Solana validators have overwhelmingly approved a major network upgrade called Alpenglow, which promises to dramatically accelerate transaction finality. The new consensus protocol will reduce confirmation latency from about 1 second to just 150-200ms. This upgrade positions Solana to compete with traditional finance infrastructure while enhancing user experience across decentralized applications.
- Transaction finality will improve from ~1 second to 150-200ms, a 5x speed increase
- Mainnet deployment is targeted for Q1 2026 following testnet launch in December 2024
- The upgrade aims to position Solana as competitive with traditional finance infrastructure
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