 2018.

2.0 or Mainnet, instead of Mainnet-Beta, will mark the end of @solana’s stabilization efforts. It will come after localized fee markets have proven to be able to support large scale NFT mints while reliably delivering Defi transactions. It feels more in sight now then ever before.

— SMS T◎Ly, ?? (@aeyakovenko) July 26, 2022

While Solana Mainnet has quickly scaled to serve millions of users, the network remains in the beta phase, according to its developers. Such a reference has meant the network’s frequent downtime during peak usage periods is more ”pardonable”, as the team keeps iterating on building its vision of making the “fastest blockchain.”

This week, Solana Labs released the latest version of Solana Mainnet that, among other things, introduces the use of the project’s novel QUIC protocol by default. Solana engineers anticipate that the complete rollout of QUIC and Local Fee markets will stabilize the network.

It will also arguably make the network ready for mainstream use cases, such as Solana’s recently announced Saga mobile phone.

When Will Solana Exit “Beta” Phase?

In light of Yakovenko’s recent comments, Solana’s path to full performance could take a few more years. Such a timeline will evidently not be out of place, with leading network Ethereum still a big work in progress nearly a decade after launching.

Meanwhile, Solana in the past year has grown into the second largest blockchain network for NFT artists and collectors. The project has also nurtured a DeFi ecosystem with an estimated $2.9 billion in total value locked (TVL). The layer-1 project is also home to STEPN, a move-to-earn app that has grown to over 2 million users in the past six months.

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