Agave - A Solana Validator Implementation

Agave is a high-performance blockchain platform designed for scalability and speed. This repository contains the Agave validator implementation, a fork of the Solana blockchain.

Project Overview

Agave is built on the foundation of Solana's architecture, featuring:

• High throughput with thousands of transactions per second
• Low transaction fees (fractions of a penny)
• Fast block times (~400ms)
• Energy-efficient Proof of Stake consensus mechanism
• Smart contract support via the Solana Virtual Machine (SVM)

Architecture Overview

graph TD
    A[Client] -->|Transactions| B[Validator]
    B -->|Consensus| C[Ledger]
    B -->|Execution| D[SVM - Solana Virtual Machine]
    D -->|State Changes| C
    B -->|Gossip Protocol| E[Other Validators]
    F[RPC Client] -->|API Requests| B

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Repository Structure

The repository is organized into several key components:

• core: Main blockchain functionality including consensus, networking, and transaction processing
• validator: The node implementation that validates transactions and maintains the blockchain
• svm: The Solana Virtual Machine that executes smart contracts
• runtime: The execution environment for transactions
• programs: Built-in smart contracts that provide core functionality
• ledger: Storage and management of the blockchain data
• rpc: API for interacting with the blockchain
• cli: Command-line tools for interacting with the blockchain

Getting Started

Building from Source

Prerequisites

• Rust and Cargo (latest stable version)
• System dependencies (Ubuntu example):

  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libudev-dev pkg-config zlib1g-dev llvm clang cmake make libprotobuf-dev protobuf-compiler libclang-dev

Build Steps

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/anza-xyz/agave.git
   cd agave

2. Build the project:

   ./cargo build

For production use, build a release version:

./cargo build --release

Running a Validator

To run a validator node, see the detailed instructions in the validator documentation.

Development and Testing

• Run tests: ./cargo test
• Start a local testnet: See local testnet documentation
• Access the development cluster: Connect to devnet.solana.com

Documentation

Comprehensive documentation is available in the docs directory and on the official documentation website.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guidelines before submitting a pull request.

License

Agave is licensed under the Apache License 2.0.