Solana Launches Alpenglow on Testnet
Solana has activated its Alpenglow consensus upgrade on the public testnet, replacing the previous TowerBFT system with Votor. The transition took place on September 24, with the Alpenglow genesis block created after validators moved to the new consensus design. One of the key goals is to reduce transaction finality from roughly 12.8 seconds to around 150 milliseconds. The next steps are expected to include devnet testing followed by mainnet-beta after an observation period, although no final mainnet launch date has been announced. The upgrade is currently limited to Solana Testnet and does not change the mainnet network yet. Faster finality could eventually matter for transfers, trading applications and other services using Solana. Track SOL rates and exchange opportunities on xbit.money.