Solana activates Alpenglow, targeting 150ms transaction finality

Solana activated Alpenglow on Oct. 21, replacing its consensus system and targeting transaction finality in about 150 milliseconds, down from 12.8 seconds, according to the Solana Foundation’s Alpenglow update. Finality is when a transaction can no longer be reversed, giving apps a faster signal that a payment or trade has settled.

How does Alpenglow change validator voting?

Alpenglow lets validators send votes directly to one another and combine them into certificates, instead of recording votes as transactions on the blockchain. Solana says a block can then become final after one or two rounds of voting.

The change concerns consensus, the process validators use to agree on transaction order and settlement. The Solana Foundation says transaction execution, formats and fees remain the same, and users do not need to change wallets or apps.

What could faster finality mean for users?

Apps may be able to treat payments as settled sooner, potentially speeding up exchange deposits or stablecoin purchases, CoinDesk reported after the upgrade went live. The 150-millisecond figure is a target under normal network conditions, not a guaranteed wait for every user; the service processing a payment also affects when confirmation appears.

The upgrade activated at the start of epoch 1064, at about 13:36 UTC, the Foundation said. Its first phase, Votor, is live; a second planned phase, Rotor, would change how block data spreads across the network, but has no scheduled release.

Why might Solana transaction totals fall?

Validator votes no longer appear in blocks, so dashboards that counted those votes may show fewer transactions after the switch. That change in reported totals does not by itself indicate a fall in user payments or trades, CoinDesk reported.

Sources

• Solana Foundation’s Alpenglow update — solana.com
• reported after the upgrade went live — coindesk.com