The Alpenglow upgrade, which aims to reduce the time it takes for Solana transactions to become final from about 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds, is scheduled to go live on mainnet on October 21.
According to Wu Blockchain, Solana core developer Anza pointed to around 17.50 Turkey time on October 21 for the transition. Previously activated on testnets, the upgrade is set to replace the current TowerBFT mechanism, which enables the network to reach consensus on transactions, with Votor.
Transaction finality to fall below one second
Alpenglow aims to significantly reduce the wait required for a transaction to be considered final by the network. The current time of about 12.8 seconds is targeted to fall to 150 milliseconds, or 0.15 seconds—a wait that is approximately 85 times shorter.
This improvement is a target for transaction finality time. Since the transition has not yet taken place on mainnet, the stated time reflects the performance the upgrade aims to achieve.
Why could transaction counts decline?
Under the new system, validators will share their votes directly with one another instead of submitting them as separate on-chain transactions. This change could lead to a notable decline in reports that include validator votes in transaction totals.
Therefore, when assessing a decline in these kinds of reports after the upgrade, it will be important to distinguish user transactions from validator votes; the change in the count could result from votes no longer being recorded as on-chain transactions.
Alpenglow was activated on testnet on September 24 and on devnet on September 25. The next step will be the mainnet transition planned for October 21.
Not investment advice.