Solana’s Lightning Leap: Block Validation Times Set to Plummet in Major Upgrade
Solana's network is about to leave competitors in the dust—again. A newly proposed upgrade slashes block validation times, potentially cementing its position as the speed demon of Layer 1 chains.
Why this matters: Faster blocks mean more transactions, lower fees, and another headache for Ethereum maximalists. The upgrade could finally silence critics who called Solana's 2021 outages a death knell.
The fine print: No exact figures yet, but insiders hint at sub-second finality. TradFi banks take note—your 'high-speed' settlements still can't touch this.
Bottom line: Solana keeps solving blockchain's trilemma—unless you count 'being down for 18 hours' as a fourth constraint. (Wall Street won't adopt it until they can charge a 2% 'speed fee' anyway.)
Solana
$193 network is gearing up for a significant consensus update known as Alpenglow (SIMD-0326). This proposed improvement aims to reduce block validation time drastically from the current range of 8-12 seconds to approximately 150 milliseconds. The voting on this proposal is scheduled to take place during Epoch 840-842. Currently, the network is at Epoch 834. For the proposal to be approved, it requires at least two-thirds support from the total Yes and No votes.
Solana’s Block Validation: Entering the Millisecond Era
Alpenglow introduces a modern framework that prioritizes fault tolerance, low latency, and simplified logic over Solana’s previous Proof of History (PoH) and TowerBFT. At its core, Votor offers a straightforward voting system that completes blocks in one or two rounds, depending on network conditions. This system facilitates direct voting FLOW among validators, and the results are verified using aggregated cryptographic proofs.
By eliminating the heavy traffic triggered by TowerBFT, a decrease in bandwidth usage and shortening of block validation time on the solana network is expected. This approach reduces the block validation time to a mere 150 milliseconds while decreasing communication overhead. It simplifies design complexity and clarifies security assumptions, aiming for formal assurance that was lacking in TowerBFT.
Rotor and the New Economic Order
In terms of data distribution, the complementary protocol called Rotor is set to eventually replace Turbine. This change is planned as a separate update from Alpenglow. The voting Flow will also be restructured. Validators will use off-chain voting instead of on-chain voting, thus minimizing fees and computational costs. The Validator Admission Ticket (VAT) is set at 1.6 SOL per epoch.
The proposal leverages current findings in distributed systems to improve validator incentives, reduce communication load, and enhance economic fairness. With the “20+20 resilience” model, the protocol can continue to operate even if 20% of validators behave maliciously and another 20% are inactive. The proposal will be presented for community approval during the governance voting in Epoch 840-842.
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