Solana validators play delay games — Toly wants them punished

Solana co-founder Anatoly “Toly” Yakovenko has called for Solana (SOL) validators who delay slots, steal rewards, and slow down the network to be punished.

Yakovenko called for the punishments after becoming frustrated at validators using sophisticated delay tactics to gobble up extra fees and high-value transactions.

Purposefully delayed slot times have become such an annoyance that one validator created a dashboard to illustrate the problem. Since August 5 — Solana epoch 829 — average slot time has increased 2.5%.

“It’s the SOL price that should be rising — not the block time,” someone complained.

One observer asked whether the delays could cascade into a “2.0” repeat performance of intentional leader reward boost (ILRB).

ILRB is a timing tactic used by validators who want to deliberately delay block production. Extending slot times beyond Solana’s intended 400ms intentionally delays latency and allows them to unfairly pack more transactions into their blocks, capturing higher fees or rewards.

At the expense of subsequent validators — who receive fewer and less valuable transactions — ILRB allows powerful leaders to earn more compute units during validation.

Unconcerned about network efficiency, ILRB validators earn extra MEV opportunities, liquidations, or time-dependent transactions like NFT mints.