99% favor Solana Alpenglow upgrade for 150ms finality, so far
Solana’s Alpenglow consensus upgrade is set to pass as over 99.6% of votes cast favor cutting transaction finality to just 150 milliseconds.
Over 99% of Solana validators have approved the Alpenglow proposal (SIMD-0326), which would reduce transaction finality time from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds. Voting ends when epoch 842 concludes on September 2 at around 1 PM UTC.
Anza, a Solana Labs spinout, introduced the proposal known as the Alpenglow protocol in May 2025. The upgrade replaces Solana's current Proof-of-History and TowerBFT consensus system, called Alpenglow, for faster network communication.
The 150-millisecond finality would make Solana faster than Sui, which achieves roughly 400-millisecond finality. The upgrade would put Solana's responsiveness close to traditional web infrastructure like Google searches.
Alpenglow could become the largest protocol change in Solana’s history, increasing its competitiveness. As Anza co-founders Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski, and Roger Wattenhofer said in May:
Alpenglow introduces Votor and Rotor to fundamentally reengineer the consensus process. Votor allows block finalization in one round if 80% of the stakeholders participate, or two rounds if 60% participate. Rotor, Alpenglow’s data dissemination sub-protocol, replaces Solana's proof-of-history timestamping with improved block propagation methods.
The new system uses a "20+20" model, keeping the network operational even if 20% of validators act maliciously and another 20% go offline. Faster finality is aimed at applications needing quick confirmations, such as DeFi protocols, gaming platforms, and high-frequency trading systems. Current voting trends suggest the proposal will pass by the end of the voting period.
Anza, a Solana Labs spinout, introduced the proposal known as the Alpenglow protocol in May 2025. The upgrade replaces Solana's current Proof-of-History and TowerBFT consensus system, called Alpenglow, for faster network communication.
The 150-millisecond finality would make Solana faster than Sui, which achieves roughly 400-millisecond finality. The upgrade would put Solana's responsiveness close to traditional web infrastructure like Google searches.
Alpenglow could become the largest protocol change in Solana’s history, increasing its competitiveness. As Anza co-founders Quentin Kniep, Kobi Sliwinski, and Roger Wattenhofer said in May:
A median latency of 150 [milliseconds]… means Solana can compete with Web2 infrastructure in terms of responsiveness…
Voting began around August 21 and requires a two-thirds majority plus a 33% quorum for approval. The quorum threshold has been met, and 99.6% of votes cast support the upgrade.
Alpenglow introduces Votor and Rotor to fundamentally reengineer the consensus process. Votor allows block finalization in one round if 80% of the stakeholders participate, or two rounds if 60% participate. Rotor, Alpenglow’s data dissemination sub-protocol, replaces Solana's proof-of-history timestamping with improved block propagation methods.
The new system uses a "20+20" model, keeping the network operational even if 20% of validators act maliciously and another 20% go offline. Faster finality is aimed at applications needing quick confirmations, such as DeFi protocols, gaming platforms, and high-frequency trading systems. Current voting trends suggest the proposal will pass by the end of the voting period.
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