On the evening of October 21, multiple reports said Solana’s Alpenglow consensus upgrade had been activated on mainnet, but “finality down to 150 milliseconds” should not yet be treated as a result measured directly on mainnet.
The key question for this upgrade is whether finality can remain faster over time, not just the figure announced at launch. Multiple reports say the goal is to cut finality time from about 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds. Public discussions have also said validator votes will be moved off-chain, which could make total TPS before and after the upgrade not directly comparable.
Some have also claimed that a dashboard showed finality at around 6.6 seconds at the time of activation. This reading has not been independently verified and should be treated as unconfirmed for now. The next things to watch are sustained confirmation times on mainnet under real-world load, network stability, and whether user transactions grow after votes are excluded.
If confirmation speeds improve but app usage does not follow, how much of a re-rating should SOL get for this upgrade?
The key question for this upgrade is whether finality can remain faster over time, not just the figure announced at launch. Multiple reports say the goal is to cut finality time from about 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds. Public discussions have also said validator votes will be moved off-chain, which could make total TPS before and after the upgrade not directly comparable.
Some have also claimed that a dashboard showed finality at around 6.6 seconds at the time of activation. This reading has not been independently verified and should be treated as unconfirmed for now. The next things to watch are sustained confirmation times on mainnet under real-world load, network stability, and whether user transactions grow after votes are excluded.
If confirmation speeds improve but app usage does not follow, how much of a re-rating should SOL get for this upgrade?