Gaming The System: How Solana Validators Can Boost Rewards 3% Through 'Timing Games'

Recent tests show that "timing games," intentional slot delays combined with latency optimization, can raise Solana SOL/USD validator rewards by up to 3% annually, according to a new performance analysis by Chorus One.

The findings challenge prior public remarks from Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, who said in May 2024 that incentives for such strategies were insufficient.

Benzinga has reached out to Solana for a comment.

The study found that combining timing games and optimization produced a 27 basis-point uplift in annualized rewards, primarily through increased MEV extraction and higher fee capture.

Timing games alone delivered an eight-basis-point gain, while optimization without slot delays added 12 basis points.

Researchers concluded the gains are not the result of a protocol-level vulnerability, but a structural inefficiency in the Agave client's transaction scheduler.

Firedancer, an alternative validator client, achieved similar block-packing efficiency without slot delays, underscoring the client-level nature of the gap.

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The report noted that timing games have become "a strategic necessity" for some operators, raising the benchmark for expected returns and normalizing latency-sensitive infrastructure across the network.

This competitive feedback loop risks cementing timing manipulation as a standard practice unless reward distribution or client performance is addressed.

Beyond revenue effects, the analysis detailed how slot delays alter Solana's effective inflation rate, slightly boost transactions per second by packing more transactions per block, and can even benefit subsequent block leaders through improved scheduler efficiency.

The authors recommend changes to reward mechanisms, such as pooling and proportional redistribution or engineering fixes to Agave's packing logic to eliminate the incentive for timing manipulation.

Without these adjustments, they warned, the validator landscape could remain tilted toward those exploiting the inefficiency.

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