Solana Launches Alpenglow on Mainnet With 150-Millisecond Finality Goal

Solana has launched Alpenglow on its mainnet, replacing its existing consensus protocol in an upgrade aimed at bringing transaction finality to about 150 milliseconds.

The rollout took place Friday, Nov. 6. Alpenglow is the consensus protocol Solana now uses on mainnet, replacing the network’s previous protocol. Its design target is about 150 milliseconds for transaction finality, the point at which a transaction is treated as settled. That speed goal is the central performance figure tied to the launch.

Solana is a blockchain designed for decentralized applications and crypto projects. Mainnet refers to the live network where transactions are processed, distinguishing this launch from a test deployment. The upgrade puts Alpenglow into Solana’s live transaction environment, with the stated objective of making finality faster.

Alpenglow is an infrastructure change to Solana’s transaction system, with faster finality as its stated aim. The 150-millisecond benchmark describes the protocol’s goal for settling transactions on the live network.