Amazon Web Services Debuts Node Runner App for Solana

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud-computing service provider owned by the tech giant Amazon, announced at the ongoing Solana Breakpoint event the launch of a Node Runner app for the Solana network. The app will allow more users to seamlessly run a Solana node, bolstering the network’s security and decentralization.

AWS Blockchain Node Runner Integrates Solana

Like other blockchains using the proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism, the Solana network requires validators to confirm transactions. A step towards becoming a validator is to run a node.

Tapping into AWS cloud-based features, Solana blurs the technical barriers allowing entities with minimal expertise to deploy nodes on the layer-1 blockchain network. The collaboration makes Solana the second blockchain after Ethereum to be integrated with AWS Blockchain Node Runner, an open-source initiative for deploying self-maintained blockchain nodes.

Explaining the reduced technicality involved in tapping into the new Node Runner app, Solana stated in a blog post that users need three commands – consensus nodes, base remote procedure calls (RPC) nodes, and extended RPC nodes.

Commenting on the latest initiative, Nikolay Vaslov, senior solutions architect at Blockchain Nodes Services, AWS, said:

“We are excited to see Solana blockchain nodes available for deployment on AWS to harness the best from their blockchain workloads to increase accessibility to innovative cloud native technologies like decentralized web.”

Solana to Become More Decentralized

Notably, Solana’s latest integration with the AWS Blockchain Node Runner app is a shift towards decentralization. It addresses one of the blockchain trilemma, an idea revolving around the speed, scalability, and decentralization of a blockchain network.

In March, the Solana Foundation, a non-profit organization developing the Solana network, announced that the layer-1 blockchain has over 3,400 validators, a metric that has seen minimal changes since August 2022 when it recorded the same range of validators.

Last month, Solana’s CEO Anatoly Yakovenko stated in an interview that he was less worried by competing blockchains with a lesser number of validators, and hence, lesser decentralization. He added that the Solana network trails behind only the Ethereum network in terms of decentralization.