Solana core developer leaves to create Unto Labs project and a new L1 chain

One of the core Solana (SOL) developers, with work on the long-awaited Firedancer upgrade, has left the project to start his own platform. Pseudonymous Cantelopepeel will launch Unto Labs and a new high-performance L1 layer. 

Cantelopepeel, also known as Liam on GitHub, announced he is parting ways with the Firedancer Solana project. The pseudonymous developer will start on his own project, aiming to build a high-performance L1. The developer will start with a small agile team, predicting user growth for high-performance chains in 2025. 

The decision to leave Solana arrives just as Ethereum Developer Eric Conner left the Ethereum Foundation after disagreements with leadership decisions. 

Unto Labs to offer L1 built from scratch

Based on his experience with Solana, Cantelopepeel aims to build a new L1 chain from scratch. The Unto Labs L1 chain will have a new type of virtual machine and build its own consensus mechanism. 

Oh hey! https://t.co/WAXVg99bak

— Unto Labs (@UntoLabs) January 22, 2025

The developer predicts an environment with tens of millions of daily active wallets. So far, Solana carries around 5M daily active wallets, even with bot activity. The bullish prediction from Cantelopepeel led to the decision for a brand-new L1.

Solana Firedancer is still in accelerated testing

Solana’s Firedancer has been in development for two years, though there is still no set deadline for the launch. Cantelopepeel has been with the project for all of that time, leaving just as the update is expected to come live in the next few months. Firedancer is a new validator client for Solana, developed by Jump Crypto, a division of the Jump Trading Group. 

The Solana Foundation is currently busy lobbying for more testing of Firedancer. Testnet validators have started using the Frankendancer 0.3 version for the past week. The Solana Foundation aims to offer a client that will be faster and prevent consensus failures, as it prepares Solana for much wider adoption. 

The Firedancer update is seen as bullish for Solana, especially after the recent period of failed transactions. Analysts from Binance mentioned Firedancer as one of the bullish developments for Solana, on par with the launch of an ETF. The feature is expected to handle up to 1M transactions per second. 

The Firedancer update has been awaited for months and is often seen as a trigger for a new price rally for SOL. The bullish update may still face setbacks due to the expected 11.2M SOL unlock in March, the biggest event for the year. 

Firedancer has no set deadline but is expected to come by the end of Q2. Up to 19 validators have upgraded to Firedancer as their node software, and are running it as part of the live consensus. However, the client did not help Solana scale during its recent stress test with Official Trump (TRUMP) meme tokens.

The current alpha version manages to fill double the number of transactions into Solana blocks, at least under testing conditions. The new approach will test the entire Solana infrastructure and solve the issue of block inclusion. During one of the record trading days, validators gained more than 100K SOL from priority fees and tips, showing the need for higher Solana capacity. 

Top signal or bullish prediction for SOL?

The recent meme token frenzy showed Solana could expand more to accommodate peak DEX volumes. The traffic, however, strained the network heavily. 

In terms of price action, SOL stopped its rally above $272. For some, the launch of the TRUMP token was a temporary top signal, and Solana would return to baseline activity. 

SOL managed to climb back above $270.12 after DEX activity and high-fee production continued. Solana also benefitted from the conflict on Ethereum’s future, as the chain failed to offer a high-throughput platform for memes and cheaper DEX swaps. 

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