[CLSTR]
< Back to situations

Monitor this situation.

[SITUATION] · [ACTIVE] · [TECHNOLOGY]

7 clusters · 50 sources · 29 days · First seen · Last updated

Solana Alpenglow network upgrade

Overview

Solana has successfully activated its Alpenglow network upgrade on the mainnet, marking its most significant technical overhaul since its 2020 launch. The transition occurred during epoch 1064, with the handover recorded on-chain at slot 459,653,000.

The upgrade replaces the long-standing TowerBFT consensus mechanism with a new protocol called Votor, developed by Anza in collaboration with researchers from ETH Zurich. A primary objective of Alpenglow is to drastically reduce transaction finality times from approximately 12.8 seconds to a target range of 100–150 milliseconds. While early mainnet observations showed finality at roughly 202 milliseconds, the upgrade represents a massive increase in speed for decentralized finance (DeFi), high-frequency trading, and blockchain-based payment applications.

To achieve this, the upgrade moves validator voting off-chain. Instead of recording every vote as an individual transaction on the blockchain, validators now exchange BLS-signed messages directly with one another, which are then aggregated into digital certificates recorded in block footers. This change is intended to optimize block capacity and is expected to cause a sharp drop in headline transaction counts and transactions per second (TPS) figures, though real network activity is not expected to decrease. The Solana Foundation has advised data services and analytics providers to reset their TPS baselines accordingly.

Additionally, the upgrade is expected to reduce validator operating costs by approximately 60%, moving from a variable cost of roughly 2 SOL per day to a fixed fee of approximately 0.8 SOL per 24-hour period. To participate, validators must upgrade to the Agave 4.3.2 client.

Entities

Anza · Solana · Solana Foundation · Votor · Anatoly Yakovenko

Claims

What the coverage asserts, and how many sources carry each claim.

Timeline

  1. [TECHNOLOGY] 17 sources
    Solana activates Alpenglow consensus upgrade

    Solana has launched the Alpenglow upgrade, replacing TowerBFT with the Votor protocol to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to a target of 150 milliseconds.

  2. [TECHNOLOGY] 8 sources
    Solana activates Alpenglow consensus upgrade on mainnet

    Solana has launched the Alpenglow upgrade, replacing TowerBFT with the Votor protocol to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to a target of 150 milliseconds.

  3. [TECHNOLOGY] 7 sources
    Solana to launch Alpenglow upgrade to slash transaction finality

    Solana will activate the Alpenglow upgrade on October 21, replacing TowerBFT with Votor to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds.

  4. [TECHNOLOGY] 7 sources
    Solana to launch Alpenglow upgrade on October 21

    Solana will launch the Alpenglow upgrade on October 21, replacing TowerBFT with the Votor protocol to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds.

  5. [TECHNOLOGY] 2 sources
    Solana Alpenglow upgrade does not launch on September 28

    Solana's Alpenglow consensus upgrade did not launch on its rumored September 28 date; the scheduled date instead marked the resumption of protocol feature gate activations.

  6. [TECHNOLOGY] 16 sources
    Solana deploys Alpenglow upgrade to devnet to target 150ms finality

    Solana has deployed its Alpenglow upgrade to devnet, aiming to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds using the new Votor consensus system.

  7. [TECHNOLOGY] 7 sources
    Solana prepares Alpenglow upgrade to reduce transaction finality

    Solana's upcoming Alpenglow upgrade aims to reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds, potentially making the process 85 times faster.

Sources

altcoinbuzz.io · ambcrypto.com · blockchainreporter.net · blockchainseoul.kr · blockmedia.co.kr · blockonomi.com · blocktempo.com · btc-echo.de · btcwires.com · captainaltcoin.com · coinacademy.fr · coindeskjapan.com · coindoo.com · coinedition.com · coinpaper.com · coinpedia.org · cointribune.com · cointrust.com · criptoinforme.com · criptotendencias.com · criptovaluta.it · crypto-insiders.nl · crypto.news · cryptobriefing.com · cryptonews.com.au · cryptonewsland.com · cryptoslate.com · cryptoticker.io · decrypt.co · deythere.com · econoTimes.com · en.bitcoinsistemi.com · forexlive.com · globalcryptopress.com · memeburn.com · merca2.es · mycryptoparadise.com · news.bitcoin.com · osnews.pl · portaldobitcoin.uol.com.br · siamblockchain.com · smithii.io · techi.com · themarketperiodical.com · tokenpost.com · tokenpost.kr · tradingview.com · tronweekly.com

This summary has been updated 11 times: see revision history