started · updated
Solana activates Alpenglow consensus upgrade
Solana has officially activated the Alpenglow network upgrade on its mainnet, marking its most significant technical overhaul since its 2020 launch. The upgrade replaces the long-standing TowerBFT consensus mechanism with a new protocol called Votor.
A primary objective of Alpenglow is to drastically reduce transaction finality times. The upgrade aims to bring finality down from approximately 12.8 seconds to a target of 150 milliseconds. While early mainnet observations showed a finality of roughly 202 milliseconds, the upgrade represents a massive increase in speed for decentralized finance, payments, and trading applications.
The transition changes how validators operate. Previously, validator votes were recorded as individual transactions on the blockchain, consuming network capacity. Under the new Votor system, validators exchange BLS-signed messages directly and bundle them into certificates. This shift is expected to cause a visible drop in reported transactions per second (TPS) because vote traffic is no longer counted as standard transaction volume, though actual network activity remains unaffected.
Validators also stand to benefit from reduced operational costs. The upgrade is expected to lower validator expenses by approximately 60 percent, moving from a system where they spent roughly 2 SOL per day on voting to a fixed fee of 0.8 SOL per epoch.
Entities
Anza · Solana · Solana Foundation · TowerBFT · Votor
Claims
What the coverage asserts, and how many sources carry each claim.
- [● 4 SOURCES] The upgrade is expected to reduce validator costs by approximately 60 percent. smithii.io · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · osnews.pl · www.btc-echo.de
- [● 9 SOURCES] The upgrade targets a transaction finality of 150 milliseconds. smithii.io · www.altcoinbuzz.io · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · osnews.pl · www.btc-echo.de · +4 more
- [● 9 SOURCES] Validator voting is moved off-chain and aggregated into certificates. www.altcoinbuzz.io · coindoo.com · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · osnews.pl · www.btc-echo.de · +4 more
- [● 4 SOURCES] The transition to Alpenglow occurred at slot 459,653,000. www.altcoinbuzz.io · www.crypto-insiders.nl · www.cointribune.com · portaldobitcoin.uol.com.br
- [● 3 SOURCES] The upgrade was preceded by six test network restarts and a failed migration attempt. www.crypto-insiders.nl · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · www.btc-echo.de
- [● 10 SOURCES] Solana activated the Alpenglow upgrade on its mainnet on October 21, 2026. smithii.io · www.altcoinbuzz.io · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · osnews.pl · ambcrypto.com · +5 more
- [● 2 SOURCES] Reported transactions per second (TPS) fell due to an accounting change in how votes are counted. www.altcoinbuzz.io · coindoo.com
- [● 8 SOURCES] Alpenglow replaces the TowerBFT consensus mechanism with the Votor protocol. www.altcoinbuzz.io · coindoo.com · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · osnews.pl · www.cointribune.com · +3 more