Solana’s Alpenglow proposal, aiming to reduce transaction finality to 150 milliseconds, has received 99% support with two days left for voting. The upgrade could make Solana one of the fastest blockchains, potentially outperforming Google searches. The current finality of 12.8 seconds would be drastically reduced, enhancing transaction speed significantly.

The Alpenglow consensus protocol, introduced in May, has garnered over 99.6% approval in the governance process. With the quorum threshold reached and voting closing soon, Solana is likely to implement Alpenglow. The upgrade could expand Solana’s use cases beyond payments, trading, and gaming, offering real-time performance for various applications.

Implementing Alpenglow could position Solana as a leading layer-1 blockchain, exceeding transaction finality speeds of other networks like Sui. The upgrade aims to compete with Web2 infrastructure, potentially opening up new application categories requiring real-time responsiveness. Solana’s speed could rival Ethereum and Bitcoin, offering faster transaction finality and expanding its utility.

Alpenglow introduces Votor and Rotor to enhance block finalization logic and data dissemination. Votor aims to finalize blocks efficiently in one or two rounds, replacing TowerBFT. Rotor seeks to improve network state agreement among nodes, replacing Solana’s proof-of-history timestamp system. These components are key to enhancing Solana’s performance and scalability.

While Alpenglow will significantly improve Solana’s speed and performance, it won’t fully prevent network outages. The upgrade acknowledges that network issues may persist, especially with only one production-ready client currently available. The upcoming launch of Firedancer, an independent validator client, aims to diversify clients on Solana’s mainnet, reducing the impact of potential security vulnerabilities.

Read more at Cointelegraph: 99% In Favor Of Solana Alpenglow Upgrade Lowering TX Finality