Solana’s Alpenglow upgrade is active on two public test networks
Alpenglow reaches Solana’s developer network
Solana’s planned Alpenglow upgrade is now running on the project’s public developer network, or devnet. It also completed its transition to Solana’s separate testnet, according to Anza, the company building Solana’s core software.
The upgrade aims to reduce transaction finality to about 150 milliseconds. Finality is the point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed. Solana’s existing system takes about 12.8 seconds to reach that point.
What Alpenglow is designed to change
Alpenglow will change how validators, the computers that check transactions and agree on the network’s records, reach agreement. Instead of recording validator votes as transactions inside blocks, the validators will exchange votes directly.
Under the planned design, agreement can take one or two voting rounds. The change may shorten the wait for payment applications to confirm a transaction or for exchanges to release deposited funds, but those services can also introduce additional processing time.
Why transaction totals may change
Removing validator votes from blocks will make some Solana activity charts show lower transaction totals. This reduction may happen even if users continue making the same number of payments and trades.
The Solana Foundation has told data providers to adjust their comparisons. Services that build transaction histories must also keep competing candidate blocks separate until the network chooses one, because combining their contents could create an incorrect record.
What developers can test
Developers use the devnet to test applications with tokens that have no real value. The separate testnet is used mainly to stress-test network software and validator operations.
Alpenglow is active on both networks. Applications that send transactions and read account balances do not require a migration, according to the Solana Foundation’s guide.
What remains unconfirmed
The 150-millisecond figure is a target based on simulations. It has not yet been demonstrated under live-market conditions. Wallet processing and exchange deposit checks may also add to the time users experience.
No firm launch date has been announced for the live Solana network. Anza’s software schedule tentatively allows feature activations to resume on September 28, but the schedule does not identify that date as Alpenglow’s launch.
Why this matters
The upgrade is intended to make Solana transactions settle in a fraction of the time required by the current system. The public test networks give application teams a way to check their software and identify compatibility issues before the change reaches the network carrying real transactions.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.