The Solana network is currently considering the new governance proposal 0326-SIMD, which presents the Alpenglow consensus protocol as an alternative to its current system based on proof of history and TowerBFT. This change aims to significantly accelerate block finalization and reduce congestion on the network.
According to the proposal, Alpenglow introduces a new voting mechanism called Votor, which can close blocks in just one or two rounds, which is expected to reduce block finality time from 12.8 seconds to between 100 and 150 milliseconds. It will also limit duplicate messages within the network, enhancing its efficiency.
Ark Invest analyst, Ray Hadi, explained that the current system makes all validators exert the same effort with varying returns, while Alpenglow allows for aligning the work with the stake size, achieving greater fairness between cost and reward.
The proposal is now in the community voting phase, where it needs two-thirds support between periods 420 and 840 to be officially adopted. The success of the vote will represent a qualitative leap in the development of the Solana network and address the previous performance weaknesses.
Solana is in a race with Nasdaq
This discussion coincided with Solana reaching a remarkable achievement, as the network recently surpassed 35 million daily transactions, a figure that exceeds the total daily trades in most major Asian exchanges such as the Tokyo Stock Exchange (5 million trades), the Indian NSE (3 million), Hong Kong (2.5 million), and others.
Nevertheless, the American Nasdaq exchange is still ahead of Solana in terms of both trading volume and speed, executing about 2,290 transactions per second, while Solana averages only 402 transactions per second. In terms of value, Nasdaq's daily trades reach $362.43 billion, compared to $9.61 billion for Solana.
Nevertheless, Solana sees that the new upgrade, along with the increasing adoption of its network, represents a strategic step to enhance its position as a potential competitor to traditional financial infrastructures, especially global capital markets.