Solana’s Alpenglow Protocol Upgrade to Boost Network Speed

2 mins mins

Key Points:

Solana’s Alpenglow aims to drastically reduce block confirmation time and enhance speed.
Anticipated implementation between late 2025 and early 2026.
Potential to support new applications like real-time payments and gaming.

Researchers from Solana’s core team propose “Alpenglow,” targeting reduction of block confirmation time from 13 seconds to 0.1 seconds. This upgrade, supported by Anatoly Yakovenko, could be rolled out in late 2025 or early 2026.

The proposed Alpenglow protocol may revolutionize Solana by delivering real-time response akin to Web2 platforms, fostering novel use cases including instantaneous payments and gaming applications.

Alpenglow: Solana’s Plan to Achieve 0.1-Second Block Confirmations

The Solana Labs spinout, Anza, in collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, has introduced Alpenglow, an ambitious upgrade to ramp up speed by one hundredfold. Core members, including Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, endorse this initiative, showcased during the Solana Accelerate 2025 conference.

Expected to enhance real-time responsiveness, the upgrade seeks to replace existing consensus mechanisms with Votor and Rotor systems. This advancement is poised to yield Web2 infrastructure-like capabilities, catering to diverse decentralized application scenarios.

Anatoly Yakovenko, Co-Founder, Solana, supports the upgrade as “Solana’s ambition to compete directly with centralized systems on performance.”

Solana’s Market Position and Expert Opinions on Alpenglow

Did you know? Solana’s prior adoption of Proof of History was a significant innovation, but Alpenglow aims to realize even lower confirmation times, potentially transforming blockchain competition.

As of May 20, 2025, Solana (SOL) trades at $167.83 with a current market capitalization of $87.28 billion and dominance of 2.60%. While trading volume dipped 28.36% to reach $3.64 billion in the last 24 hours, price shifts remain dynamic, showing a 0.90% daily increase and diverse movements over longer periods. Data derived from CoinMarketCap.

solana-daily-chart-81 — Solana(SOL), daily chart, screenshot on CoinMarketCap at 19:51 UTC on May 20, 2025. *Source: CoinMarketCap*

The Coincu research team suggests that Alpenglow’s enhanced network throughput might draw parallels to mainstream Web2 applications, extending Solana’s DeFi and gaming reach while potentially driving competitive liquidity. Both pragmatic progress and community governance debates are foreseen to shape the protocol’s future landscape.