Pipe Network Achieves 30% Faster Node Initialization for Solana Validators
Pipe Network has announced its decentralized CDN's access to Solana snapshots, highlighting key performance metrics:
- 30% faster node initialization
- Lower infrastructure costs
- Handles approximately 100 TB of snapshot traffic daily, 700 TB weekly, and around 3 PB monthly
This contribution represents a significant portion of the total estimated 7–14 PB of snapshot data shared by Solana node operators monthly.
Pipe's CDN addresses the growing demand for snapshot downloads, which have outpaced traditional endpoints' capabilities. The service aids validators in quickly restoring state after outages and ensuring consistent performance amid increasing network load.
Snapshots are large, often hundreds of gigabytes, requiring high-bandwidth solutions for efficient access. Pipe offers both full and incremental snapshot formats through a Web UI or JSON API, with automated fetching options.
Data integrity is maintained using Merkle tree proofs, allowing clients to verify that the data matches expected values. Currently, this service is provided at no cost to node operators, funded by the Pipe Foundation.