Firedancer has launched a delegation program by quietly delegating stake to 32 Solana validators, aiming to support smaller validators. This delegation could encourage validators to adopt Firedancer's Frankendancer client, which currently accounts for 8% of all staked SOL, an increase from 5-6% a month ago. Developed by Jump, Firedancer is a complete rewrite of Solana’s software, providing a true alternative to the original client and improving network reliability by preventing single points of failure. Initial participation in the delegation program saw approximately 20,000 SOL allocated to each validator, with one validator, Watchtower, receiving over 1.2 million SOL. Participants have reported improvements in system stability and performance versus earlier Solana versions, suggesting that Frankendancer is even outperforming the network average. Firedancer plans to delegate 2 million SOL across about 100 validators, with phases lasting around three months, but its average initial stake per validator is lower than that of the Solana Foundation's program. As network activity potentially increases with new tokens like pump.fun, Frankendancer could face significant stress tests.

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