Solana’s Firedancer client hits testnet milestone: Will it boost SOL?

• Solana’s Firedancer client inched closer to a mainnet debut after a successful testnet trial.
•  SOL climbed above 200-day SMA, but buying pressure wasn’t strong enough. 

Solana’s [SOL] new and independent validator client, Firedancer, has hit a major testnet milestone. In the recent milestone update, pseudonymous Firedancer engineer Cantalope Peel said, 

‘Full Firedancer client built its first accepted block on Solana testnet.’

Firedancer is being spearheaded by Jump Crypto and designed to increase the network’s speed and decentralization.

For perspective, validator clients are software that doubles as the backbone of blockchain networks, facilitating transaction validation, the addition of new blocks, and overall security and decentralization. 

So far, Solana has two validator clients: Solana Labs Validator and Jito-Solana. Jump Crypto’s Firedancer will be the third one, adding to client diversity and increasing Solana’s decentralization. 

Firedancer has been touted as a better replacement for Google-backed QUIC, a data transfer protocol that has faced several failures in the past and derailed the processing of Solana transactions. 

So, the testnet now looks forward to its mainnet debut, scheduled for Q4 2024 – a matter of “when” not “if.” 

Solana market after Firedancer update

After the Firedancer update, there were considerably large buy orders for SOL across major CEXes (centralized exchanges), perhaps aiming to ride the hype. 

The hype has seen SOL hold above the 200-day SMA (Simple Moving Average) for the second day as of press time. The altcoin traded at $143 and could push forward if it stays above $141.5. 

The immediate bullish target was at $155. However, the RSI (Relative Strength Index) has been struggling to stay above its equilibrium level since early June. At press time, it rested on the neutral level. 

This meant that despite the bullish recovery, there wasn’t a strong buying pressure to push SOL forward. 

However, the overall neutral reading from technical indicators meant that the SOL price could go either way. 

SOL recently benefited from ETF speculation as other analysts projected a $1200 target by 2025. But it remains to be how the Firedancer update will drive SOL prices.