Anza activates Alpenglow on Solana, targeting 150ms finality

Anza activated its Alpenglow consensus protocol on Solana mainnet-beta on Oct. 21, replacing TowerBFT and targeting transaction finality of about 150 milliseconds, down from 12.8 seconds. The change affects how quickly exchanges and merchants can treat transactions as irreversible, according to Anza’s announcement.

When did Alpenglow replace TowerBFT?

Solana validators completed the switch at slot 459,653,000, at about 14:00 UTC on Wednesday, Anza said. TowerBFT had been Solana’s consensus protocol since the network launched in March 2020.

The Block reported that the upgrade condensed Solana’s previous two-step confirmation process into one. Anza describes 150 milliseconds as the new finality time; the figure is a claim from the developer, not an independently reported measurement.

What changes for Solana transactions?

Finality marks the point when a transaction can no longer be reversed. Under Alpenglow, Anza says, transactions reach that point in roughly 150 milliseconds instead of about 12.8 seconds, potentially letting exchanges credit deposits and merchants accept payments sooner.

Anza said the protocol underwent public testing, including red teaming, penetration testing, migration rehearsals and a security competition, before its mainnet deployment. The team developed Alpenglow and implemented it in Agave validator software, while independent operators adopted and activated the upgrade.

What protocol changes are planned next?

Anza said Rotor, which changes how block data spreads across Solana, and geographically aware leader rotations are planned for later releases, with no committed dates. The firm also described Quantumglow as a research design for post-quantum security.

Source material

• Anza’s announcement — prnewswire.com