We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with Northstake, joining their ETH Validator Marketplace as a trusted node operator. This collaboration represents a significant step forward in delivering secure, scalable, and compliant staking infrastructure for institutional clients.
The partnership brings together Northstake’s innovative staking model and Chorus One’s industry-leading validator infrastructure. Northstake’s ETH Validator Marketplace enables asset managers to trade ETH validator positions with top-tier market makers, including GSR, Nonco, DV Chain, and Keyrock. This approach provides a new layer of liquidity and flexibility for institutional staking—a key milestone for the $2.9 trillion staking market.
As a partner, we will power the marketplace with robust, reliable, and secure node infrastructure, enhancing the confidence of institutions in staking operations. Our expertise in Ethereum validator operations ensures reduced risk, including protection against slashing penalties, while providing clients with cutting-edge technology to support staking at scale.
Institutional staking requires more than just infrastructure—it demands compliance, reliability, and security. Together with Northstake, we are creating a foundation for regulated financial institutions to stake digital assets confidently, with the assurance of industry-best practices and safeguards.
Jesper Johansen, CEO & Founder of Northstake, shared his vision for the partnership:
“At Northstake, we are transforming how regulated financial institutions stake digital assets in a secure and compliant way. Partnering with Chorus One aligns perfectly with our goal of being the foundation for financial institutions as they incorporate staking into their products.”
Brian Fabian Crain, our CEO & Co-Founder, highlighted:
“Northstake’s ETH Validator Marketplace emerges as the leading staking solution for financial regulated institutions, who need access to liquidity and value regulatory compliance. We are excited to bring our expertise to this partnership, ensuring staking operations that meet the highest industry standards.”
With a proven track record of securing over $3.2 billion in staked assets across 60+ leading blockchain networks, Chorus One is proud to bring its expertise to support Northstake’s mission. We’re excited to embark on this transformative partnership journey! Learn more about Northstake: https://www.northstake.dk.
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the largest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for over 60 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001 certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, visit chorus.one or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Telegram.
Solana processes thousands of transactions per second, which creates intense competition for transaction inclusion in the limited space of a slot. The high throughput and low block time (~400ms) require transactions to be propagated, prioritized, and included in real-time.
High throughput on Solana comes with another advantage: low transaction costs. Transaction fees have been minimal, at just 0.000005 SOL per signature. While this benefits everyone, it comes with a minor trade-off—it makes spam inexpensive.
For end-users, spam means slower transaction finalization, higher costs, and unreliable performance. It can even halt the network with a DDoS attack, as in 2021, or with an NFT mint, as in 2022.
Against this backdrop, Solana introduced significant updates in 2022: stake-weighted quality of service (swQoS) and priority fees. Both are designed to ensure the network prioritizes higher-value transactions, albeit through different approaches.
Another piece of infrastructure that can help reduce transaction latency is Jito MEV. It enables users to send tips to validators in exchange for ensuring that transaction bundles are prioritized and processed by them.
This article will explore these solutions, break down their features, and assess their effectiveness in transaction landing latency.
Let’s start with a basic building block—a transaction.
Solana has two types of transactions: voting and non-voting (regular). Voting transactions achieve consensus, while non-voting transactions change the state of the network's accounts.
Solana transaction consists of several components that define how data is structured and processed on the blockchain¹:
A single transaction can have multiple accounts, instructions, and signatures.
Below is an example of a non-voting transaction, including the components mentioned above:
On Solana, a transaction can be initiated by a user or a smart contract (a program). Once initiated, the transaction is sent to an RPC node, which acts as a bridge between users, applications, and the blockchain.
The RPC node forwards the transaction to the current leader—a validator responsible for building the next block. Solana uses a leader schedule, where validators take turns proposing blocks. During their turn, the leader collects transactions and produces four consecutive blocks before passing the role to the next validator.
Validators and RPC nodes are two types of nodes on Solana. Validators actively participate in consensus by voting, while RPC nodes do not. Aside from this, their structure is effectively the same.
So, why are RPCs needed? They offload non-consensus tasks from validators, allowing validators to focus on voting. Meanwhile, RPC nodes handle interactions with applications and wallets, such as fetching balances, submitting transactions, and providing blockchain data.
The main difference is that validators are staked, securing the network, while RPC nodes are not.
After reaching the validator, the transactions are processed in a few stages, which include²³:
The transaction is considered confirmed if it is voted for by ⅔ of the total network stake. It is finalized after 31 blocks.
In this setup, all validators and RPC nodes compete for the same limited bandwidth to send transactions to leaders. This creates inefficiencies, as any node can overwhelm the leader by spamming more transactions than the leader can handle.
To improve network resilience and enhance user experience, Solana introduced QUIC, swQoS, and priority fees, as outlined in this December 2022 post:
With the adoption of the QUIC protocol, trusted connections between nodes are required to send transactions. The swQoS system prioritizes these connections based on stake. In this framework, non-staked RPC nodes have limited opportunities to send transactions directly to the leader. Instead, they primarily rely on staked validators to forward their transactions.
Technically, a validator must configure swQoS individually for each RPC node, establishing a trusted peer relationship. When this service is enabled, any packets the RPC node sends are treated as though they originate from the validator configuring swQoS.
Validators are allocated a portion of the leader’s bandwidth proportional to their stake. For example, a validator holding 1% of the total stake can send up to 1% of the transaction packets during each leader’s slot.
From the leader’s perspective, 80% of available connections are reserved for staked nodes, while the remaining 20% are allocated to RPC nodes. To qualify as a staked node, a validator must maintain a minimum stake of 15,000 SOL.
While swQoS does not guarantee immediate inclusion of all transactions, it significantly increases the likelihood of inclusion for transactions submitted through nodes connected to high-stake validators.
Priority fees serve the same role as swQoS by increasing the chances of transaction inclusion, though they use a completely different mechanism.
There are two types of fees on Solana⁵:
Of the total fees from a transaction, 50% is burned, while 50% is received by the leader processing the transaction. A proposal to award the validator 100% of the priority fee has been passed and is expected to be activated in 2025 (see SIMD-0096).
Priority fees help validators prioritize transactions, particularly during high congestion periods when many transactions compete for the leader's bandwidth. Since fees are collected before transactions are executed, even failed transactions pay them.
During the banking stage of Solana’s transaction processing, transactions are non-deterministically assigned to queues within different execution threads. Within each queue, transactions are ranked by their priority fee and arrival time⁶. While a higher priority fee doesn’t guarantee that a transaction will be executed first, it does increase its chances.
The final puzzle of transaction prioritization is Jito. This modified Solana client allows searchers to send tips to validators in exchange for including groups of transactions, known as bundles, in the next block.
It could be argued that the Jito infrastructure prioritizes transactions using a tipping mechanism, as users can send a single transaction with a tip to improve its chances of landing fast.
For a deeper explanation of how Jito works, check out our previous article on the Paladin bot, which provides more details.
We now have a clearer understanding of how all three solutions contribute to transaction inclusion and prioritization. But how do they affect latency? Let’s find out.
Methodology
To calculate the time to inclusion of a transaction, we measure the difference between the time it is included in a block and the time it is generated. On Solana, the generation time can be determined from the timestamp of the transaction’s recent blockhash. Transactions with a recent blockhash older than 150 slots—approximately 90 seconds—expire.
The latest blockhash is assigned to the transaction before it is signed, so transactions signed by bots will be included faster than transactions generated by normal users. This method is not perfect, but still allows us to collect valuable information about latency and user topology.
Other factors beyond the swQoS and priority fees, such as the geographical proximity of nodes to the leader or validator and RPC performance, also impact inclusion times—we are not fully accounting for those.
To reduce the possible biases, we consider only slots proposed by our main identity from November 18th to November 25th, 2024.
Time to Inclusion
The time to inclusion across all transactions, without any filtering, has a trimodal distribution suggesting at least three transaction types. The highest peak is at 63 seconds, followed by another at 17 seconds, and a smaller one is at 5 seconds.
The second and third peaks are likely from regular users. This double peak could occur because general users don't set maxRetries to zero when generating the transaction. The first peak, at around 5s, is probably related to bots, where the delay between generating and signing a transaction is marginally zero.
We can classify users based on their 95th percentile time to inclusion:
Most users fall into the “normal” and “slow” classifications. Only a small fraction of submitted transactions originate from “fast” users.
Let’s now break down transactions by source.
Priority Fee
Transactions can be categorized based on their priority fee (PF) with respect to the PF distribution in the corresponding slot. Precisely, we can compare the PF with the 95th percentile (95p) of the distribution:
The size of the priority fee generally doesn’t influence a transaction’s time to inclusion. There isn’t a clear threshold where transactions with higher PF are consistently included more quickly. The result remains stable even when accounting for PF per compute unit.
Jito Tippers
We can restrict the analysis to users sending transactions via the Jito MEV infrastructure, excluding addresses of known swQoS consumers. Interestingly, most Jito transactions originate from “slow” users.
We categorize tippers by siże of tips in the block, analogously to what we did for PF:
When we compute the probability density function (PDF) of time to inclusion based on this classification, we find that the tip size doesn’t significantly impact the time to inclusion, suggesting that to build a successful MEV bot, one doesn’t have to pay more in tips!
Within the Jito framework, a bundle can consist of:
In both cases, the time it takes for the entire bundle to be included is determined by the inclusion time of the tip transaction. However, when a tip is paid in a separate transaction, we don’t track the other leg. This reduction in volume explains why the PDF of tippers differs from that of Jito consumers.
swQoS
It’s impossible to fully disentangle transaction time to inclusion from swQoS for general users, meaning some transactions in the analysis may still utilize swQoS. However, we can classify users based on addresses associated with our swQoS clients.
When we do this and apply the defined user topology classification, it becomes clear that swQoS consumers experience significantly reduced times to inclusion.
The peak around 60 seconds is much smaller for swQoS consumers, indicating they are far less likely to face such high inclusion times
The highest impact of using swQoS is seen in the reduction of the time to inclusion for “slow” users. By computing the cumulative distribution function (CDF) for this time, we observe a 30% probability of these transactions being included in less than 13 seconds.
When comparing the corresponding CDFs:
'Normal' users also benefit from swQoS. There's an additional peak in the PDF for these users between 9s and 13s, showing that some of “normal” users process transactions in less than 20s. Additionally, another peak appears around 40s, indicating that part of the slower users now see their 95th percentile falling in the left tail end of 'normal' users. This suggests that the overall spread of the time-to-inclusion distribution is reduced.
There is no statistically significant difference between the analyzed samples for “fast” users. However, some Jito consumers may also use swQoS, which complicates the ability to draw definitive conclusions.
Despite this, the improvements for “slow” and “norma”' users highlights swQoS's positive impact on transaction inclusion times. If swQoS explains the PDF shape for “fast” users, it increases the likelihood of inclusion within 10s from ~30% to ~100%, a 3x improvement. A similar 3x improvement is observed for “slow” users being included within 13s.
Transaction inclusion is arguably Solana's most pressing challenge today. Efforts to address this have been made at the core protocol level with swQoS and priority fees and through third-party solutions like Jito (remembering that the main Jito use is MEV).
Solana’s latest motto is to increase throughput and reduce latency. In this article, we have examined how these three solutions improve landing time. Or, more simply, do they actually reduce latency? We found out that:
Among the three, swQoS is the most reliable for reducing latency. Jito and priority fees can be used when the time to inclusion is less important.
References:
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the largest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for over 60 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001 certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, visit chorus.one or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Telegram.
Tezos governance has been very active lately. In June 2024, the Paris upgrade introduced important changes, including a new locked staking model and adaptive issuance that ties rewards to the ratio of staked XTZ.
Just a few months later, on November 24, 2024, another significant governance milestone was achieved with the approval of the Quebec proposal during Proposal Period 135. Quebec is anticipated to go live on Tezos in early 2025.
Two proposals were up for consideration:
Both proposals built upon the Paris changes but had no differences in approach besides in the adaptive issuance schedule. Ultimately, Quebec won with 187 million votes to 104 million, with a 33% participation rate among bakers.
Lower Block Times
Reducing block times from 10 seconds to 8 seconds will enhance performance and improve UX by offering faster finality.
Increased Delegation Limit
Bakers can now accept delegations up to 9x their stake, up from 5x. This benefits bakers, allowing them to earn higher rewards by accommodating more delegated stake.
Reduction in Voting Power for Delegators
Paris introduced locked staking, incentivizing users to stake rather than delegate their XTZ, and reducing delegated voting power by 50%. Quebec takes this further, reducing the voting weight of delegated XTZ to 33% of staked XTZ.
This adjustment encourages delegators to transition to staking for full voting power and rewards.
If you're currently delegating your XTZ to a Chorus One baker, visit this website to learn how to start staking and maximize your rewards!
Adaptive Issuance
Quebec implements a more aggressive reduction in baking rewards to address sell pressure on XTZ. Under Quebec, if 50% of XTZ is staked, the yield is reduced to 1%, compared to 3% in the Q3NA proposal, as depicted on the graph below.
Some validators and community members raised valid concerns:
While these concerns are noteworthy, the focus remains on the network's long-term health, and the community has clearly shown its preferred choice.
Despite some reservations about the steep reduction in issuance, Chorus One and other supporters voted for Quebec. This decision reflects confidence in the Tezos Foundation’s long-term vision and its alignment with the ecosystem's core contributors.
If you're currently delegating your XTZ to a Chorus One baker, visit our guide to learn how to start staking and maximize your rewards!
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the largest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for over 60 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001 certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, visit chorus.one or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Telegram.
Behind the Blocks is where we highlight the extraordinary individuals who make Chorus One more than just a workplace—it’s a space where passion meets purpose. "When I joined in 2022," says Chief People Officer, Flora Bondici, "I was drawn not only to the innovative work in decentralized infrastructure but also to the opportunity to be part of something deeply meaningful. At Chorus One, a career is more than a job—it’s a journey of growth, learning, and making a real impact."
As a fully remote and globally diverse team, we empower our people to thrive on their own terms. In this series, you’ll meet inspiring team members like Thalita Franklin, who entered Web3 through a developer course we sponsored, alongside others who’ve forged unique paths into blockchain. Their journeys reflect a culture built on transparency, collaboration, and curiosity. Let’s dive into Thalita’s story and explore how her work is shaping the future of decentralized technology.
From Web2 to Web3: Thalita’s Journey to Chorus One
Today, we’re excited to feature Thalita Franklin, Networks Lead at Chorus One. From Brazil to Portugal, Thalita’s journey into Web3 started with a unique opportunity—a one-month Web3 developer course sponsored by Chorus One. Now a key leader in the company, Thalita shares how that opportunity opened the door to a thriving career in blockchain, and how her work continues to make an impact across the ecosystem.
Q: How long have you been with Chorus One, and what’s your role? What does your day-to-day look like?
Thalita: I’ve been with Chorus One for 2,8 years, but it all started when I applied for a one-month Web3 developer course. Chorus One sponsored 10 women, and I was lucky enough to be one of them. That experience introduced me to the world of blockchain and gave me a chance to prove myself. I started working on Solana as a Research Analyst, but now I’m the Networks Lead. My day-to-day involves a mix of deep work in the mornings, being in between the business and engineering, handling projects like staking research, and meetings with internal teams and external partners to explore investment opportunities or new networks we’re looking at.
Q: Can you tell us more about that initial course and how it shaped your journey?
Thalita: Absolutely. Before joining Chorus One, I was living in Brazil and didn’t have much experience in Web3. When I saw the opportunity for the Web3 developer course, I knew I had to apply. The fact that Chorus One was sponsoring women to join the space really stood out to me. During my initial 3 months with Chorus One, I found out about MEV and started working on a project focused on MEV (learn more), after I joined, which was my introduction to how complex and exciting the blockchain space has become. The course gave me the confidence and skills I needed to step into this field. It was an incredible launchpad that led to where I am today.
Q: What’s it like being a Networks Lead at Chorus One? Can you walk us through your typical day?
Thalita: Being a Networks Lead is both challenging and rewarding. I focus a lot on analyzing new staking opportunities and keeping up with our live networks like Solana and Cosmos. My mornings are all about focus—whether it’s research or preparing for the day’s meetings. I have most of my meetings around midday due to different time zones, and those can range from internal strategy sessions to calls with networks we’re looking to partner with. I also work closely with the ventures team to explore potential investments, which keeps things really interesting.
Q: What’s one of the most exciting projects you’ve worked on, and why did it stand out?
Thalita: I’d say the Solana project was the most exciting. When I first started, many people were skeptical about Solana’s potential, but Chorus One believed in it. I got heavily involved in the research and educational content creation for Solana, which was a big part of getting people to see the value in the project. Watching Solana grow and survive through challenges was incredibly fulfilling. It showed me that research and education could really make a difference. Plus, I enjoyed hosting podcasts about it—getting to communicate the value of these networks to a broader audience is something I love.
Q: Can you share a moment when your research directly influenced a major decision at Chorus One?
Thalita: A big one was our work on MEV. I was involved in researching and creating educational materials about it, and it became clear how important MEV was to the validator ecosystem. This work helped Chorus One adjust our strategy, not just in how we provide infrastructure, but in how we approach new networks and educate our partners and the broader community. It was one of those moments where you can see your research shaping decisions that impact the entire company.
Q: Beyond Chorus One, how does your work impact the broader ecosystem?
Thalita: Our role as validators goes beyond just running nodes. We try to contribute to the broader conversation around blockchain economics and how validators can provide more than just infrastructure. For example, our educational work on MEV and other topics has helped the community better understand the increasing complexity of the new trends. It’s important to me that the work I do has a ripple effect beyond Chorus One, whether it’s through writing articles, giving feedback to networks, or sharing insights on podcasts.
Q: You work closely with many teams across Chorus One. What’s been your favorite moment of collaboration?
Thalita: One of the best moments was to find myself having casual dinners at the beach with Gabriella, Maria and other team members. It’s through these informal moments that remind me how connected we are as a team. In terms of work, I’ve really enjoyed collaborating with the ventures team. We work together to evaluate potential investments and decide which networks we should get involved in. It’s been incredibly rewarding to see how those collaborations lead to tangible growth for Chorus One.
Q: How has Chorus One supported your career and personal growth?
Thalita: Chorus One has been amazing in helping me grow. When I first joined Web3, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to focus on development or something else, but they gave me the room to explore. Over time, I found my strengths in leading network research, and they’ve supported me all the way. On a personal level, moving from Brazil to Portugal was a big step, but the team was so supportive. Being closer to the team has helped me feel more empowered in my role.
About Chorus One
Chorus One is one of the largest institutional staking providers globally, operating infrastructure for over 60 Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks, including Ethereum, Cosmos, Solana, Avalanche, Near, and others. Since 2018, we have been at the forefront of the PoS industry, offering easy-to-use, enterprise-grade staking solutions, conducting industry-leading research, and investing in innovative protocols through Chorus One Ventures. As an ISO 27001 certified provider, Chorus One also offers slashing and double-signing insurance to its institutional clients. For more information, visit chorus.one or follow us on LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), and Telegram.
