Key highlights:
- Solana’s Alpenglow proposal aims to replace Proof-of-History and TowerBFT with a faster, more resilient consensus model
- The upgrade introduces Votor and Rotor to significantly reduce block finalization time and improve data efficiency
- Only around 11.7% of validators have voted in favor so far, with the proposal requiring at least 33% participation to pass
Solana developers are currently voting on one of the most significant upgrades to the blockchain’s core consensus protocol: the Alpenglow proposal. If approved, the upgrade would retire Solana’s existing Proof-of-History and TowerBFT mechanisms in favor of a new architecture featuring two novel components, Votor and Rotor.
Votor and Rotor: Aiming for sub-second finality
The centerpiece of the Alpenglow proposal is Votor, a direct-vote protocol that promises to slash transaction finalization time from the current 12.8 seconds to just 150 milliseconds. This would enable near-instant transaction confirmations, aligning Solana with high-speed platforms often used for trading and DeFi applications.
Rotor, the second major component, is designed to optimize bandwidth usage by minimizing data transfers between validators. Though not part of the initial rollout, Rotor is expected to further improve network performance, particularly under high activity scenarios such as gaming or decentralized finance.
Simplified architecture and improved resilience
Beyond speed improvements, Alpenglow seeks to simplify Solana’s network architecture by eliminating legacy systems like Proof-of-History, TowerBFT, and gossip-based vote propagation. The proposal also introduces a “20+20” resilience model, which aims to maintain network uptime even if 20% of validators are adversarial and another 20% go offline.
Described by developers as bringing “consensus latency to a level comparable with Web2 applications,” the upgrade also emphasizes enhanced security, scalability, and fairness among validators.
Early Voting Trends and Community Response
At the time of writing, only around 11.7% of validators have voted in favor of the SIMD-0326 Alpenglow proposal, while just 0.12% have opposed it. The proposal requires over 33% validator participation to meet its quorum threshold.
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Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has publicly endorsed the upgrade, encouraging community members to support what he calls a crucial step forward for the network. Voting remains ongoing, with a significant portion of validators yet to cast their votes.
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Source: https://coincodex.com/article/72236/solana-eyes-major-performance-boost-with-alpenglow-upgrade/
