99% Back Solana Alpenglow Upgrade for 150ms Finality

Key Takeaways:

• Over 99% of votes support Solana’s Alpenglow proposal.
  
• Upgrade would reduce transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to 150ms.
  
• Alpenglow combines two new protocols: Votor and Rotor.
  
• Upgrade could make Solana faster than Google search queries.
  
• Firedancer validator client will soon bring more resilience to the network.
  

A Record-Breaking Upgrade Gains Support

Solana’s long-anticipated Alpenglow protocol appears set to pass, with more than 99% of voters backing the upgrade that would slash the blockchain’s transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds. The governance vote, which began on August 21, has already surpassed the required quorum threshold of 33%, virtually ensuring the proposal’s approval if the current trajectory continues. Voting is expected to close at epoch 842 on Tuesday at 1 pm UTC.

First unveiled in May by Anza, a development team spun out of Solana Labs, Alpenglow has been hailed as the most significant protocol improvement in Solana’s history. By nearly matching the response speeds of Web2 infrastructure, it marks a potential turning point for blockchain usability.

Finality in the Blink of an Eye

With a median latency of just 150 milliseconds, Solana would surpass all other major layer-1 competitors. It would beat Sui, which currently offers 400ms finality, and even outperform standard Google search queries that average around 200ms.

Ethereum, by comparison, includes transactions in about 12 to 13 seconds but doesn’t achieve full finality until roughly 12 minutes later. Bitcoin is slower still. This speed advantage could allow Solana to expand far beyond its current focus on payments, trading, and gaming.

Researchers at Anza — Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski, and Roger Wattenhofer — emphasized in their May white paper that Alpenglow could open the door to entirely new categories of blockchain applications requiring real-time responsiveness, from high-frequency finance to Web2-like user experiences.

Votor and Rotor: The Heart of Alpenglow

Alpenglow’s innovation lies in two new components: Votor and Rotor.

Votor will manage block voting and finalization. It is designed to finalize blocks in a single round if 80% of the stake is participating, or in two rounds if only 60% of the stake is responsive. This mechanism would replace Solana’s existing TowerBFT consensus system, dramatically reducing latency.

Rotor, meanwhile, will replace Solana’s proof-of-history timestamping. As a data dissemination protocol, it aims to minimize the time required for all nodes to agree on the current network state, ensuring faster and more efficient consensus across the ecosystem.

A Leap Forward, But Not Without Limits

While Alpenglow could make Solana the fastest production blockchain, it will not eliminate every challenge the network faces. The protocol does not directly address Solana’s recurring outages, which remain a concern for developers and investors.

Currently, Solana only operates with a single production-ready client, Agave. This concentration means that any security flaw in Agave could disrupt the entire network. However, diversification is on the horizon. Firedancer, an independent validator client developed by Jump Crypto, is expected to launch on Solana’s mainnet later this year, reducing reliance on Agave and improving overall network resilience.

Conclusion

With more than 99% approval and quorum already reached, Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade is on track to pass and transform blockchain performance standards. By reducing transaction finality to 150 milliseconds, Solana positions itself not just ahead of its crypto competitors but potentially faster than key Web2 services.

If successfully implemented, Alpenglow could reinforce Solana’s reputation as one of the most advanced layer-1 networks. While network reliability issues still need to be addressed, the combination of Alpenglow’s speed and the upcoming Firedancer client could mark a new era for Solana’s ecosystem.