Solana's Alpenglow upgrade reaches both public test networks

Solana's Alpenglow upgrade — which targets cutting transaction finality from about 12.8 seconds to 150 milliseconds — is now running on both of the network's public test networks, giving application teams a place to check their software before the live blockchain switches.

The upgrade replaces the current voting system with a direct-voting protocol called Votor, letting validators settle on a block after one or two rounds instead of a long chain of onchain votes. If successful, exchanges, bridges and merchants could treat payments as irreversible almost immediately; no changes are required for end users or wallets.