Max Resnick, a blockchain researcher formerly with ConsenSys, now joined Anza, a Research and Development wing focused on Solana, to improve Solana’s protocol.
Resnick took to X to share the news of his career change. He highlighted his plans to contribute to Solana’s protocol by writing specifications, prioritizing fee markets and consensus implementations during the first 100 days at his new designation. “Anza developers are extremely cracked, and I’m excited to get the opportunity to work with them”, Resnick said in his statement. Anza has been fine-tuning the Solana (SOL) network since its inception in 2024.
Resnick will remain associated with ConsenSys as an advisory researcher. Throughout the previous two years, he collaborated alongside the Special Mechanisms Group at ConsenSys, which he complimented for his impactful efforts in blockchain analysis.
In a follow-up comment, Resnick highlighted that he had long been open about his plans, stating that he had been open to opportunities elsewhere if the Ethereum ecosystem did not fall in line with him to achieve his research goals.
Why is this necessary for Solana?
As Solana continues to expand, it has often come under fire for its network congestion, causing users several challenges. The fee market is another area of particular concern. Although Solana’s variable pricing structure has ensured low transaction fees, it leads to poor resource distribution. This has created inefficiencies that have significantly affected the user experience, especially as demand for decentralized finance, non-fungible tokens and other Web3 applications are on the rise.
In April, Anza addressed the issues by introducing updates in version 1.18.11 to handle these challenges. In a more recent setting, on Dec. 3, the web3.js library was affected by vulnerabilities.
“A spear phishing email was opened and clicked by a @solana npm org member with publish access. This member’s username, password, and two-factor authentication were obtained by the attacker. Versions 1.95.6 and 1.95.7 were removed from the npm registry entirely by the npm registry staff.”
By Anza developers
Overcoming security, decentralization, and reliability of networks based on proof-of-history frameworks are crucial for Solana. Resnick is trying to work on a more detailed specifications protocol to tackle these issues, with a special focus on fee markets and consensus improvements.
