Update
Solana Alpenglow Upgrade: 150ms Finality Target
Solana has announced the Alpenglow upgrade, aiming to reduce transaction finality time from approximately 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds. This update is part of Solana's ongoing efforts to improve transaction speed and reliability. The Alpenglow upgrade, which uses a new voting protocol called Votor, is designed to accelerate consensus processes and reduce the interval between a transaction being submitted and reaching a final, stronger state. This change is expected to benefit wallet users, payment services, and cross-chain bridges by making transactions more responsive and reducing wait times. However, the upgrade does not affect transaction execution or the Solana Virtual Machine, smart contracts, or the fee structure. Developers and payment providers will need to update their infrastructure and policies to fully leverage the benefits of faster finality.