Introduction

Blockchain scalability has evolved through various software-based innovations, including sharding, Layer 2 rollups, advanced consensus mechanisms, object-oriented models, DAG-based execution layers, and modular blockchain designs. 

While these approaches have improved performance, they have simultaneously exposed fundamental bottlenecks such as liquidity fragmentation, limited state synchronization, and increased complexity. To overcome these limitations, hardware scaling has emerged as the next step in blockchain scalability.

Why Software Scaling Has Reached Its Limit

Software scaling has improved performance through code-level optimizations like transaction batching, sidechains, and parallel execution frameworks. However, it has intrinsic limitations.

State Fragmentation

Horizontal scaling solutions such as Layer 2 rollups, Avalanche’s Subnets, and Cosmos’ Zones divide blockchain states into isolated segments. This separation complicates global state synchronization and introduces liquidity fragmentation. If the same asset exists across multiple rollups, subnets, or zones, independent liquidity pools are formed, leading to increased slippage and additional transaction costs.

Throughput Limits

The single-threaded EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) supports complex smart contracts but suffers from low concurrency efficiency and Solana’s SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) supports parallel processing using Solana’s Sealevel execution but ultimately faces limits when it comes to network bandwidth propagating data across a vast network of validators.

Latency and Cost

Network congestion and rising transaction fees remain significant challenges in Ethereum. While updates such as Dencun and Proto-Danksharding (EIP-4844) aim to reduce costs by improving Layer 2 rollup efficiency, they have not fully resolved fee spikes during periods of high demand. Rollups like Arbitrum improve throughput by batching off-chain transactions, but challenges related to state reconciliation and sequencing delays persist, limiting overall efficiency.

System Complexity

Aptos’ Block-STM and Sui’s DAG-based execution model (Narwhal) optimize performance through parallel processing. However, these technologies increase system complexity. As the number of nodes grows, synchronization overhead rises, making it difficult to maintain consistent performance.

Why Hardware Scaling Is Necessary

While software optimizations have significantly improved blockchain performance, they are reaching fundamental limits that cannot be overcome by software alone. As blockchain networks like Solana push the boundaries of software scaling, hardware scaling becomes essential to unlock the next levels of throughput, efficiency, and reliability.

The End of Software Scaling

Solana, a high-performance blockchain, provides a prime example of software scaling limits. Its architecture already demands the highest-performing server specifications available today. Even with these high-end specifications, validators face challenges. The average CPU utilization rate for an active validator is already 30%, leaving limited room to further increase throughput through software optimizations alone. Achieving higher performance requires offloading computational tasks to specialized hardware.

Hardware-Based Acceleration

Hardware scaling introduces dedicated accelerators, such as FPGAs (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays), to perform resource-intensive processes more efficiently. 

• Signature Verification: Jump Trading’s Firedancer experiment demonstrated that Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA)-based signature verification can achieve transaction processing rates of 100 Gb/s.

• Horizontal Scaling: FPGA clusters can independently perform CPU-intensive tasks like signature verification, enabling efficient parallel processing across machines.

By incorporating hardware-based pipelining and clustering at each processing stage, blockchain networks can scale far beyond software limits.

Handling State Growth and Latency

Validators must store and process the entire account state, which continuously grows with network usage. This growth demands hardware solutions beyond typical consumer-grade systems.

• NVMe-oF (Non-Volatile Memory Express over Fabrics) enables distributed state storage while maintaining ultra-low latency.

• By distributing the account state across specialized hardware, throughput can scale significantly without compromising speed or reliability.

Network Bandwidth Limits

Another bottleneck arises at the network level. A typical Solana validator consumes approximately 0.8 Gb/s of bandwidth, approaching the limits of modern internet infrastructure. Scaling throughput further would require far greater bandwidth. To overcome this, a hardware-accelerated network design is necessary, with multi-executor components capable of handling extreme levels of ingress and consensus communication.

Innovative Cases in Hardware Scaling

Solana Validator Infrastructure

Solana requires high-performance CPUs, RAM, and bandwidth to support its architecture. To address these challenges, Solana explores hardware acceleration solutions such as FPGA-based processing.

Sui’s Pilotfish

Sui introduced Pilotfish, which allows a single validator to use multiple machines simultaneously, enabling horizontal scaling. This hardware-based expansion addresses performance bottlenecks while maintaining network flexibility.

DoubleZero Network Infrastructure

DoubleZero focuses on ultra-low latency networking and dedicated hardware solutions, including spam filtering, transaction deduplication, and optimized consensus. This approach bridges physical infrastructure with software-driven blockchain designs.

Conclusion

The limitations of software-based scaling highlight the need for a new approach. By combining cutting-edge hardware with software innovations, blockchain platforms can overcome existing bottlenecks, deliver large-scale scalability, and support a truly decentralized digital economy.

To achieve transaction throughput that exceeds Visa-level transaction throughput, AI-scale computation, and real-time data processing, software optimizations alone are insufficient. Hardware scaling is not a choice—it is the foundation required to build the next generation of decentralized, scalable networks.

The future of blockchain scalability does not lie in better code; it lies in better hardware.

Hardware scaling is not merely an evolution; it is the cornerstone of the next generation of decentralized networks.

The future will not just be built with better code—it will be built with better machines.