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Solana: Solana transaction priority problem: higher priority fees and lower cu use still cause slower/no confirmation

As a frequent Solana user, I experienced an unexpected phenomenon that made me scratch in my head. I have noticed many times that despite having higher priority fees and lower usability (CU) in our transaction, confirmation of our network transactions lasts longer.

It seems that this problem is contrary to all network priorities indicators, which suggest that Solana should prioritize transactions on higher fees for people with lower use of CU. However, my experience showed differently.

In this article, we delve into the details of what is happening and we will examine the possible reasons for this anomaly.

Let’s look at two transactions: our transaction (let’s call it “TX1”) and another transaction (let’s call it “TX2”). Both transactions have similar parameters, including priority fees set to high and cu set to low. We will use Quicknode RPC as our reference point for the time of confirmation of the transaction.

Here are the results:

* TX1 : With higher priority fees, 300 SOL and lower use Cu (50 Cu), TX1 confirmed on the network in about 2 seconds.

* TX2 : With similar parameters, it also took about 2 seconds to confirm on the web. This is what I expected, based on my earlier knowledge about the principles of Solana’s priorities.

Now let’s examine other transactions that we will call “TX3” and “TX4”. Both transactions have higher priority fees (500 ZOL), but lower use Cu (10 Cu). We will use Quicknode RPC to verify their confirmation:

* TX3

: with higher priority fees of 300 SOL and lower use Cu (10 Cu), TX3 was confirmed on the network in about 5 seconds.

* TX4 : Similarly, TX4 took about 5 seconds to confirm on the web. Again, this is consistent with my expectations based on earlier knowledge.

As you can see based on these results, it seems that there is a problem with how Solana priority treats transactions based on their use and priority fees. In both cases, I have fees for higher priority than lower use of CU, but my transaction still lasts longer.

I tried to increase priority fees for TX1 and TX3, and also reduce the use of CU for both transactions, not noticing a significant shortening of confirmation times. This suggests that there may be a basic problem with how soot algorithms are implemented or configured.

To continue to study this problem, I will contact the Solana community to see if others have experienced similar problems and if they have any observations or suggestions on how to solve it.

To sum up, although my expectations would suggest that higher priority fees and lower use of CU should result in faster confirmation of transactions to soothing, the actual result was completely opposite. I hope that this article will increase the awareness of this problem among users and encourage you to discuss how Solana can be optimized to achieve better performance.

Do you have any experience with this problem? Have you encountered similar problems or know any solutions to this problem? Let me know in the comments below!

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