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Software scaling has reached its limit. The future lies in hardware. 🧵

While software-based innovations have driven blockchain scalability so far, we’re now approaching its limits. Just as hardware advancements enabled the AI boom, they will also be key to the next breakthrough in blockchain scalability.

To break through, we need hardware scaling.

While software optimizations have significantly improved blockchain performance, they cannot overcome these fundamental limitations. By enhancing the physical infrastructure, hardware scaling enables unprecedented levels of throughput, efficiency, and reliability for blockchain networks.

For instance, @jump_firedancer achieved transaction processing speeds of 100Gbps using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) technology, demonstrating the immense potential of hardware-based scaling.

🛣️ The Path Forward

The limitations of software-based scaling highlight the need for a new approach. The reality is that hardware scaling is not a choice—it is a necessity to build the next generation of decentralized, scalable networks.

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

While software scaling has pushed blockchain performance forward with rollups, subnets, and parallel execution, it has intrinsic limitations.

• State Fragmentation: Isolated liquidity across rollups/subnets.
• Throughput Limits: Bottlenecks at hardware's computational ceiling.
• Latency/Cost: Congestion persists despite batching.
• System Complexity: Parallel processing adds overhead at scale.
• Bandwidth: Network bandwidth limits data propagation across validators.