Background

On the Solana network, transaction priority is determined by stake weight. Requests routed through RPC endpoints with larger stakes are prioritized by SWQoS (Stake-weighted Quality of Service). While this mechanism maintains network stability, it poses a significant barrier for individuals and smaller users.

Even if users stake their SOL to validators or LSTs, there has been no way to directly apply that stake to their own RPC or application traffic. To obtain SWQoS bandwidth, they must operate their own validators, which requires advanced technical knowledge and substantial cost. As a result, many developers and projects cannot fully leverage Solana’s inherent performance.

At the same time, some existing validators do not need SWQoS bandwidth. They may have stake but leave bandwidth unused, occasionally lending it privately to RPC providers through individual contracts. However, these transactions are conducted privately, with terms and pricing varying among validators.

Because no standardized market exists, both providers and consumers of bandwidth struggle to find fair prices and suitable counterparties. In addition, maintaining configurations, verifying connections, and managing operations incur significant ongoing costs.

Currently, staking resources on Solana are treated as “fixed deposits for rewards.” Even when users stake, their funds remain locked within the network and do not generate new value for others. This non-liquid staking structure reduces the overall flexibility of the Solana network.

In practice, there are both users who want to use bandwidth but do not operate validators, and validators who operate nodes but do not require bandwidth. If value could flow between these two groups, Solana’s communication efficiency and economic dynamics would improve significantly.

However, there is currently no system to make that possible. As long as stake and bandwidth exist separately, the network cannot realize its full potential. To achieve efficient and fair communication, a mechanism that circulates stake as bandwidth is essential.

SWQoS bandwidth is a valuable resource directly tied to Solana’s performance. However, there is no market that appropriately evaluates and facilitates the exchange of its value.

Some validators privately contract with RPC operators, but pricing and contract terms are not disclosed, and transactions occur only within limited circles. As a result, benchmarks for how much bandwidth a given amount of stake provides remain unclear, and transparency in transactions is lacking.

This opacity reduces overall network efficiency. Without fair price formation, few participants are motivated to utilize their stake effectively, and high-quality communication based on SWQoS remains limited to a small number of users.