Alpenglow: 99 % of voters support the flash update of Solana

Solana has taken a decisive step with the massive approval of Alpenglow, an upgrade called to upset its operation. This decision opens the way to an unprecedented acceleration of transactions, bringing the blockchain closer to the speeds of modern Internet infrastructure. The actors of the ecosystem see in this change an opportunity to strengthen competitiveness against Ethereum and Bitcoin. Alpenglow thus marks the start of a new technological era for a network that seeks to combine speed and reliability.

An unprecedented speed for the purpose of transactions, carried by Solana.

Network voters massively supported Alpenglow. Thus, the Solana community must decide on the overhaul of consensus, with more than 99 % of the votes expressed in favor of the proposal. This update will reduce the purpose of transactions from 12.8 seconds to only 150 milliseconds, a historical change.

Such acceleration brings Solana closer to the speed of search engines, and upsets the competitive hierarchy in the blockchain.

Anza, a company from Solana Labs, has unveiled the protocol and described it as a pioneering evolution. The governance process began on August 21 and has already crossed the threshold necessary to guarantee its adoption.

The quorum set at 33 % was reached quicklyconfirming the marked interest of chip holders for this proposal. The vote must be completed in early September, but the current data suggest that Alpenglow is almost certain to be adopted definitively.

With this advance, Solana aims to overtake Ethereum and Bitcoin in terms of speed and transactional reactivity.

The two technical pillars: Votor and Rotor

The first pillar, named Votor, will manage the treatment of votes and the logic of blocks of blocks with great efficiency. This system will make it possible to finalize in a single round if 80 % of validators participate, or in two laps otherwise.

It will replace Towerbft, the old protocol, deemed slower and less flexible for the future growth of the Solana network.

The second pillar, rotor, will optimize the dissemination of data between the nodes of the network, accelerating the global consensus on the State. Rotor will take the place of the current mechanism of proof of history, by reducing the periods of synchronization between the different validators.

Thanks to this innovation, Solana will be able to Align on the performance of modern digital infrastructure With more consistency.

These two components provide Solana with a considerable advantage, transforming its technical architecture into a model of speed and reliability. The whole shows that Solana seeks to establish an unprecedented standard in the first layer blockchains industry.

Persistent challenges and future prospects

Despite this advance, Alpenglow will not be enough to fully resolve the service interruptions that have already affected Solana.

The White Paper emphasizes that dependence on a single customer, Agave, exposes the network again to systemic vulnerabilities.

If a flaw occurred, the whole blockchain could undergo significant disturbances, compromising the confidence of users. To compensate for this limit, a new independent customer called Firedancer will be launched on the Mainnet by the end of the year.

Firedancer will diversify the validation options and strongly reduce the risks linked to centralization on a single software.

The combination of Alpenglow and Firedancer will strengthen security while supporting the growth of an increasingly used network and a soil that remains behind for the moment.