Who they are
In January 2024 a group of Solana Labs’ core engineers left to found Anza. They forked Solana Labs’ validator client, renamed it Agave, and have maintained it since.
Solana Labs’ original repository was archived in January 2025; since then Agave has been Solana’s main validator software.
How important Agave is
Counting the versions nodes report, about 86.8% of stake currently runs Agave or a derivative of it. The “derivative” is mainly Jito’s build, which adds MEV auctions on top of Agave with the same core code.
That also means a serious bug in Agave could still take down most validators at once. That is exactly why Firedancer exists.
What they have done
- Shipping Agave continuously: from 2.x to today’s 4.x, each major version brings performance gains and protocol features, and validators have to upgrade promptly.
- Alpenglow: in May 2025 Anza’s research team published the Alpenglow consensus design, replacing Proof of History and Tower BFT with Votor (voting) and Rotor (broadcasting), aiming to cut finality from ten-odd seconds to around 150 milliseconds. It passed in September that year with about 98% of votes in favour.
- SIMD proposals: many protocol improvement proposals are drafted by Anza engineers.
Controversies and risks
- Dependence on one client: the Agave family still runs the vast majority of stake; client diversity has only just begun.
- Upgrade pace: major upgrades require validators to keep up, and old versions can lose points in the foundation’s delegation programme, which puts real operational pressure on small validators.
What to watch
- Agave release notes and announcements of major bug fixes.
- Progress on rolling out Alpenglow.
- The Agave family’s share of stake: if it falls, client diversity is improving.
Sources
- Anza’s website and docs, and the Agave repository (GitHub API).
- Share of stake is calculated from the versions reported by Solana mainnet nodes; see the Solana special.
- This page is an educational summary and is not investment advice.