Solana increases block capacity by 66%, but account limit remains unchanged

Solana raised the maximum computation per block from 60 million to 100 million compute units on July 29, marking a 66.7% increase. This change allows unrelated transactions more space without altering the cap for its busiest accounts. Compute units (CUs) measure the computational work done by transactions, and the block limit caps the total CUs a leader can include before the block is full. The activation of this feature was timestamped to July 29, coinciding with the start of epoch 1009. Despite the increase, the maximum compute for any single account within a block remains at 12 million CUs, while the maximum data size for block accounts remains at 100MB. This means that while unrelated transactions can benefit from the additional 40 million CUs, accounts with high transaction volumes still face limitations. The previous 12 million-CU allowance represented 20% of the block, now it represents 12%. The change does not increase capacity for congested markets where multiple trades target the same account. Solana's fee structure indicates that prioritization fees depend on the requested CU limit and CU price, and the higher block limit does not imply reduced fees for transactions targeting the same account. Additionally, larger blocks may lead to longer execution times and potential infrastructure issues. An August 2 block recorded 25,373,012 consumed CUs, with 1,328 processed transactions and 1,069 successful transactions, but this does not indicate a network-wide performance improvement.

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