Key Insights
- The upcoming Alpenglow upgrade (SIMD-0326) is expected to reduce Solana’s transaction finality from 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds.
- New technical components called Votor and Rotor will be used to replace older systems and make the network as fast as a Web-2 service.
- Validator fees are also expected to drop from $60,000 to $1,000 per year and lower the barrier for smaller validators.
Solana is currently preparing for its biggest architectural change since the network launched in 2020. This upgrade is known as Alpenglow, and it is expected to achieve something that sounds like science fiction in the blockchain space.
Developers want to slash transaction finality (the time it takes for a transaction to be confirmed) on the Solana network from 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds.
For some perspective, 150 milliseconds is faster than the blink of a human eye.
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The Alpenglow Upgrade and the 12.8 Second Bottleneck
To better understand why this “100x” jump is important, we must first look at the current issue with the Solana network.
Many users believe transactions via Solana are instant because block times are only 400ms. However, there is a massive difference between when a transaction appears and when it achieves the so-called “finality”.
For context, finality is the moment when it becomes mathematically impossible to reverse a transaction. Under the legacy system, a block is only finalised after 32 subsequent blocks are built on top of it.
This math is what leads to the current 12.8-second wait time.
While this kind of speed makes Solana faster than many competitors, it is still too slow for certain use cases. Applications like high-frequency trading, real-time gaming and retail payments cannot wait 13 seconds for a final green light.
A coffee merchant needs to know whether a payment is permanent before the customer walks away, and the Alpenglow upgrade is designed specifically to patch this problem.
How Votor and Rotor Power the Network
The upgrade is expected to replace the regular Proof of History and Tower BFT logic that Solana currently runs on.
Both were developed by Anza and are supported by the Firedancer team. Together, they change how validators talk to each other and how data moves.
Votor
Votor is a new voting protocol that moves the majority of validator communication off-chain.
In the old system, every validator published a vote transaction on the ledger for every slot. This was a major problem for the network.
However, Votor uses a lightweight aggregation model, which means that if 80% of the stake approve a block in the first round, it finalises in about 100ms.
Even if the network is unstable, a second round gets the job done within 400ms.
Rotor
Rotor changes how data travels between nodes. Previously, Solana used a multi-hop tree structure where if one validator in the middle of the chain was strained, the whole network slowed down.
Rotor fixes this problem by introducing stake-weighted relay paths. In other words, data now travels in a single-hop broadcast model. High-stakes validators with massive bandwidth act as primary hubs.
At the end of the day, all, transaction data reaches most nodes in the network in as little as 18 milliseconds.
The 20+20 Resilience Model
There are several problems with how fast Solana is trying to become though, and one of them is related to network stability.
If a network moves too fast, any small error could cause the entire chain to crash. However, the Alpenglow upgrade fixes this with a new 20+20 fault tolerance model.
This system keeps the network secure even if 20% of the stake malfunctions. It also makes sure that the network continues to produce blocks if another 20% of the stake goes offline.
As such, the network will have a 40% total tolerance for failure and will be stronger than ever before. It also allows Solana to maintain its 150ms speed even during regional internet outages or large-scale attacks.
Disclaimer: BFM Times acts as a source of information for knowledge purposes and does not claim to be a financial advisor. Kindly consult your financial advisor before investing.
